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A Solar-Powered Soil Sensor for Serious Gardeners J Thoendell stashed this in Tech http://www.wired.com/2015/04/edyn-garden... The current incarnation of Edyn tracks soil moisture, nutrition, temperature, humidity, and light, and its sidecar iOS app (there’s an Android version coming soon) includes a database of thousands of plants to recommend what to do in various cases. The app will also offer up a selection of plants that should grow well in your soil and climate conditions based on its readings. You don’t need to actively charge it, either. Aramburu says the garden sensor charges fully with about three hours of sunlight, and indoor grow lights are also strong enough to keep its battery juiced. Once fully charged, the unit stays running for about two weeks. The sensor itself is rated to gather readings for a 250-square-foot patch of land. The Edyn Garden Sensor requires Wi-Fi to work, which is a potential limitation for remote locations; Aramburu says the unit is rated for a 300-foot range in relation to a router, although there’s been success establishing a line-of-sight connection of up to 1,500 feet. “We are actively experimenting with other radio frequency (RF) technologies that do not require Wi-Fi and can be deployed on a much larger scale,” says Aramburu, who also says the team is working on app features that could be useful for farmers coping with California’s current drought. “We will also continue to develop our software so that farmers and gardens can track their water usage, and benefit from any incentives for conserving water.” Stashed in: Ecology!, Gardening, Gardening This sounds like marvelous technology. We live in exciting times!

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AllAboutFeed - Record funding for the 2013 Crop Insurance Programme Record funding for the 2013 Crop Insurance Programme Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart announced details of the 2013 Crop Insurance Programme, which includes record funding and record coverage levels. “Agriculture plays an important role in Saskatchewan and across Canada in creating jobs and economic growth,” Ritz said. “Insurance based programmes such as these ensure that Saskatchewan farmers have the tools they need to maintain their success today and well into the future.”“We are committed to the growth of the agriculture industry by working to improve the Crop Insurance Program,” Stewart said. “I would encourage producers to consider enrolling in Crop Insurance to take advantage of the increased coverage levels and other enhancements to the program.”The 2013 Crop Insurance budget is a record $198 million. On average, coverage levels are also increasing to a record $194 per acre up from $174 per acre in 2012, and more than double the coverage offered in 2007. Since 2008, the provincial government has continually increased funding for crop insurance to address the needs of farmers and ranchers. New in 2013, hard red spring wheat and oats will be eligible for yield trending. Yield trending recognizes agronomic advancements and increases a producer’s historical yields, which improves the current coverage available on those crops. The yield for hard red spring wheat will increase nine per cent and oats yield will increase 13 per cent, on average.You can read the full story here.

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Anti-Meat Crusaders Exposed for Spreading Myths, Distortions | by The Heartland Institute As the vast global warming hoax begins its inexorable death, an equally enormous campaign against the raising of livestock and the consumption of meat continues. It is led by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and supported by the propaganda machinery of the United Nations through its Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Absurd Anti-Meat Claims The assertion that the raising of livestock worldwide is contributing to global warming is so obviously absurd one might easily and quickly dismiss it, but it continues to be the cornerstone of a campaign to end the consumption of beef by more than six billion people around the world. Dating back to the prehistory of man, meat has been part of the human diet. In February 2005, I wrote about “The War on Meat,” noting humans have 20 teeth devoted to eating meat but only 12 for fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the human stomach is designed primarily to digest lean meat, while the small intestine, pancreas, and liver are mainly herbivorous, designed to digest vegetables, fruits, fats, and farinaceous (starch) foods. On the PETA Web site you will find a page titled “Meat and the Environment,” which cites a 2006 FAO report accusing the meat industry of being “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Growers of livestock are accused of land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and the loss of biodiversity. A number of environmental organizations, including the National Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense, have joined in this Big Lie. Hypocrisy of U.N., PETA Little-known to the public, however, is that PETA—which campaigns against the raising and processing of livestock for food, targeting restaurants, grocers, ranchers, and others—routinely kills animals, primarily pets, entrusted to its care. The same holds true for other allegedly “humane” organizations. In 2007 PETA killed more than 19,200 dogs, cats, and other “companion animals.” Over the past five years it killed more than 90 percent of the animals it took in. PETA receives nearly $30 million a year from people who erroneously think the organization is working to protect animals. The truth is very different from the lies of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, an agency that receives very little scrutiny from the world’s press. Founded in 1945, the FAO was intended to help expand the world economy by promoting sustainable rural development with an emphasis on the poorest farmers, promoting food production and self-reliance, and raising the level of nutrition of the world’s population. Fortunately for mankind, it has no mandatory powers and relies instead on the promulgation of bogus reports such as “Livestock’s Long Shadow.” Benefits of Cattle-Raising Charges of beef production being responsible for a score of threats to the environment are easily refuted when one considers more than half the agricultural land in the United States is unsuitable for crop production, and grazing animals on this land more than doubles the land area that can be used to produce food in the United States. In addition, instead of creating erosion, foraging animals such as cattle help stabilize the soil and promote expanded growth of grasses. Despite these obvious benefits, U.N. agencies continue to urge policies that do nothing to alleviate hunger but instead further an agenda for the socialist redistribution of wealth common to communist regimes. U.N. agencies have consistently sought to ban pesticides and herbicides that protect crops, animals, and humans and have worked to thwart the development of gene-splicing technology that enhances crop production. Benefits of Meat A three-ounce serving of lean beef is an excellent source of protein, zinc, vitamin B-12, selenium, and phosphorus and is a good source of niacin, vitamin B-6, iron, and riboflavin. In essence, the campaign against beef production and consumption is a campaign against the health of all who enjoy its benefits. Along with efforts to curb all forms of energy use, the anti-meat campaign constitutes an insidious war on the welfare of the world’s population and economy. POST YOUR COMMENTS BELOW

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Search Congressman Mike Thompson Representing the 5th District of CALIFORNIA About MikeBiography Issues & LegislationMike's Legislation How Congress Works Bipartisan King-Thompson Background Check Bill Gun Violence Prevention Wine and Agriculture Constituent ServicesAgency Assistance Help with Grants Academy Nominations Flag Requests Veteran Survey Veterans Fellowship Program Fifth DistrictContra Costa County District Art 2016 Congressional App Challenge Event Request Newsletter Subscription You are hereHome»Issues & Legislation Wine Issues As a life-long resident of California’s wine country and the representative of the world’s greatest wine region, it is a high honor to represent our district and its world-renowned wine community. Not only is our wine community important to thousands of families and businesses in our district, it is important to our national economy as well. The wine industry generates an estimated $162 billion to the U.S. economy every year and supports the equivalent of 1.1 million full-time jobs. I am working every day in Congress to strengthen our wine industry and the jobs it supports. The cultural and economic impact of our wine industry cannot be overstated. That is why, upon arriving in Washington, I immediately set about creating a legislative organization to focus on the wine industry. I co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Wine Caucus in 1999. Today, this Caucus that I co-chair with Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr. (R-CA), brings together nearly 150 Senators and Representatives from across the country to educate and engage them in legislative and regulatory matters pertaining to the wine community. Under my leadership, the Wine Caucus has held numerous policy briefings and receptions on Capitol Hill and has become involved in a wide variety of legislative issues – all with the goal of promoting our country’s incredibly vibrant wine industry from grape to glass. Some of the issues the Caucus has been working on in the 113th Congress include: • Stopping increases to the excise tax on wine: I strongly oppose increasing the excise tax on wine because it would seriously undermine wineries’ efforts to grow and strengthen their businesses. In order to pay increased excise taxes, wineries would have to take funds directly out of their capital for expansion, severely limiting industry growth. Additionally, following an excise tax increase, wineries would be likely to absorb the additional excise tax payment for at least several years until a new price point is established – negatively affecting the industry’s bottom line. • Conserving and protecting vineyards and open spaces: I reintroduced the bipartisan Conservation Easement Incentive Act of 2013 (H.R. 2807), which would help farmers, ranchers, and other landowners conserve and protect valuable agricultural lands, including vineyards. By providing tax incentives to landowners who choose conservation, the bill would help preserve our nation’s cherished farm lands and open spaces for future generations. • Advocating for research and management funding: I have consistently advocated for important funding for innovative research on grape quality, pest and disease research and management, and solutions to production problems facing the U.S. viticulture industry. In particular, funding for Pierce’s Disease and the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter is paramount to our wine industry, and I have vigorously fought to secure federal dollars to help combat these, as well as other threats. • Combating European Grapevine Moth: The invasive European Grapevine Moth (EGVM) poses a serious threat to the California wine grape industry, but through aggressive control efforts the eradication of this pest is possible. The USDA contributed nearly $17 million in 2011 and $8 million in 2012 to eradicate the EGVM. Due to these efforts, the number of EGVM trapped last year in Napa County, the epicenter of the infestation, fell sharply to 75 moths. In order to reach the goal of eradication, and not lose the substantial progress that has been made in recent years, funding must be continued. • Continuing the Specialty Crop Block Grant: This program provides annual grants to assist State Departments of Agriculture in enhancing the competitiveness of specialty crops such as winegrapes. • Continuing the Specialty Crop Research Initiative: This initiative provides competitive grant funding to research institutions so they can improve specialty crop production and health. It has been especially important in figuring out how to combat winegrape pests and diseases. • The Horticulture and Organics Title: This program helps all specialty crop farmers by funding important pest and disease control provisions including the Clean Plant Network. It also provides funding for Value-Added Producer Grants, which help producers create market opportunities. This is particularly useful to small and medium sized producers. Many wineries and wine associations have taken advantage of this program. • Market Access Program (MAP): MAP helps domestic producers expand their export market. In California alone, The Wine Institute manages an export promotional program in over 20 countries, causing export sales to rise to nearly $1 billion. MAP is the primary funding source for this effort.Agriculture Our district supports a varied and economically beneficial farming and ranching industry. The folks who grow our crops, produce, and livestock work hard to have productive businesses despite uncertain economic times. I support a full five-year reauthorization of the Farm Bill that will provide a safety net for farmers and ranchers when their products are impacted by forces beyond their control, and continues to provide assistance to families in need to put food on their tables. A long term reauthorization of the Farm Bill should also include an emphasis on research, pest management, and trade assistance programs that are vital to specialty crop producers; and highlight the economic, water and air quality, as well as healthy food programs that support productive California agriculture.Farm Bill At the end of June 2013, the House of Representatives voted on the reauthorization of a Farm Bill which failed 195-234. I voted against this Farm Bill because it cut $20.5 billion dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and hurt conservation. Now, the Congress must take action on another Farm Bill by September 30, 2013, or our farmers and ranchers will be faced with the uncertainty of expiring farm programs. Please know that I will work to ensure any future agreement contains principles that are important to our district, including: • Strong conservation stewardship values – Our ranchers and farmers should be encouraged to continue to conduct their businesses in a manner that also benefits the surrounding communities and environment. • Specialty crops provisions – I support the continuation of these provisions that recognize the unique needs of this industry. • Local and organic farms – There is a nationwide need to improve and expand domestic farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture, and other direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities. • Pest and disease prevention and control – Crops face threats from pests and diseases that can be reduced through vigilant research, monitoring, and treatment. • Renewable energy and energy efficiency – As with all areas of our government, we should continue to reward farming practices that utilize alternative energy sources and reduce consumption of oil and gas. • Adequate SNAP funding - Our economy is recovering but there are still millions of people who rely on SNAP assistance to help them get back on their feet and drastic cuts to this program are unacceptable.Conservation I support strong conservation efforts in exchange for tax payer investments in crop insurance. It’s important that American farmers have a strong and reliable safety net, and that’s why American taxpayers invest heavily in crop insurance. But it’s also important that farmers take steps to protect and conserve our wetlands and highly erodible lands for the benefit of everyone. The bipartisan Crop Insurance Accountability Act (H.R. 2260) that I coauthored would re-link crop insurance subsidy assistance to basic conservation compliance measures to ensure that long-standing safeguards for our lands remain in place. This would provide a return on American taxpayer’s investment in crop insurance by protecting some of our most sensitive areas.Immigration I am working to make sure we have a fair and practical approach to immigration reform that ensures our agricultural industry has an adequate, legal, and stable workforce. I do not support an enforcement-only approach. I believe an enforcement-only is unworkable for our district’s grape growers and would only exacerbate current agricultural labor shortages. Our agricultural workers and those who run our local farms deserve a workable solution to our broken immigration law. That’s why I recently joined several of my House colleagues in calling on President Obama to recognize that if enforcement-only approaches were solely implemented without regard to workers and employers, it would risk the economic vitality of the entire American agricultural industry. This isn’t right, and it isn’t something we can afford. More on Wine and Agriculture Thompson, Hunter Commend Official Challenge to Canadian Trade Measures That Discriminate against U.S. Wine Jan 23, 2017 Press Release Washington – Today, Congressional Wine Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA-05) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA-50) applauded a new trade enforcement action to ensure both imported and local wines have equal access to grocery store shelves in Canada. Currently in British Columbia, only wines produced in the province can be sold on grocery store shelves. This week, the United States challenged that regulation for discriminating against U.S. wine producers. The Press Democrat: California wine industry asks feds to tighten labeling standards Jul 12, 2016 News Articles At the behest of the local wine industry, a new proposal would toughen federal labeling standards on a bottle of wine, controlling more tightly wineries’ claims of vintage dates, varietals and geographic region where the grapes are grown. Local vintners have complained that exemptions currently allowed by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau are misleading consumers and hurting the reputation of their local wine regions. REP. MIKE THOMPSON INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO MODERNIZE EXCISE TAXES ON WINE Apr 14, 2016 Press Release Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and Co-Chair of the Congressional Wine Caucus, introduced the Wine Excise Tax Modernization Act (H.R. 4934), bipartisan legislation to modernize federal excise taxes on wine to allow winemakers of all sizes and grape growers to create new, innovative products and keep pace with advances in viticulture. U.S. Rep. David Reichert (R-WA) joined Rep. Thompson in introducing this legislation. American Canyon Eagle - Labeling Frankenfoods Jul 29, 2015 News Articles “Labeling” in the Napa Valley does not mean the same thing as it does in other agricultural areas. Talk of labels here usually has to do with wines … as in who made it and what kind of grapes were involved. But in other parts of California and the nation, the issue of labels has to do with the genetic engineering of foods, whether it’s corn, soybeans, salmon, or many other commodities whose DNA have been altered in a lab. BIPARTISAN COALITION INTRODUCES BILL INCENTIVIZING CONSERVATION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS, OPEN SPACES Feb 2, 2015 Press Release WASHINGTON, D.C. – A bipartisan coalition today introduced the Conservation Easement Incentive Act of 2015 in the House (H.R. 641) and Senate (S. 330). The legislation, authored by Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Mike Kelly (R-PA), and Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) provides a permanent enhanced tax incentive to family farmers, ranchers, and other landowners who choose not to develop their land and instead preserve their property for conservation. Press Democrat - Six months of silence is enough Jul 16, 2014 News Articles Sonoma County’s congressional representatives are right. Six months of secrecy surrounding the federal raid of a Petaluma slaughterhouse and a nationwide recall of meat processed there in 2013 is more than enough. It’s time for federal investigators to come clean with their investigation into Rancho Feeding Corp. — if only to allow local ranchers who relied on Rancho for food processing to move on with a better understanding of what they can do, if anything, to address their losses. Press Democrat - Congressmen demand information about Petaluma slaughterhouse Jul 14, 2014 News Articles Six months after federal regulators closed a Petaluma slaughterhouse and initiated a nationwide beef recall, two North Bay congressmen are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture for answers about the still-ongoing investigations. “Six months has been ample time,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said Monday of the probes into Rancho Feeding Corp. “They should have been able to give us information, and they haven’t.” CBS News - Water Wars: California Drought Spawns Political Fight Feb 6, 2014 News Articles Seventy-five percent of California is in an "extreme" or "exceptional" drought. CBS News' Bill Whitaker reports on how Washington is turning the crisis into a campaign issue. CBS San Francisco - GOP-Sponsored Bill For More Delta Water To Farmers Passes House; No Chance In Senate Feb 6, 2014 News Articles WASHINGTON, D.C. (KCBS) — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a water bill on Wednesday addressing California’s ongoing drought but the measure is likely to go no further because of a White House veto threat and opposition from the state’s Democratic Senators. The federal water bill, passed mostly along party line 229-191, loosens environmental restrictions to pump more water from the Delta to the San Joaquin Valley. Lake County News - Legislation to enhance conservation and incentivize responsible farming practices to be signed into law Feb 5, 2014 News Articles U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson’s (D-CA-5) legislation, The Crop Insurance Accountability Act of 2013 (H.R. 2260), passed the Senate on Tuesday as part of the compromise long term reauthorization of the Farm Bill (H.R. 2642) and is expected to be signed into law. The bipartisan Crop Insurance Accountability Act, co-authored by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE-1), enhances conservation by incentivizing responsible farming practices. Issues & Legislation Mike's Legislation Sign Up for E-Newsletter Social Media Tabs Tweets by @RepThompson Visit my YouTube Channel. Office Locations Washington, DC Office Napa District Office Santa Rosa District Office Vallejo District Office Washington, DC Office 231 Cannon Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515 phone: (202) 225-3311 fax: (202) 225-4335hours: M-F 9-5:30pm Napa District Office 2721 Napa Valley Corporate DriveNapa, CA 94558 hours: M-F 9-5:30pm Santa Rosa District Office 2300 County Center Dr. Suite A100Santa Rosa, CA 95403 phone: (707) 542-7182fax: (707) 542-2745hours: M-F 9-5:30pm Vallejo District Office 985 Walnut AveVallejo, CA 94592 phone: (707) 645-1888fax: (707) 645-1870 hours: M-F 9-5:30pm Footer Utility

农业

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University of Cambridge signs MoU with Bharti Foundation to promote crop research and productivity improvement Posted by: Napson Fernandes at 9/12/2016 05:23:00 am crop research productivity improvement » · Three year agreement entails grant from Bharti Foundationto University of Cambridge to conduct the Research Programme· Programme to boost corn / baby corn productivity in the country besides strengthening small farmer income in maize growing regions· Research to be led by Field Fresh Foods in partnership with Punjab Agricultural University(PAU); field trials to be conducted at Field Fresh’s Agri Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Ludhiana (Punjab)Chandigarh, September 12, 2016: The University of Cambridge and Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) to conduct corn / baby corn crop improvement research Programme in India. The Programme is scheduled to be funded through a grant from Bharti Foundation to the University of Cambridge. The grant will support a three-year research programme carried out between Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and the Cambridge Centre for Crop Science (3CS), Punjab Agricultural University and Field Fresh Foods.The Research Programme will be led by Field Fresh Foods in India in partnership with Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). The field trials during research will be conducted at Field Fresh’s Agri Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Ladhowal (Ludhiana), Punjab, where the Company is currently running various crop management trials and partners with farmers to improve overall crop economics. The ACE is one of its kind facility in the country focusing on one of the most under served sector in the country - 'Horticulture'.Announcing the initiative, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said, “We are hugely grateful to the Bharti Foundation for this generous gift, which not only helps us to address one of the fundamental problems facing a growing global population, that of food security, but also strengthens our deep-rooted relationships with India, its universities and industry.”The collaborative research will examine the relationship between the genetic make-up, environmental factors and crop management of corn in order to develop a production system that is more resilient and helps reduce production costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The findings will be further translated into guidance for small farmers in India to promote sustainability, financial stability and to eradicate food shortages.Commenting on the research partnership, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises and Co-Founder, Bharti Foundation, said,“Our research partnership with Cambridge University underlines our commitment to support high level research in the country in collaboration with premier institutions. The current Programme will not just significantly impact productivity and farmer income but help promote the cause of sustainable agriculture in the country.”Corn (Maize) is the third most important cereal crop in India after rice and wheat accounting for ~9 per cent of total food grain production in the country. At 2.5 tonne per hectare, India’s average corn yield is less than half of the global average of 5.5 tonne per hectare.(Source - Industry reports / KPMG, NCDEX)The research outcomes will be shared with State Agriculture Dept., Agricultural Universities and such other statutory/non-statutory bodies. Additionally, Bharti Foundation in partnership with IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), a subsidiary of Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), will help in disseminating the outcome of the Research Programme through various digital tools to millions of farmers across the country.

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Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (Redirected from Moscato Bianco) Grape (Vitis) Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains in Viala & Vermorel Color of berry skin Also called See list of synonyms Original pedigree Muscat of Alexandria Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is a white wine grape that is a member of the Muscat family of Vitis vinifera. Its name comes from its characteristic small berry size and tight clusters. It is known under a variety of local names such as Muscat blanc, Muscat Canelli, Moscato bianco, Muscat de Frontignan, Muscat de Lunel, Muscat d'Alsace, Muskateller, Moscatel de Grano Menudo, Moscatel rosé and Sárgamuskotály . While technically a white grape, there are strains of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains vines that produce berries that are pink or reddish brown. The same vine could potentially produce berries of one color one year and a different color the next.[1] These strains are more prevalent in Australia, where the grape is also known as Frontignac and Brown Muscat. South Africa's Muskadel strain tends to show the same darker characteristics.[2] Variants where the differing grape colour is stable are typically classified as separate grape varieties Muscat Rouge à Petit Grains for red skin colour and Muscat Rose à Petit Grains for pink skin colour. 2 Viticulture 4 Synonyms Uses[edit] A Moscato d'Asti wine from Piedmont, Italy. In France, the grape is used as a blending grape with Grenache blanc and Muscat of Alexandria in vins doux naturels wines from the Frontignan area such as Banyuls, Côtes d'Agly, Grand Roussillon, Rivesaltes and St-Jean de Minervois. It is the primary grape in the Rhône wine Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and a blending grape with Clairette blanc in the recherché sparkling wine Clairette de Die (brand label Tradition).[2] In Alsace, it is known for the highly aromatic and dry wines that it produce.[3] In the Hérault region it is the primary grape for Muscat de Mireval. In Greece the muscat grape is mainly cultivated in the island of Samos, at the eastern part of the Aegean where it covers about 97% of Samos’ vineyards. Samian sweet dessert wines are known worldwide. They motivated Lord Byron to write in a poem, "Fill high the bowl with Samian wine." France is the main country where Muscat of Samos is exported, especially in order to be used as a blending grape for wines. Samos union of vinicultural cooperatives controls the greatest part of the production of the Muscat de Samos, also known sometimes in Greece as "moschoudi". In Italy, the grape is the most widely planted member of the Muscat family and is most commonly known as Moscato Bianco. It is the oldest known variety grown in Piedmont and is the primary component of the Asti and Moscato d'Asti wines, as well as for the aromatized and fortified vermouths. It is also commonly used for fortified dessert wines as well as the semi-sparkling Frizzante.[2] Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains growing in Weinsberg under the synonym Gelber Muskateller. Viticulture[edit] Its viticultural characteristics makes it prone to producing low yields and a susceptibility to mildew and the grape berry moth.[4] It also tends to fall victim to leaf roll, odium and grey rot and requires a long growing season as it tends to bud early and ripen late.[5] It ripens early in Australia for production of low alcohol moscato style wines. Picking can commence in early February. Picking for fortified production can take place in mid-March; this would be regarded as mid-season, not late. Muscat blanc à petits grains is one of the first harvests in France, starting as early as mid August, in Mireval and other areas of the mediterranean basin, in hot dry years like 2009. The grapes used to produce the fruity sec are picked about seven to ten days earlier than the grapes used to produce the Vin Doux Naturel. Vendange tardive (late harvest) of the grapes is also made to exploit the high sugar and flavour concentrations. Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is considered one of the oldest grape varieties still in existence. Ampelographers have identified the grape with the Anathelicon moschaton grape used by the Ancient Greeks and the Apiane vines planted by the Romans (so named because of the fondness that insects, such as bees (Latin apis), have for devouring the flesh of the grapes). It was probably first introduced to France by the Greeks through their trading port at Marseille and later spread to the Narbonne region by Romans in their conquest of Gaul. It was a chief export of Frontignan by the time of Charlemagne and plantings were recorded in Germany by the 12th century. It became a popular planting in Alsace by the 16th century.[6] Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is known under a large number of synonyms,[7] the more popular of which include Muscat Canelli, various combinations with the word Frontignan, and in Macedonia and Serbia is known as Temjanika. This grape is often confused with the distinct and separate grape varieties Muscat of Alexandria (aka Zibibbo in Sicily; aka Hanepoot in South Africa) and Muscat Ottonel, most common in Austria and Alsace but originally bred in Loire Valley in 1852. ^ Oz Clarke & M. Rand Encyclopedia of Grapes, p. 146 Webster International Publishers ISBN 0-15-100714-4 ^ a b c J. Robinson Vines Grapes & Wines, p. 183 Mitchell Beazley 1986 ISBN 1-85732-999-6. ^ K. MacNeil The Wine Bible, p. 285 Workman Publishing 2001 ISBN 1-56305-434-5. ^ J. Robinson Vines Grapes & Wines, p. 185 Mitchell Beazley 1986 ISBN 1-85732-999-6 ^ Oz Clarke & M. Rand Encyclopedia of Grapes, p. 148 Webster International Publishers ISBN 0-15-100714-4. ^ "Muscat à Petits Grains blanc". Vitis International Variety Catalogue. Retrieved 2010-02-04. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Muscat_Blanc_à_Petits_Grains&oldid=717877904" Categories: White wine grape varietiesWine grapes of ItalyWine grapes of PiedmontGrape varieties of GreeceHidden categories: Pages using ISBN magic linksArticles with 'species' microformats Navigation menu БългарскиČeštinaDeutschEspañolFrançaisРусскийSlovenčinaУкраїнська Edit links This page was last modified on 30 April 2016, at 07:44.

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RETAIL VIEW: 'Speed dating' comes to produce November 09, 2008 Quick, you have 10 minutes to make your pitch and then move on to the next potential candidate, with someone else following you to the seat you are currently occupying. Speed-dating has become a common way for single people to meet a mate. But the aforementioned scenario is not about dating, but rather buying produce in one New England state. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture adapted the concept to create a match- maker event to connect buyers and sellers of locally produced products. On Oct. 29, more than 40 buyers and 70 producers came together for five hours of match-making. Each of the buyers, which represented supermarkets, restaurants, roadside stands, foodservice operations and government entities, had 18 10-minute time slots open for sellers. The 70 producers signed up for those various slots in advance, and then the courtship began. One of those buyers was Wendy Ward of Hannaford Bros., a supermarket chain based in Portland, ME, with dozens of stores scattered throughout each of the New England states, including Vermont. "Our time slots were the first that filled up, so we actually set up another table and I believe we talked to everyone who wanted to talk to us," she said. "During the course of the day, we saw 40 to 50 different producers, and yes, we did make some matches." Helen Labun Jordan, market development coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, said that the day-long event grew out of a similar non-agriculture event held earlier in the year that brought together government purchasing agents with potential suppliers. That effort was successful, and the idea to bring together buyers and sellers of agricultural products took root. Ms. Jordan said that Vermont is home to many producers of a long list of products ranging from fruits and vegetables to dairy and meat, and, of course, maple syrup. This match-maker event invited them all to come share their stories with potential buyers. "It was very successful," Ms. Jordan said. "We heard a lot of positive comments and many people told us to count them in for next year." Ms. Jordan said that the event was timed to coincide with the end of the local marketing year and the beginning of the planning season for next season. She said that producers can make deals now so that they can adjust their production volume for 2009. Ms. Ward said that the Hannaford team did make contacts that should result in sales. "I brought some produce managers with me who were looking for specific product, and they found it." The Hannaford executive said that the chain's local food movement is about three years old, which mirrors her time with the company. With the title of close to home coordinator, Ms. Ward puts together producers with individual Hannaford stores. She said that the chain is committed to the concept of promoting locally grown food, which it defines as being in the same state as the store itself. For this program, each produce manager is empowered to work his or her own deals with local producers. She said that the local produce manager is in the best position to know the local growers and to get suggestions from his or her own customers about good sources for locally produced product. Ms. Ward said that the Vermont matchmaker event was the perfect opportunity to advance that concept. Doug Davis, foodservice director for the Burlington School District, was another buyer who participated in the event. His school district has 10 schools and serves 3,600 children. Although it might be considered small by national standards, Mr. Davis said that it is the largest school district in Vermont. "For five years, we have had a very successful farm-to-school program," he said. The program is designed to bring locally grown product into the school. Because much of Vermont's agricultural output takes place during the summer months when school is not in session, Burlington processes much of the fresh product it buys from local farmers. "For example, during the summer we buy 1,000 pounds of zucchini from a local grower and make zucchini bread, then we freeze it and serve it during the school year for breakfast," said Mr. Davis, who added that cooks in the school district also bake and freeze products made from locally grown carrots, apples and berries. During the matchmaker event, this local foodservice director did make a connection with a grower with whom he might do business as well as a diversified farmer that had meat, dairy and vegetables to sell. "My goal was to find more opportunities that allow us to pull locally, and I'd say the event was successful." One of the sellers who attended was Sam Lincoln of Lincoln AgriSource in Randolph Center, VT. At one point in his career as a producer, Mr. Lincoln produced a wide variety of crops and sold them through many different wholesalers. Today, he has a roadside stand and tries to sell most of his production through his own retail outlet rather than through wholesale operators. However, Mr. Lincoln said that it would also be advantageous if he had another outlet for his vegetable crops. "I thought maybe I could find a local school foodservice operation that I could do business with, and I did. I made a connection with Vermont Technical College, which is just five miles up the road. I think we will do business." Like any speed-dating event, Ms. Jordan said that the focus was on making an introduction, not signing a binding contract. The feedback was positive, and one might expect heavy flirting to follow.

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Click here to search Lespedezaplant bush clover, Lespedeza narra locoweed Lespedeza (genus Lespedeza), also called bush clover, genus of about 40 species of plants in the pea family (Fabaceae). All lespedezas are adapted to warm humid climates and are native to North America, tropical and East Asia, and Australia. A number of species are useful as forage and green manure crops, and some are used for erosion control or as ornamentals.Bicolour lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor).Miya.mThe lespedezas may be roughly grouped as herbaceous perennials, small shrubs, and annuals. They are either erect or trailing in habit, and some perennial species can reach heights up to 3 metres (10 feet). The best-known species have alternate, toothless leaves that are made up of three leaflets. The plants house symbiotic soil bacteria (rhizobia) in their root nodules to “fix” nitrogen from the air into the soil, thus making it accessible to other plants and improving the soil nutrient levels.Sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata) is widely used in American agriculture as a pasture crop. Because of its great root system, its dense growth canopy, and its ability to grow on badly eroded soils, the sericea lespedeza is also extremely useful in soil conservation. Some shrublike lespedeza species, such as the bicolour lespedeza (L. bicolor), are grown as ornamentals.Two widely used annual species have been reclassified: common lespedeza, or Japanese clover (Kummerowia striata, formerly L. striata), and the Korean lespedeza (K. stipulacea, formerly L. stipulacea), which are both native to Asia. plant (biology) any multicellular eukaryotic life form characterized by (1) photosynthetic nutrition (a characteristic possessed by all plants except some parasitic plants and underground orchids), in which chemical energy is produced from water, minerals, and carbon dioxide with the aid of pigments and the...Read MoreFabaceae pea family of flowering plants (angiosperms), within the order Fabales. Fabaceae, which is the third largest family among the angiosperms after Orchidaceae (orchid family) and Asteraceae (aster family), consists of more than 700 genera and about 20,000 species of trees, shrubs, vines, and herbs and...Read Moregreen manure Crop grown and plowed under for its beneficial effects to the soil and subsequent crops, though during its growth it may be grazed. These crops are usually annuals, either grasses or legumes. They add nitrogen to the soil, increase the general fertility level, reduce erosion, improve the physical...Read More Global Invasive Species Database - Lespedeza Cuneata Illinois Wildflowers - Lespedeza Hirta University of Missouri Extension - Annual Lespedeza Zipcode Zoo - Lespedeza Leptostachya Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.lespedeza - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)Lespedeza, also called bush clover (genus Lespedeza), is any member of group of herbaceous plants in the pea family (Fabaceae); approximately 50 species; native to North America, Asia, and Australia; may be roughly grouped as perennials, small shrubs, and annuals; either erect or trailing in habit; best-known species have alternate leaves made up of 3 leaflets; all adapted to warm, humid climates; useful as forage, green manure crops, ornamentals, and cover for wildlife. Playing with Wildfire: 5 Amazing Adaptations of Pyrophytic Plants A blazing inferno is moving quickly in your direction. You feel the intense heat and the air is clogged with smoke. Deer, snakes, and birds flee past you, even the insects attempt to escape. You would... (Not) All in the Family Take this science quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of common plant families. Plants and Booze Take this food quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of alcoholic drinks and their plant sources. lespedeza https://www.britannica.com/plant/lespedeza

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Print Story at-a-glance - Nearly half of the food grown in America goes to waste simply because it doesn’t appear perfectly shaped, uniformly colored or otherwise flawless. In California, a movement that many are hoping will spread across the U.S. is focused on saving not-so-perfect fruits and vegetables to redirect to people who are hungry rather than throwing them on the rubbish heap. Programs like Real Good, Food Recovery Challenge, and Twitter’s UglyFruitandVeg are dedicated to donating ugly and leftover food instead of pitching it and encouraging others to do likewise. You Won't Believe How Much Good Food Goes to Waste How Home Gardeners Can Change the Local Food System Half of the World's Food Is Thrown Away Next Article Ugli Fruit Packs in Nutrients A new initiative has been spawned in the U.S., patterned after a similar effort in France focused on marketing unlovely produce such as "the grotesque apple and the ridiculous potato." The premise is built on the realization that just because these foods may have an inferior exterior in comparison with the beautiful darlings on display in fruit baskets, it doesn’t mean they’re not edible and nutritious. Especially in wealthy countries like the U.S., it’s only the most perfect specimens that grace produce shelves — the crop version of the Rockettes, all having the same shape, uniform skin and general appeal. For the Love of Ugly One of the biggest flaws in society is that perfection is practically deified. One thing this ideal has led to is the wholesale waste of fresh, misfit produce that has been deemed unmarketable. The downside of having plenty is that people feel they have room to be discriminating. Anything “flawed” needs to go away, so it does — into the garbage heap. Unfortunately, the amount of pitched fruits and vegetables has been estimated at around one-third of what is produced — around 133 billion pounds of food per year. The sad fact is we’re all to blame. Whether we’re consumers who allow good food to deteriorate in little plastic coffins in our refrigerators, or obsessive “safety first” freaks who actually believe they should purge anything past its so-called “sell-by” date, there aren’t many of us who aren’t guilty of this type of squander. Growers sorting bumper crops of fruits and vegetables for the marketplace regularly toss produce that isn’t necessarily the best looking, or they simply plow it under. Food is the Largest Material in U.S. Landfills Fresh foods are perishable, obviously, but rather than finding someone close by who needs it, the easiest course is to cart it to the nearest landfill. In fact, these once viable foods are what take up the most space in landfills. According to one PBS article: “Now food is the largest material in our landfills. Of all the things that are in our dumps, the biggest portion is food. And when it rots in a landfill, it emits methane, which is a very potent greenhouse gas, 30 or 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”1 A cauliflower, for instance, might have yellow patches; it might just be considered too large. Although it’s crispy, tasty — everything a cauliflower is supposed to be — these are routinely rejected. Perfectly fine peaches that aren’t flawless perfection might end up as cattle feed. There are multiple points at which waste is generated in a growing operation. One of the problems farmers have is that when prices fluctuate between planting and harvest to the degree that taking it to market isn’t even worth it, the easiest course is the landfill. Some produce goes bad in transport or in processing. A Natural Resources Defense Council report estimated that as much as 30 percent of some farmers’ crops never make it to market. Another problem with this is that those crops were watered needlessly, and most are well aware of the water shortage in the western U.S. The Land of Misfit Produce Has Been Found to Be Healthier Some researchers believe fruits and vegetables that are misshapen, bearing nicks or what have you, may actually have higher antioxidant content. One orchard owner in Virginia suggested that stress may even help create super fruit. She conducted an off-grid test to compare the nutritional value of both marred and unmarred Parma apples from her orchard, and reported that the ones with blemishes were sweeter by 2 percent to 5 percent — a bonus for her since the sweetest apples produce the tastiest cider. It’s already well known that organic food is healthier. One reason is because of what isn’t there — it isn’t loaded down with pesticide residues and other toxins. A 2012 study2 revealed that organic produce contains as much as 40 percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown varieties. Among those antioxidants are innumerable elements such as carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids and many other health-promoting nutrients. Those may or may not be present in spite of weather and pests, but because of them. This truly may be a case where what doesn’t kill (organic fruits and vegetables) makes them stronger! Interestingly, organic produce isn’t just safer to eat, it contains more of what we eat food for — to ingest the vitamins and minerals we need to maintain health; to literally make food our medicine and medicine our food, as Hippocrates advised. The ugli fruit gets a gold star in this regard. It has thick, yellow-green skin so loose, lumpy and leathery that anyone who didn’t know better might pass it by. But studies show it contains 11 antioxidant, free-radical-scavenging and iron-reducing compounds and flavonoids, is anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-allergic, and significantly reduced smoke-induced carcinogens. Its compounds may help protect against viral infections, allergies, and fungal conditions, and its peel contains coumarin, which may protect against tumorous cancers.3 Don’t Pitch It — Redirect It Countless organizations are dedicated to feeding the hungry. Shelters, food banks and soup kitchens are there for this purpose. Some have devised innovative ways to convince restaurant and grocery store owners to funnel rejected produce, which very often is perfectly fine, to such places rather than to the landfill. One program is the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge,4 dedicated to reducing the amount of food wasted in the U.S. (possibly inspired by the European Union, which declared 2014 as the Year Against Food Waste5). In fact, a Harvard-based conference titled, “Reduce & Recover: Save Food For People,”6 “prioritizes actions people can take to reduce and recover wasted food.” Another project called Imperfect Produce7 was designed to offer not-so-perfect plant-based foods for a drastically discounted price, working with Whole Foods and other retailers. The company delivers “wonky”-looking fruits and veggies from several Southern California locations to homes and offices. The goal is to expand to other areas across the U.S. Imperfect Produce was designed after a French endeavor called Inglorious produce, its goal to market "the grotesque apple, and the ridiculous potato." Unfortunately, as one farmer related, getting foods destined for the rubbish heap into the hands of someone who’ll eat it is not free: “There’s got to be an economic incentive to move more of this into an avenue that food banks could take advantage of. It’s a lot easier and cheaper just to basically throw it away.”8 Farmers in seven states get tax credits for donating produce, but food banks have been lobbying for larger deductions. Restaurants and grocery stores on the other end of the operation perpetrate a staggering amount of waste themselves, but a few, including Safeway and Giant Eagle, have jumped on board to find a home for cosmetically challenged, plant-based foods. An example of how Raley’s western-based grocery chain tackled the dilemma of wasted food is fairly straightforward: They opted to start selling produce that doesn’t necessarily appear flawless, and at a 25 percent or greater discount. The “Real Good” program — the first of its kind in the U.S. — focuses on fruits and vegetables described as “scarred (or) aesthetically challenged,” but with imperfections so insignificant consumers often can’t tell why it was ever considered a reject. “The grocer said qualifying produce is uniquely shaped, sized or colored, but otherwise the same in flavor and quality as standard produce offerings. Among the “Real Good” offerings are plums, peppers and pears that will be offered at prices 25 percent to 30 percent lower than flawlessly shaped, uniformly colored produce.”9 Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables — Our Last, Best Hope Many people who grow their “real food” do so for more reasons than the enjoyment of getting dirt under their fingernails. In many cases it’s because they know using seeds that are the “real thing” — not hybrids crossed from two or more varieties, but open-pollinated and sometimes saved from actual produce — may have advantages many have never considered. Why would anybody go to the trouble of soaking, scraping, drying and carefully preserving the seeds from their garden produce, or tracking down heirloom seed varieties to grow in their gardens, when they can purchase all the seeds they want down the street for just a few dollars? Turns out there are many motivations: Heirloom varieties aren’t laced with pesticides and other harmful chemicals, such as GMOs. Heirloom foods taste better. Many people today have no idea what some foods are supposed to even taste like, because beauty has replaced flavor in the marketplace. But the originally created model of foods like delicious, meaty tomatoes and nutty, buttery squash exist only from seeds saved, protected, and sometimes handed down through several generations. Heirloom vegetables and fruits often contain superior nutrition. While the bottom line is profit, and profit is maintained by offering more and more of the prettiest peaches, carrots and lettuce, growers have gotten into the habit of planting for a continual bumper crop of higher yields. But it turns out that the practice has backfired; the highest nutrients are often found to be significantly higher in those older varieties.10 Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, meaning you can save and plant the seeds from year to year. They produce plants with offerings that are true to type, which is more often than not, not the case with hybrids. Heirlooms produce less-uniform crops, so they ripen at different times. While large farming operations like everything to reach maturity at the same time so they can pick everything all at once, home gardeners get the advantage of harvesting produce as they need it. Heirloom seeds are also less expensive — even free. It just stands to reason that if you save your seeds from year to year, you’ll pay literally nothing, other than your time. And the result will be just as mouth-wateringly delicious as last year. Scientific ‘Improvement’ Not What the Doctor Ordered Mother Earth News reported: “A lot of the breeding programs for modern hybrids have sacrificed taste and nutrition,” says George DeVault, executive director of Seed Savers Exchange, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom and other rare seeds. “The standard Florida tomato is a good example. Instead of old-time juicy tangy tomatoes, it tastes like cardboard. It was bred to be picked green and gas-ripened because that’s what was needed for commercial growing and shipping.”11 A perfect example of what happens when something like an apple is scientifically targeted for genetic perfection is the Red Delicious apple. These delectable apples with unique coloring and crisp, juicy flavor were America’s favorite for nearly 75 years — until selective breeding rendered them not only unpopular but also virtually inedible. What happened? Well, when a grower noticed a single branch on a Red Delicious tree produced red apples sooner than the rest, an all-out campaign began among orchard owners to “out-breed” their competitors. The hope was that grafting branches from the source tree might produce ever-more-beautiful apples. What they got instead was a mealy, tasteless mush no one wanted to eat, even though the outside looked gorgeous. As the old saying goes, beauty is only skin deep. Other fruits and vegetables, unfortunately, have been similarly “messed with,” especially in this age of growers and grocers counting heavily on produce appearing as attractive when it’s unloaded as when it’s picked. Saving Food in Order to Save People Starts with Caring It’s not just to keep available food from being wasted. The ultimate goal should be to feed people who are hungry. According to Paul Ash from the California Association of Food Banks: “Fifty million Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. We, meanwhile, are wasting this — all this food. If we cut our food waste even by a third, there would be enough food for all those people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from to be fully fed.”12 The question begs to be asked: With all the hunger in the world — much of it in our own communities--aren’t there more ways this obscene waste can be redirected to do some good? NPR.org September 16, 2015 1, 8, 12 PBS.org June 16, 20152 Annals.org Sept. 12, 2012 3 NCBI.gov Nov. 15, 20134 EPA.gov5 Eu.europa.eu Food Waste6 Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation, Reduce and Recover: Save Food For People7 Imperfectproduce.com 9 Sacbee.com July 9, 201510 Mother Earth News June/July 200911 Mother Earth News June 30, 2009 Reward Points [+] Comments (8)

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Cassville Democrat Compromise is no better than original Dear Editor: This letter is in response to the April press release from Charles E. Kruse, president of Missouri Farm Bureau. Mr. Kruse let us tell it as it really is. You and your organization use the term "farm family" loosely. The true family farmers are the dedicated individuals that toil, work the land and respect their neighbors as they have throughout history, and are the backbone of our agricultural system in our state and country. You are advancing the cause of corporate agriculture, industrial farms, concentrated animal feeding organizations (CAFOs) at their expense. You are supporting legislation that takes away local control and authority of local elected representatives to protect the health, welfare and property rights of true farmers and landowners. Mr. Kruse you state "our coalition has reached an agreement with the Missouri Association of Counties (MAC) on a major revision of SB 364, the Farm and food Preservation Act." The fact is that most county commissions were never notified. Instead a "task force," which you strongly influence, made that decision, not the county commissions. You list ridiculous examples of unjustified lawsuits. Why not tell the truth about the adverse health side effects on people that have been exposed to CAFO operations. Check medical clinics and health departments that are aware. Check the lawsuits in Prairie Grove, Ark., that were brought about because of health problems related to poultry CAFOs and the spreading of chicken litter. By the way, CAFOs do smell. You do make a true statement that 16 counties have adopted county health ordinances for regulating agriculture (CAFOs). I wonder why? Could it be that's the only way that the people could react to health issues and such rapid expansion? As for the compromise of SB 364. It is worse than the original Senate bill. Mr. Kruse you again fail to tell it like it is. The "new CAFO Review Board" that you mention would be a farce. The new board as proposed in the compromise bill consists of five persons. One representative designated by MAC, one representative of the Department of Agriculture, one representative of DNR, one representative from the University of Missouri (Agriculture Department?) and one representative of the Missouri agriculture community to be appointed by the governor. Come on Mr. Kruse this must be a joke. You fail to mention the $2,000,000 of our tax money, which will be issued as tax credits - per year for five years for the purpose of "incenting" the installation of reasonably available "odor control technology." Another joke? The fact is Mr. Kruse, there are a great number of people that agree with me, that we do need to be concerned about protecting local control of our elected officials, health, welfare, property rights through legal challenges and our environment. Sincerely, Eagle Rock, Missouri © 2017 Cassville Democrat · Cassville, Missouri

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China to subsidize jatropha planting for biodiesel Tue Jun 5, 2007 | 9:52am EDT A woman clears wild grass near jatropha plants in a jathropa plantation field in Malegaon, India, in this October 9, 2006 file photo. China will promote planting of jatropha, a woody plant, across southwestern provinces to help produce biodiesel and reduce China's dependency... REUTERS/Prashanth Vishwanathan BEIJING China will promote planting of jatropha, a woody plant, across southwestern provinces to help produce biodiesel and reduce China's dependency on imported crude oil, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration said.By 2020, jatropha and other forestry products will be able to provide 6 million tonnes of biodiesel and generate 1,500 megawatts of power, he said in a news conference on Tuesday.Farmers will get subsidies and seedlings in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou provinces and regions to plant jatropha, Cao Qingyao told Reuters.Chinese oil giant China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, and grains trader Cofco will invest in plants to process the biodiesel. Jatropha can grow in dry areas and is used to produce non-edible oil for making candles and soap, as well as biodiesel. It is seen as a promising plant for making biofuels since it is able to grow on poor land, and therefore is less likely to displace food crops.China has not yet released a long-awaited blueprint for biofuel development in the five years through 2010, amid debate over how to balance biofuels with other energy and agricultural policies. Planners concerned that grains-based biofuels would unacceptably lift grains prices have already shifted the focus of the plan to other crops. Total acreage planted with jatropha could reach 13 million hectares, or about the size of England.Other promising plants include sugar grass, which can grow in saline and other low-quality land across northern China, the China Daily said this week. Jatropha will be grown on land reserved for forestry, as well as on land "unsuitable for agriculture," including reclaimed mining areas and oil fields, Cao said, but would not displace remaining original forests.Vast swathes of Yunnan and Guizhou have been completely denuded of trees since the mid-1990s. Some of the plans to replant have focused on crop trees, while in other areas villages have been paid to allow regrowth on critical areas like hilltops above rice paddies.A unit of offshore oil firm China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, already plans a $290 million, 100,000 tonne-per- year biodiesel plant in Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.CNOOC has been more active in the biofuel sector than CNPC, parent of PetroChina (0857.HK)(PTR.N). It also has an agreement to develop biofuels from palm oil with a Malaysian partner. Next In Environment Trump orders review of national monuments to allow development WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to allow national monument designations to be rescinded or reduce the size of sites as the administration pushes to open up more federal land to drilling, mining and other development. Trump advisers to discuss whether U.S. stays in Paris climate pact: official WASHINGTON White House advisers and Trump administration officials will meet on Thursday to discuss whether the United States should remain in the Paris climate agreement, a White House official said on Wednesday.

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The fastest growers in the Wolds Hilary and Rob Bannister with daughters Zoe, who operates as commercial director, and Marie, as sales director Ben Barnett WHAT BETTER way to celebrate a milestone year for your farm diversification ‘project’ than to have it named among the nation’s fastest growing enterprises. That’s exactly what Hilary and Rob Bannister have achieved, 30 years on from taking the plunge into the frozen food market.It was quite a diversion, from farming on the Wolds to processing ready-baked potatoes for the shop shelves, but in doing so they tapped into a niche market that has since propelled them to annual sales worth £20.5million. Momentum is behind their Carnaby-based business, Bannisters’ Farm, which has just been ranked number 36 in The Grocer magazine’s Fast 50, an annual round-up of the fastest growing privately owned food and drink businesses in the UK which also saw the likes of cider brand Thatchers and craft beer firm BrewDog listed. The journey to this moment took plenty of experimentation, as Rob explained.“We started growing alternative crops to improve the profitability of the farm during the 70s, some of which were successful and some which were decidedly not. “We tried cabbages, beetroot, onions, carrots, operating as straw and hay merchants - we even grew kohlrabi (a relative of the cabbage, widely eaten in German speaking countries).“On the potato front, we converted a carrot washer to wash potatoes and so began washing and grading potatoes, and after a while built up a reputation for Wolds washed potatoes with London restaurants buying from the fresh London markets. “So we’d already diversified in various ways before this business was started. The baking and freezing project was another way of adding further value to our farming crop.”Rob has never been afraid of trying something different. “The idea was not just to do with the returns from farming, but also because of Rob’s innovative mind,” said Hilary.“At one point, one of Rob’s inventions was on Tomorrow’s World which was notoriously the demise of any innovation, so a business founded on in-home exercising combined with gaming didn’t succeed, but did lead to making BMX bike arcade games to export to Singapore for a short time. With hindsight, it was probably a bit early but we still have two of them rusting in the shed.” Rob and Hilary baked the first batch of potatoes grown on their farm in a small commercial oven at Carnaby in December 1985 and sold them into the catering trade. Now, they go head to head with the big brands for space in the frozen aisles of major supermarkets. Their range of products include jacket and roast potatoes, and filled potato skins with spuds supplied both from their own farm, as well as from others across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.The couple still run their farming enterprise too, and so to get the Bannisters’ Farm brand off the ground, they turned to their daughters - Zoe, who operates as commercial director, and Marie, as sales director. “Between them, they have got our Bannisters’ Farm brand off the ground,” said Hilary.Zoe attributed much of the success to her father, saying: “Dad has a passion for innovation and it is that which has ensured the survival of the business. In the 1980s, potato storage was not as advanced as it is today, so Dad’s idea was to use the freezing process to preserve the best quality baking potatoes in their baked state, rather than fresh. “Back then, the idea of a frozen baked potato was ludicrous to many people but freezing is one of the oldest methods of preservation and to my father, was the obvious solution to the quality problems of fresh potatoes later in the year before the next potato harvest. “By mid-2000s, we’d been supplying the foodservice sector with frozen baked potatoes for years, and it was when friends and family to whom we gave them asked for more, that we realised there was a gap in the supermarkets too.”Hilary said: “It’s been a steep learning curve (but) we’ve had a very rewarding 30 years working in the food industry and we’re delighted that it continues to grow as a family business in the true sense of word.”PROUD LOCAL SOURCINGBannisters’ Farm is proud of its status as a British independent family-run firm with farming traditions running through its core, according to commercial director Zoe.“We use only British potatoes, most of which are grown in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and we source as much as possible from other independent businesses like ours. Good, wholesome food made for busy modern lives is at the heart of everything we do - we use only clean ingredients that we’re happy to give to our own children. “Consumers really appreciate that. We know, because they write, email and call us to tell us.”

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Knowledge Base About Phosphate Phosphate is an Essential Mineral “The phosphorus content of our land, following generations of cultivation, has greatly diminished. It needs replenishing. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of phosphorus not only to agriculture and soil conservation but also the physical health and economic security of the people of the nation. Many of our soil deposits are deficient in phosphorus, thus causing low yield and poor quality of crops and pastures…” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt; message to the United States Congress in 1938 About Phosphate Phosphorus (“P”) is one of three essential elements in fertilizer production. The other two elements are Potassium (commonly referred to as “potash” when in potassium chloride form) (“K”), and nitrogen (“N”). Phosphorus plays a crucial role in photosynthesis, and is instrumental in growth and energy supply in living organisms, especially plant life. The main source of phosphorous is phosphate rock. Source: Yara, Macquarie Research, January 2010 Approximately 161 million tonnes of phosphatic rock are mined annually, with approximately 139 million tonnes (86%) being used for fertilizer production. Mined phosphate generally needs to be upgraded (beneficiated), and then converted into fertilizers. The compound phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) is used as a quality metric, as it measures the concentration of phosphate in rock deposits as well as in commercial phosphate products. The phosphate ore (commonly 10-20% P2O5) is commonly upgraded to phosphate rock concentrate (approximately 30% P2O5) by conventional flotation. Other specifications of the upgraded phosphate rock include reasonable calcium carbonate (approximately 5%) and less than 4% combined iron and aluminium oxides. These phosphatic rocks are converted to phosphoric acid, which is the compound used in fertilizer manufacturing. Other uses of phosphate include being used in the detergent and food industries amongst others. Source: British Sulphur Consultants (CRU Group), 2010 Phosphate in Nature Phosphate bearing rock deposits occur in many regions of the world and are hosted by a number of different rock types and settings. The most important one being sedimentary, associated with upwelling zones adjacent to basin margins. Here upwelling colder phosphate rich waters mix with warmer surface waters with resultant precipitation of phosphate as francolite, a mixture of apatite and fibrous apatite. Significant occurrences of this style include the Tertiary Lee Creek deposit in South Carolina in the United States, and the Upper Cretaceous Benguerir deposit in Morocco. Australian examples include a number of occurrences around the margin of the Georgina Basin in Central Australia, including Incitec Pivot’s operating Phosphate Hill Mine, located near Mt Isa in western Queensland. The second major type of deposit is located with the supergene alteration of igneous carbonatitic intrusions – this is a major type in Brazil, and includes the Tapira, Araxa and Cataloa deposits. Main Phosphate Products H3PO4 Phosphoric acid, which is generally the intermediate product between phosphate rock and fertilizer products, and is produced by treating the phosphate rock with sulphuric acid 6CaSO4 + 3Ca(H2PO4)2 Single superphosphate (“SSP”), is produced by treating phosphate rock with sulphuric acid, and is used as fertilizer Ca(H2PO4)2 Triple superphosphate (“TSP”), is a more concentrated form of superphosphate, produced by treating phosphate rock with phosphoric acid NH4H2PO4 Monoammonium phosphate (“MAP”), produced by the reaction of phosphoric acid and ammonia, and with the main use being in fertilizer blending (NH4)2HPO4 Diammonium phosphate (“DAP”), produced by the reaction of phosphoric acid and ammonia, with the main use being in fertilizer blending, but also used in winemaking and in the purification of sugar Fertiliser production flow (Source: Fosfertil 2009 Annual Report) Phosphate Rock Production and Consumption There are few phosphate producers (12 countries) and many consumers (approximately 150 countries; with Brazil accounting for 80% of Latin America consumption.) Brazil was the third largest consumer of phosphate, but only produced a third of its requirement domestically and importing the rest. Source: IFA, 2014 The Need For Phosphate Phosphorus fulfills many vital functions in a wide variety of processes in plants, animals and humans. If the world’s farmers stopped growing crops today, there would only be enough grain inventories to feed the world’s population for slightly less than two months. As a result, 86% of globally produced phosphate is applied as a fertilizer to help feed the world’s growing population. Benefits of phosphate fertilizers include: Slows growth of crop diseases Maintains cell resilience Reduces water loss Assists in photosynthesis by activating more than 50 enzymes Builds cellulose Phosphates have no commercial substitute as a phosphorus fertilizer source. Brazil’s Agricultural Sector World’s fastest growth growing fertilizer market 4th largest consumer of fertilizer but account for only 4% of global fertilizer production In 2014, Brazil accounted for 11% (4.6 Mt) of the world’s P2O5 consumption and is growing Brazil is a net importer of phosphate (~65% of need) Brazil is a Global Agricultural Powerhouse Agricultural exports greater than US$175 billion per year 27% of global meat export market Brazil will export more meat than U.S.A., Canada, Australia and Argentina in 2016 Arable land increasing by 4.5% per year World leader in sugar and ethanol production from sugar Soybean, rice and corn are all strategic crops Brazil soils are phosphate deficient, while the crops grown require phosphate nutrients The usage of fertilizer was the biggest factor in the increase of grain yields in Brazil using the same cultivated area. Phosphate product imports to Brazil come from a number of countries including Morocco, the FSU, China, USA, Tunisia and Israel. MailChimp Signup Subscribe to our newsletterNameThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

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FBOs position themselves on the front lines against agroterrorism - October 1, 2010, 8:22 AM During the past few years, FBOs and airports with international arrivals have been developing processes to handle what’s known as “regulated garbage.” U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Regulation 7 CFR 330.400 requires owners and operators of aircraft flying into the U.S. from other countries (except Canada) to dispose of regulated garbage in a way that protects against the introduction of foreign bacteria to the U.S. The cost of this disposal can run into hundreds of dollars, depending on how much trash is involved. According to the regulations, garbage means “all waste material derived in whole or in part from fruits, vegetables, meats or other plant or animal (including poultry) material, and other refuse of any character whatsoever that has been associated with any such material on board any means of conveyance, and including food scraps, table refuse, galley refuse, food wrappers or packaging materials, and other waste material from stores, food preparation areas, passengers’ or crews’ quarters, dining rooms or any other areas on the means of conveyance. For purposes of this part, garbage also means meals and other food that were available for consumption by passengers and crew on an aircraft but were not consumed.” Proper disposal of regulated garbage basically means rendering it sterile, either by heating the garbage to at least 212 degrees F for more than 30 minutes or simply incinerating it. The USDA doesn’t care about what happens to the trash after it is sterilized. Trash Removal and DisposalMany FBOs contract with local companies that haul away regulated garbage, dispose of it properly and maintain records of compliance. One company that offers this service is Stericycle, headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill. Fargo Jet Center in Fargo, N.D., has been certified by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to handle regulated garbage. Fargo Jet’s line technicians and customer service representatives have been trained to remove regulated garbage from arriving international flights, according to line service manager Jeremy Sobolik. The process involves placing the garbage into special four-mil-thickness plastic bags, then into a box provided by the company that destroys the trash. The box is marked with biohazard labels. Fargo Jet personnel label the boxes with the aircraft identification and the time when the trash was removed. The service provider must pick up the box and incinerate the contents within two days. Fargo Jet personnel who are removing the garbage also have to carry a cleaning kit in case of a liquid spill. Fargo Jet charges $45 per box, barely enough to cover the cost. “We’ve been doing this for almost three years,” said Sobolik. “We had a few customers frustrated with the process, but once we were able to explain it to them, it became easier. Now most of them are aware of it.” At Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wis., the airport’s management thought it might make sense to bring the sterilizing equipment to the airport, to lower costs for customers and attract more international arrivals traffic. “We’ve been working on that project for at least five years,” said airport manager Tom Miller. At first, the plan was to install an incinerator, but a sterilizer proved to be more efficient and environmentally friendly. A year ago the airport bought a $150,000 sterilizing system from San-I-Pak of Tracy, Calif., and trained personnel at FBOs Executive Air and Titletown Jet Centre on how to use the sterilizer. The FBOs pay the airport to use the sterilizer, which is housed in its own building. The sterilizer is a gas-fired boiler that creates steam to sterilize the garbage contained in special bags that can withstand heat and pressure, according to Miller. After the heating cycle, the bags are allowed to cool, then the garbage can be disposed of in a regular trash facility. Having the sterilizer on the airport, he said, “has put us on the map as a place to enter the country. It’s worked out pretty well.” Executive Air charges $150 for the first bag and $50 for additional bags, according to general manager Mark Jaraczewski. “It’s a good service for us. The airport wanted to increase international business, and having international trash [capability] made sense.” Preventing AgroterrorismThere is one more wrinkle in the regulated garbage picture. It appears that the U.S. government is concerned about more than rogue bacteria leaping from an uneaten croissant into the U.S. ecosystem: it is also worried about a new threat called “agroterrorism.” According to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), “Unfortunately, our post-9/11 world includes a new and dangerous threat. This threat is agroterrorism, which targets some component of agriculture or the food supply. Examples include the intentional introduction of a plant or animal pest or disease or contamination of food materials with a toxic substance. Agricultural inspections have traditionally focused on unintentional introduction of pests or diseases–those unnoticed in someone’s luggage or hitchhiking on the walls of a container. Now we need to focus also on the deliberate introduction of these threats. With the added danger of agroterrorism, the role of the CBP agriculture specialists at our ports of entry is more crucial than ever.” FBOsSafety http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aviation-international-news/2010-10-01/fbos-position-themselves-front-lines-against-agroterrorism

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Measurers to stop livestock taping stall in states By MIKE GLOVER | June 13, 2011 | 3:12 AM EDT FILE - In this file image provided by Mercy for Animals, Sept. 1, 2009, a frame grab from a video made by an undercover member of the group shows male chicks being tossed into a grinder at a hatchery in Spencer, Iowa. Minnesota has become at least the fourth state to consider legislation that would make it illegal to make audio or video recordings at an animal facility without permission, an industry-led backlash against undercover videos made by animal rights groups that have exposed cases of alleged mistreatment. (AP Photo/Mercy for Animals, File) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Efforts to outlaw the undercover recording of animal abuse in livestock operations appear to have stalled in Iowa and other states in the face of complaints that the proposals were intended primarily to protect the industry with little concern for animals' welfare. A measure to punish those who make secret videos initially appeared to be sailing through the Iowa Legislature, but after clearing the state House it has sputtered out in the Senate and appears dead for this session. Similar measures also have faltered in Minnesota, Florida and New York. The issue is important to livestock operators, who claim their industry has been tarred by people who lie to obtain jobs, then stitch together videos that they upload to the Internet in an effort to make the treatment of hogs, cattle and chickens look as cruel as possible. Livestock owners and their supporters say the groups' ultimate goal is to convince Americans to forgo meat and adopt vegan lifestyles. "I feel it is wrong to absolutely lie to get a job to try to defame the employer," said Rep. Annette Sweeney, a farmer and Republican legislator from the small northern Iowa town of Alden who sponsored the bill. Animal rights activists respond that livestock operators want to stop the public from seeing how their animals are treated. "A well-managed farm has nothing to hide," said Emily Vaughn, a program manager at New York-based Slow Food USA. "It's something that people have the right to know." The Iowa measure would have prohibited recordings of farm animal treatment and punished people who take agriculture jobs only to gain access to the animals for videotaping. Proposed penalties included fines of up to $7,500 and up to five years in prison. In Iowa, the measure initially had plenty of support, reflecting the importance agriculture holds in a state that leads the nation in production of corn, soybeans, hogs and eggs. Although most Iowa residents live in cities, agriculture remains important them and is a powerful force in the Legislature. Many lawmakers from both parties were sympathetic to the argument that the state needed to get tough on activists who misrepresented themselves to gain access to farms. Iowa operators have felt under attack since activists distributed a series of videos that they claimed showed the mistreatment of animals, from pigs being beaten to chicks being ground up alive. In some instances, operators admitted the videos showed problems, but they said activists should have reported any mistreatment directly to farm managers rather than publicize the images. "I don't believe in people being hired under false pretenses to get access to these facilities to portray their side of the story," said Cody McKinley, a public policy director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association. Bruce Berven, a lobbyist for the Iowa Cattlemen's Association, claimed activists had broader goals than ensuring farm animals were treated humanely. "Their agenda is clear and basically anti-livestock," Berven said. "They are basically just using this issue to promote their vegan-slash-vegetarian agenda. There's a bigger war going on than this issue." A number of national groups supported the Iowa legislation, including the National Turkey Federation and the National Pork Producers Council. Pat McGonegle, a vice president for the national pork producers, said his group backs such legislation because producers "need protection from people who have mischievous intentions and this does just that." Ultimately, though, the legislation stalled in the face of strong opposition from animal welfare groups. The Humane Society of the United States was among those leading the fight against measures in Iowa and other states. Humane Society spokeswoman Carol Rigelon said opponents were careful to avoid being critical of agriculture as an industry. "What we're trying to do is expose things that might not otherwise be exposed and as a result make agriculture even better," Rigelon said. Vaughn, of Slow Food USA, called their effort "positive activism." She said her group and others tried to talk positively about farmers who agree with their vision of sustainably produced food and the humane treatment of animals. "We have been celebrating farmers," Vaughn said. "We'd like to see more of them." Democratic Sen. Gene Fraise, a farmer from Fort Madison, said he's not sure what to think about the issue. He abhors animal abuse but also knows it's hard to run a farm without trusted employees. "If you hire somebody to work for you, and if you can't trust them, you've got a problem," Fraise said. "We've had hired help, and I would have trusted the farm with them." Printer-friendly version

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PlantsAbout PlantsHistory & Culture of Plants Define Vinca Define Vinca A vinca is any member of the genus Vinca, which contains 7 to 12 species native to Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. Vincas are generally perennial. Trailing stems are characteristic of many vincas, as are simple opposed leaves. Vinca flowers generally have five petals apiece, joined into a tube at the base of each flower. The flowers are blue or blue-purple, but can be pink, rose or white. Genus Confusion The most commonly cultivated vinca species are Vinca major and Vinca minor. The latter is most often grown as a perennial groundcover and sometimes called by the common names of "periwinkle" or "myrtle." Confusion arises over Madagascar periwinkle, which some authorities place in the Vinca genus (Vinca rosea), while others consign it to the related genus Catharanthus (Catharanthus roseus). No matter which genus it belongs to, Madagascar periwinkle is a member of the Apocynaceae or dogbane family, like its vinca relatives. Unlike Vincas major and minor, Madagascar periwinkle has stiffer stems, a more erect growth habit and flowers in shades of white, pink or rose. Other Apocynaceae species include oleander, amsonia and asclepias (milkweed). The genus Vinca was first described by Linnaeus in 1753. The name "vinca" comes from the Latin word "vincio" meaning "to bind", probably referring to the twining stems of many members of the genus. Cultivated for centuries, Vinca minor was probably introduced into Europe before 1000 AD. It arrived in this country during colonial times, as did Vinca major, first introduced in the United States in 1789. Both Vinca major and minor were used outdoors as ground cover plants and V. major was also used in pots and as a conservatory specimen. Vinca can sometimes be found growing rampant in old, untended cemeteries. Vinca major and minor as well as Vinca rosea have traditionally been used for medicinal purposes, especially as tonics, astringents (applied externally) and as anti-hemorrhagic remedies (internal and external). The most useful medicinal vinca is rosea. Extracts from the plant have been used over the centuries by herbalists to treat a range of problems from asthma to high blood pressure. In the 20th century, Vincristine, an alkaloid derived from Madagascar periwinkle, was used to treat various forms of cancer. Landscape Uses Tender Madagascar periwinkle is grown as a flowering annual in cold winter climates. Its glossy leaves and near continuous blooming habit make it a wonderful pot or bedding plant. The trailing stems of Vinca major also make it attractive spilling over the sides of pots or hanging baskets. The glossy leaves, rapid growth habit and ground-covering ways of Vinca minor make it a favorite of landscapers who want to cover a lot of earth in a relatively short time. Vincas major and minor are tolerant of shade as well. Breeders have worked to develop strains of Madagascar periwinkle with large flowers as wide as 2 inches across and contrasting centers. Flowers on newer Vinca minor varieties may be wine, white or bright blue with doubled petals and/or variegated foliage in combinations that include gold or white and green. Variegated forms of Vinca major are also popular. Vinca minor can become invasive if left unchecked. All parts of Vinca rosea are toxic when ingested. Vinca, periwinkle, Vinca identification, Madagascar periwinkle About this Author Elisabeth Ginsburg, a writer with twenty years' experience, earned an M.A. from Northwestern University and has done advanced study in horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden. Her work has been published in the "New York Times," "Christian Science Monitor," "Horticulture Magazine" and other national and regional publications. New in History & Culture of Plants Bamboo Manufacturing Process Pine Trees That Have Crosses on the New Growth Native Plant Identification in Sonora Pass, California White Vs. Brown Chia Seeds How Do Seeds of Cultivated Plants Compare to Wild Plants? About Water Lilies Interesting Facts on Flowers The History of the Tulip Bulb Little Known Facts About Oak Trees Which Plants Come from the Rainforest?

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U.S. Agricultural Research in Dangerous Decline Prices of basic foods like rice and wheat have risen rapidly around the world. This refocuses attention on two related policy questions long thought important but largely ignored recently: Should government fund agricultural research? What should wealthy nations do to increase food production in poor countries? Both involve a basic economic question. Is improving agricultural production a "public good"? That is, do the benefits of ag research spill over to the public at large? Would private entities carry out an optimal level of such research without action by government? In the United States, we decided long ago that improving farm output benefits the general public. Because private entities carrying out research cannot capture many of the benefits, they won't spend as much money on this as society needs. That conclusion produced the 1862 Morrill Act, which provided grants of land and later money to state colleges, whose "leading object" would be to teach subjects "related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." It also produced the 1887 Hatch Act that established agricultural experiment stations and the 1914 Smith-Lever Act that set up agricultural extension services. These laws turned out to be some of the most important legislation ever enacted in the United States. Agricultural research, extension and education here became a model for the rest of the world. It contributed enormously to economy-wide higher productivity, as higher output per person, per acre freed farm workers to move into industry without endangering food supplies. After World War II, we thought it in our national interest to help rebuild the economies of war-ravaged countries with the Marshall Plan. In the 1950s, we extended such aid to developing countries. It was not altruism on our part. We were scared of the Communists. Successive Republican and Democratic administrations implemented dual programs of military and civilian aid with broad bipartisan support in Congress. I played a tiny role. In 1969, as a soldier, I worked in a little Army Post Office that served some 4,000 Americans working for the U.S. mission in Brazil. These included substantial numbers of faculty from Purdue University, the University of Arizona, Oregon State-Corvallis and other U.S. schools implementing U.S. foreign aid projects. Among these was Ed Schuh, professor and dean at the University of Minnesota from 1979 until his death last month. In retrospect, U.S. policy was audacious. Our government went to Purdue and said, in effect, "Here are millions of dollars; go and build a world-class agricultural research university in Brazil." And so, Schuh and other determined young Purdue faculty turned the dusty regional town of Vicosa in the state of Minas Gerais into a center of ag research and education. The same happened in many other countries. North Carolina State and Iowa State were in Peru. The University of Minnesota worked in Morocco. Thousands of bright young people from every continent came to get masters and doctorate degrees here. Returning to their home countries, they formed a cadre of educated, influential people generally very sympathetic to the United States. Together with foundations and governments in Canada and Western Europe, we also funded a set of international ag research centers. These included the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, the International Potato Center in Peru, the International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat in Mexico and many others. It has become fashionable to discount the effectiveness of foreign aid. Yes, much foreign aid was wasted. Yes, foreign aid by itself has never turned a poor country into a rich one. Yes, much aid went to prop up friendly but brutal kleptocrats like Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or Suharto in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the agricultural, health and educational programs we funded in the first 30 years after World War II made an enormous difference in the lives of billions of people. The famines common in South Asia largely disappeared. Health and education improved, particularly in countries like Taiwan and South Korea. Brazil and other countries developed their own highly successful ag research and extension systems. Perhaps success bred complacency, both in terms of funding our own domestic ag research and ag aid abroad. Perhaps the collapse of communism erased any urgency. In any case, adjusted for inflation and relative to the size of the U.S. economy, we spend much less on domestic ag research than in the 1960s and vastly less on assisting food production capacity in poor countries. Fifty years ago, when we were much poorer than now, we thought it important to spend money to fight hunger, promote education and foster sympathy for the United States in poor countries. Now, somehow, we don't think we can afford it anymore. St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at [email protected] Advertising

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What California's San Joaquin Valley Once Was! Credit: Sacramento Bee Yesterday I wrote about a recent scientific study which appears to have found a link between the vast agricultural infrastructure of the state's Central Valley (San Joaquin & Sacramento Valleys combined), it's voracious appetite for water which feeds the irrigation needs of it's big business interests and what seemed to be the wonderful climate side effect of Industrial Ag's presence there. In some ways it almost seemed to celebrate and excuse any past abuses by what the land has now become. But on the other hand it also was really pointing out the effects a source of water evaporation influencing weather hundreds of miles away. What ever the motive behind the article, it never the less was interesting from a mechanisms point of view on how the natural world works and I wrote about it HERE The article went on to explain it's effect of increased rainfall patterns in summertime around the Four Corners region of the southwest. In some ways this was odd because this is one of the driest regions in the west, but in other ways it reminded my of what science has revealed about it's wetter climate and vegetation history. Such regions are super-sensitive to recovery as a result of their drier climate and don't heal as quickly as other areas on Earth with abundant seasonal rainfall. Humans in their past ignorance never gave any consideration to this sensitivity and what once was, is now gone and almost impossible under the present system to ever bring it back the way it was originally. That article of course triggered thoughts I've pondered about the influence of the massive ancient Lake Cahuilla, which is now vastly reduced to a puddle called the Salton Sea when you make a comparison to it's past former glory. O.C. Register But today, a couple of other News items triggered my thoughts about California's Central Valley and what could be said to have been possibly an even much greater influence of weather and climate on many regions far away, than mere irrigation runoff from Farms. The California Native Plant Society of Orange County shared a link to an article from the Orange County Register which told of one last holdout of a last lone California Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) which was first discovered I believe in 1983 in Crystal Cover State Park in El Moro Canyon. This location is a coastal area of southern Orange County and it's truly a miracle that this single lone oak has survived given the human caused fires which occur with some frequency. Here is the article link: Rediscovering a 'long lost friend' – Orange County's only valley oak But it got me thinking about the reason it is called Valley Oak in the first place. The Central Valley was once home to thousands upon thousands of these majestic giants, of which there are now only a few remnants left from their once former glory. But again, it made me ponder about the once great bio-diverse richness of what this Valley once was. Photo by Phill Stoffer (USGS) And yet another piece of News today in Yahoo which was the topic of conversation when Chaparral Biologist Richard Halsey first drew attention to it and that was the creation of a new Pinnacles National Park. Incredibly while he was sharing this information and explaining the habitat's health being put into jeopardy by control burns, when suddenly in the discussion there were some who insisted it was necessary for Condors needing places to land which chaparral scrub didn't provide and also grassland introduction to encourage Condor food like Deer. Of course Condors don't hunt and kill so much as they scavenge already dead carcasses. The heated debate was odd because if people had actually thought about it for a moment, they would have realized that back in history, while Condors may have nested in the Pinnacles' cliffs, they would have scavenged in the Central Valley to the east. Of course things have vastly changed now, but still, just saying . . . Anyway, without going down the controversy road again, here is the article today. It's official: The new Pinnacles National Park is America's 59th national park . But that debate about the California Condors Kitchen facilities & their Pantry also reminded me of something else about California's Central Valley and another of the mammal holdouts who are now restricted to a consolation prize patch of land around the Buena Vista Lake area of southwestern San Joaquin Valley which no one wants to live or Farm called Yule Elk State Natural Reserve. There are actually some kool historical statistics & other important information on this animal and the range they once occupied. The Wikipedia has some good info and while Wiki is often manipulated with as far as accurate content devoid of ideology & bias quite often times when dealing with specific emotionally driven subject matter, this page on Tule Elk seems to agree with other facts written elsewhere: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_elk "When the Europeans first arrived, an estimated 500,000 tule elk roamed these regions, but by 1870 they were thought to be extirpated. However, in 1874-1875 a single breeding pair was discovered in the tule marshes of Buena Vista Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Conservation measures were taken to protect the species in the 1970s. Today, the wild population exceeds 4,000. The arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century caused the release of cattle and horses on the grasslands of the Central Valley. In the 1830s, Americans attracted by the abundance of Spanish cattle sent ships to California to land men who went ashore to kill the cattle for the hide and tallow trade. In a short time, this trade removed many of the cattle from California, so when the first emigrants arrived from the United States, they hunted the abundant elk and other species in the absence of a livestock industry. The gold rush of 1849 brought in musket hunters, trappers and cattle barons. Twenty-four years later, in 1873, the once great herds were reduced to a single tiny band. By the time elk hunting was banned by the State Legislature in 1873, the tule elk was believed to be extinct. - California cattle baron Henry Miller protected tule elk after a pair were discovered on his ranch in the tule marshes near Buena Vista Lake by game warden A. C. Tibbett in 1874. Miller ordered his men to protect the elk and is credited for the survival of the species. After his death, the huge Miller-Lux ranch was subdivided and the hunting of the elk resumed. The population was reduced to 72 head. By 1895, habitat loss and poaching had reduced the elk population to only 28." Unbelievable, an estimated 500,000 Tule Elk existing throughout a healthy pristine heavily vegetated California Central Valley prior to European arrival and decimated down to 28 individuals be 1895 and all done with weaponry which would be considered primitive by today's sophisticated technological killing standards. Of course it was during this same period that millions of Bison were butchered with the same mentality and weaponry. Never the less, it is the ecology of the native vegetation landscape throughout that Valley from south to north that interests me and the far greater amount of water which once existed throughout the valley. If you drive around today throughout the southern and west end of the valley, it is obvious that there is very little if any water available on the surface. Water there comes from Canals from the eastern part or pumped from deep commercial wells which at present are depleting what vast aquifer reserves there once were. There is simply now not enough moisture any longer falling as rain and filling up the higher elevation reservoirs. One of the keys to the valley's far greater water presence was the link to an area called Buena Vista Lake in Kern County where Bakersfield is the county seat. Here are some stats about this now dried up massive lake bed. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buena_Vista_Lake "Buena Vista Lake, is a former fresh-water lake now a dry lake in Kern County, California in the Tulare Lake Basin in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California. Buena Vista Lake was the second largest of several similar lakes in the Tulare Lake basin, and was fed by the waters of the Kern River. The Kern River's flow went into Buena Vista Lake southwest through the site Bakersfield via its maindistributary channels or south through the Kern River Slough distributary into Kern Lake and then into Buena Vista Lake via Connecting Slough. In times when Buena Vista Lake overflowed it first backed up into Kern Lake making one large lake. When this larger lake overflowed it flowed out through the Buena Vista Slough and Kern River channel northwest of Buena Vista Lake through tule marshland and Goose Lake, into Tulare Lake. In the mid 20th century, Buena Vista Lake dried up after its tributary river waters were impounded in Isabella Dam and for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses." I have actually been to this area. If you drive from Bakersfield along the old abandoned railroad right-of-way which ends up in the oil fields city of Taft CA, it will take you past what is now a vast dried up lake bed. The only way I can described this area to southern Californians is if you've ever seen the large flat flood plain and lake bed called "Mystic Lake". During high rainfall seasons and when the San Jacinto river floods, this lake will actually fill up again, but most often it looks like dry alkali salt flats. Now if for size comparison, Buena Vista Lake bed is as big as the entire San Jacinto/Hemet valleys and may extend a further distance towards Sun City and Moreno Valley. It's huge and as referenced in the above info, was at one time loaded with water from the Kern River. Marshlands and Tule areas extending on and off all the way down stream to the Sacramento Delta. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, there was enough water in the San Joaquin & Kern Rivers to run Steamboat ferries with freight and people at one time all the way to Bakersfield. Cottonwoods, Sycamores, Willows and more would have had extensive forests and great Valley Oak Savannas would have been on higher more elevated locations on the fringes and foothill margins surrounding the valley. Tule Elk and other animals like Pronghorn antelope would have and indeed did maintain such a healthy environment. Given what we know today about the ability of Oaks, Maples and other deciduous trees giving off massive amounts of natural aerosols or VOCs like isoprenes which help create cloud formation (even miles and miles away), we can imagine an even greater influence on all other states climates eastward. With all the vast populations of Tule Elk throughout this wild untouched valley, you can now imagine the vast regular food supply for which the California Condor's soared over from their nesting grounds in the mountains lining both sides of the valley. Sadly, I have the feeling that through the present system, Human intervention will always be needed to provide dead carcasses for these large majestic birds in out of the way isolated protected habitats. There is no real historical precedent from many of these areas that suggest they will ever be truly independent again. Too many negative human stain variables. Hopefully I'll be able to photograph and explain what happened to Anza Valley and Santa Rosa Mountains climate change when I get my photographs taken this spring. I wish more of the Non-Profits (eco groups involved in saving whatever around the globe) would or could focus more on natural world mechanisms and practical applications and teach others the same. Looking at nature through the lens of Biomimetics would go further than much of the present stirring up of anger. Nothing wrong with being upset at some injustice and believe me, I know the world is defined by injustice. But I recently read something by controversial author Salman Rushie and I actually saw a CNN News interview of him on Sunday where he said this and it made sense. "People today are encourage and have begun to identify themselves by things they hate rather than those things they love and cherish. Should such people be encouraged ? Should such generations-to-come believe that their hatred towards an entity is more important than someone else's opinion of the same ?" It actually made perfect sense. I follow some of the environmental movements out around the globe along with countless other News Reports on various social movements and there appears no unity or agreement on anything sometimes. The hatred also takes it's toll on otherwise good people who exhaust themselves emotionally when the situation doesn't change for the better or even gets worse. Maybe a different strategy is needed. But unfortunately from my many years of observation and experience, I have seen many a leader or Guru of a group often keeping people stirred up and on edge even if and when there may even be an improvement. This is clear with many of the present social and political movements. If people actually become content and circumstances settle down, the guys like these loose power and they just seem fade away into the background. I find this with many extreme religious leaders with politicians not far behind. I imagine it could also be true of some eco-movements as well. Anyway, for the moment, to change direction here, I found some pictures and artist's conceptions of what the Central Valley was once like. Maybe for a change, we can view some pleasant pics of Tule Elk in natural habitat followed by some artists conceptions of what wildlife and vegetated habitats may have looked like a long time ago. Look upon the paintings as a positive goal rather than focusing hatred on those responsible for the destruction of these areas. photo by wikipedia Tule Elk herd at Lake Pillsbury near Hull Mountain, Mendocino National Forest in Lake County, California. Living in the fringes of Foothill Pine , Oak and chaparral, no doubt for cover when not feeding on natives grasslands. photos at San Luis Wildlife Refuge, Los Banos CA Notice the natural haze in the pictures ? This haze is created by isoprenes given off by trees in combination with the common temperature inversion layer of trapped cold air of winter and springtime. It can become worse when mixed with man made pollution. Ever hear of Tule Fog ? The Central Valley is notorious for it, sometimes from all the way from Bakersfield to Red Bluff. Perhaps you've read about the many car pile ups on the local roads and freeways. It was in this type of habitat that the Tule Elk love to live out their lives. Now the artists pictures of a Valley way of life long gone. Picture by Goldtrout Artwork by Laura Cunninghamd 2010 Artwork by Laura Cunningham This scene has both Tule Elk and Pronghorn Antelope grazing together. Pronghorn's are now extinct in most places of California, but there have been some reintroduction projects. Wow, all of this has got me nostalgic for something else that use to ring through my memory when I use to travel the Valley. Can you guess what this is ? You probably don't remember there was an original early version of the theme song ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3HcxYcbog Here's the theme song for all the parallel universe people: (kidding of course) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FZXFVEx4SI Further Reading on California's Tule Elk and Pronghorn Antelope programs: http://www.stateparks.com/tule_elk_reserve_state_park_in_california.html http://www.a-state-of-change.com/Elk.html http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/01/california-volunteers-pitch-in-to-help-pronghorn-antelope-by-removing-fences.html USGS: "Tracking Pronghorn Antelope in California’s Central Valley" Further Reading on Valley Oak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_lobata http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/public_works/ITP_protectedTree_ValleyOak.aspx California's influence on climate, habitat restoration, Lake effect rainfall, Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Science and ecology San Joaquin Valley, California, USA David CristianiFebruary 12, 2013 at 8:37 AMI had no idea about that elk, though I did know about the former vegetation. The valley of central NM is completely gone, with many restoration efforts based on what the "experts" see around Taos, not here! Though a friend works at one, and it is getting more species in it that were once known in the valley.Valley Oak - 15-20 years ago, I was taken around Abq by an oak person, and there were a number of them planted in town. They really do well here...they look like taller Q. gambelii.ReplyDeleteRepliesTimelessFebruary 13, 2013 at 3:16 PMYes they do have a similar leaf shape about them, though they don't have multiple trunks like Gambel Oaks. The California irrigation and evaporation was what blew me away. I always suspected large areas of water could have such a climate effect, but not as far away as the Four Corners, which I suspect would also include your area. DeleteReplyRobyn WaayersMarch 27, 2013 at 11:43 AMIt's still a rich place in certain spots -- I wish I could get up there a little more often, especially in the spring and summer. The Fresno foothills are amazingly beautiful...ReplyDeleteAdd commentLoad more... Paraprosdokian: Don't you just love Satire When Em... Fart Hinder - What to do with Beans! Soylent Corporation Buys Out it's Competitor Holco...

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What Is a Natal Plum? Natal plums are native to South Africa. Melanie Smeltzer Edited By: Daniel Lindley The natal plum is a species known as macrocarpa that belongs to the Carissa genus and Apocynaceae family. This plant, which is native to South Africa, is an evergreen, thorny shrub that bears delicate pink or white flowers and fleshy red fruits. Although the fruit itself is edible, the rest of the plant is considered poisonous if consumed. Additionally, the twigs contain a milky sap that may irritate the skin on contact. Easy to grow, the natal plum is considered a relatively strong plant that typically begins to germinate two to four weeks after seeds are sewn. Natal plums grown in the wild can reach heights of 20 feet (6.1 m), but cultivated plants are generally smaller, usually growing between 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 m) in height. Their deep green leaves are glossy, leathery, and oval-shaped. The flowers, which are especially fragrant at night, are small, waxy, and star-like in shape. Two of the most characteristic features of the natal plum are its fruits and thorns. The thorns can reach lengths of 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5.1 cm) and can develop along the branches or at the ends of the twigs. Plum-like in appearance, the fruits are actually large berries that can reach roughly 2 inches (5.1 cm) in length. These berries are a deep red in hue and bear a distinctive flavor, similar to cranberries. In many areas, the natal plum will bloom nearly the entire year; however, the fruits will not usually appear until the plant is about two years old. Considered a traditional food plant in its native South Africa, the natal plum is an important commercial plant. In parts of southern Natal, the fruits of these plants are sold in large quantities from January to February. Despite this, the natal plum is not typically grown as an orchard crop, but is instead gathered from hedgerows and ornamentals scattered across South Africa. Widely thought to be a relatively strong plant, the natal plum can be grown in a variety of conditions. Despite this, it grows best in bright sunlight, in moderate warmth, and with plenty of humidity. These plants also prefer well-drained, sandy soil and close pruning. Although it can withstand a good deal of abuse, this plant does have a few weaknesses. For instance, it cannot tolerate extreme cold or frost, and is prone to fungal and spider mite infestations. Ad What Is a Wild Plum? What is Carissa? What are the Best Shrubs and Trees for Privacy? Who are the Zulu? What Should I Know About South Africa? What is a Toponym? serenesurface @discographer-- I think they would grow in warm areas like Florida, Texas and California. I'm in the Midwest and I've never seen them here. I had seen them in India. I think this fruit is also common in Southeast Asia. The climate there is also very suitable for natal plum. What I find most interesting about this fruit is that despite being called a plum, it's actually not a plum at all. The fruit just resembles plums. discographer What other countries do natal plums grow in? Is it possible to grow them here in the States at all? Would they grow in Florida? I can get a hold of natal plum seeds but I'm not sure if they will grow here. stoneMason I was in South Africa last summer and saw this plant quite a few times. I fell in love with the delicate white flowers. They reminded me of larger jasmine flowers, very beautiful. And they also make a great contrast with natal plums which are a very bright color. I did try one fresh but it was very sour. I agree with the article that it's similar to the taste of cranberries. I think it's a fairly popular fruit though. I didn't have the opportunity to taste natal plum jelly or jam but I'm sure it's delicious. Post your comments

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Home Our work Rural Upliftment Teaching the means to secure the necessities of life Agriculture is the main occupation of India’s rural population. However, given marginal land holdings of tribal cultivators, along with the adoption of primitive methods of cultivation, lack of assured water for irrigation, etc., productivity is low. Consequently, livelihood options have diminished proportionately in the rural areas, leading to poverty, lack of food security, and seasonal and permanent migration to towns and cities for better opportunities. The migration, in turn, has resulted in impoverishment, unplanned growth, and poor living and working conditions in the urban areas. The Tata Trusts has recognised migration as an opportunity for economic and societal development, rather than an obstacle. The livelihoods portfolio of the Trusts focuses on the inclusive growth of marginalised populations in both rural and urban areas. Besides, development of skills (for individuals) and building the capacity of Community Based Organisations is an important focus area. The overall scope of the portfolio covers food security, regaining agricultural dynamism, income generation, housing, food-based interventions, land rights, land law reforms, potable water and sanitation, etc. Weaving dreams The Nettle Fibre Project in Chamoli Garhwal help women make a living from processing, spinning and weaving nettle fibre Programmes Central India Initiative Kharash Vistarotthan Yojana Reviving the Green Revolution Himmothan Pariyojana Sakh Se Vikas Sukhi Baliraja Initiative South Odisha Initiative The North East Initiative Eastern Uttar Pradesh initiative System of Rice Intensification Central India InitiativeThe Central India Initiative is one of the flagship initiatives of the Tata Trusts, focusing its work in the central Indian tribal belts of the country. It strives to bring households irreversibly out of poverty with increased life choices.Explore Kharash Vistarotthan YojanaGujarat, a state on the west coast of India, has been grappling with an environmental problem for over 30 years. Indiscriminate ground water extraction has led to the ingress of sea water into arable land, in many places reaching 10-15km inland.Explore Reviving the Green RevolutionPunjab was the leading state in North India to harness the benefits of the Green Revolution. But with time, technologies such as high-yielding seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and farm mechanisation lead to exploitation of natural resources - particularly ground water, deterioration in soil fertility, and environmental pollution. Explore Himmothan PariyojanaThe Central Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand have seen severe environmental degradation over the last century. Almost two-thirds of the state is designated as forest area; in reality, it is limited to about 46%.Explore Sakh Se VikasDespite being the largest state in India, Rajasthan lags behind other states on many development indicators. Its hostile climatic conditions, arid terrains, weak infrastructural facilities and frequent droughts have impeded efforts for development. Explore Sukhi Baliraja InitiativeThe high cost of agricultural production, low yields and indebtness have exacerbated the woes of farmers in the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra state, resulting in farmer distress.Explore South Odisha InitiativeAccording to a 2012 World Bank report, South Odisha is no better than sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to human development indicators. Infant and maternal mortality, female illiteracy, lack of access to education, sanitation, clean water, basic healthcare facilities, etc., are some of the factors that contribute to low quality of life in South Odisha. Explore The North East InitiativeThe economy of the northeastern states is mainly based on subsistence agriculture and a system of shifting cultivation called jhum. Rampant and unchecked practice of jhum has put pressure on the fragile ecosystem and resulted in food scarcity; coupled with other problems, this has affected the quality of life in the region. Explore Eastern Uttar Pradesh initiativeUnderdevelopment, poor infrastructure and limited natural resources place Eastern Uttar Pradesh low on the development index. The predominantly rural population depends on agriculture for subsistence, but erratic irrigation due to alternating floods and droughts, and exploitative market systems make agriculture a low-profitable venture. Oppressive social systems add to the factors that have stymied development in the region.Explore System of Rice IntensificationThe System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was developed in Madagascar in the 1980s and has since been tried out successfully in many countries across the world. SRI involves transplanting young single seedlings wide apart instead of the conventional method of transplanting multiple mature seedlings close together.Explore Tags:LivelihoodsTata Trusts Talk to us Support office

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Edible fall mushrooms still around D.S. Pledger Sunday, October 20, 2013 “Do you want mushrooms in your omelet?” I asked my wife. “We don't have any”, she replied. “I didn't know you were planning to make an omelet so I didn't pick up any at the store.” “Not to worry—nature has provided some for us.” When I looked out the kitchen window that morning, I had spotted a nice batch of shaggy manes that had sprung up next to the bird bath in the backyard and had inspired the omelet idea. I went out with a knife and snipped a bunch off, then browned them up in butter with some chopped onions and sausage before adding the eggs. The manes weren't quite up to morels, but were certainly good eating. Shaggy manes are distinctive—there are only a couple of other species that resemble them, but to be sure of what you have, check out a good book or mushroom identification website such as americanmushrooms.com/edibles5.htm before eating. It's important to harvest these mushrooms early, too, before their tightly-packed heads begin to open. As they mature, the bottom fringes will open and start to turn dark. The fungus soon degenerates into black goo, living up to the name of its genus, “inky-cap.” Another good fall mushroom that has ended up in our frying pan on occasion is the giant puffball. It's undoubtedly the safest mushroom in the woods, since there's nothing that resembles it. The puffball is an orb that looks like someone left a white basketball laying on the ground. By the time it's this big, though, the center (called the “gleba”) has probably began to turn from a snow white to a yellowish color, indicating it is over-ripe. I like to pick them when they're about the size of a softball. Puffballs don't have a strong taste of their own, but like tofu take on the flavor of their surroundings. Some people like to simply brown them in butter, but I've always found that they soak it up so quickly and thoroughly that they end up tasting like, well, butter. A third fall mushroom that's a safe bet is the hen of the woods, which is a frilly mass that slightly resembles a tan to dark-brown chicken laying on an old oak stump. They're known for their great flavor and good texture. Unlike smaller individual mushrooms that take a hat-full to make a pound, a single hen can easily weigh several pounds. Fortunately, it lends itself well to freezing, so it can be stored and used throughout the winter. Like the shaggy mane and puffball, however, the hen should be picked when it is young, since it toughens with age and becomes inedible. It's the last mushroom of the year, hanging around until late October, and presents the final opportunity for the mushroom hunter until the morels pop up again in the spring. There are a host of other fall mushrooms, but none as distinctive as those previously mentioned. One October I met a mushroom hunter while camping at the Meadow Valley Wildlife Area north of Necedah. He was picking “banana-buttons,” ordinary-looking mushrooms that resemble a number of other species dotting the forest floor. “Gotta be careful” he advised. “There's another one around here that looks a lot like the button, but it's pretty toxic.” “How toxic is pretty toxic?'” I asked. “Let's just say that if you eat one by mistake, you probably won't make it back to camp alive.” He may have been overstating things, but there are a few fungi that are that deadly (bearing macabre names such as “death cap,” “destroying angel” and “deadly webcap”). The majority of mushrooms you find are edible—but not necessarily palatable. Still, no one in their right mind is going to attempt to eat a species unless he or she is 100 percent sure of what the mushrooms are. D.S. Pledger is an outdoors columnist for The Gazette. Email him at [email protected]

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CHS pact signals change for Minn-Dak Growers By Mikkel Pates on Feb 25, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. GRAND FORKS, N.D. — One of the region’s signature specialty crops marketing and export companies is making a marketing shift that its longtime leader hopes will lead to a change in ownership and management. Harris Peterson, president, owner and general manager of Minn-Dak Growers Ltd., confirmed to Agweek that CHS Inc. will handle the company’s contracts with farmers. He hopes it will be a “first step” in a change in ownership and management. All of the production acres that would have contracted through the Minn-Dak Growers now will be through CHS. “I’m 88 years old and I’m ready to quit,” Peterson says.Peterson says it’ll take awhile to get integrated with the CHS way of doing things.Peterson, known throughout the industry for his workaholic schedule and longevity, started the company in 1967, but has been in the business for 65 years.Minn-Dak Growers is a worldwide supplier of mustard, buckwheat and safflower for food ingredients. It was a cooperative for 26 years and was then linked with Harvest States Cooperative, predecessor to CHS (formerly Cenex Harvest States). The company includes a processing plant in Grand Forks, N.D., as well as facilities in Drayton, N.D., and Dickinson, N.D., and a revamped facility in Donaldson, Minn.“Our Minn-Dak growers stand to benefit greatly from an agronomic, sales, marketing and research standpoint,” Peterson says.Peterson acknowledges that he’s been interested in selling his company for the past five years and has had serious discussions with four other companies. He says the uncertainty has meant he’s cut back his staff, including marketing, because he didn’t want to hire people who would be redundant in a merger or acquisition. “It’s been slowing down in the past couple of years,” Peterson says.For efficiencyCHS Sunflower president Robert Deraas, based in Grandin, N.D., was quoted in a press release from CHS on Feb. 19, describing the agreement. Deraas called the agreement an “efficient way to bring enhanced services and market opportunities to area growers. It’s one more way we demonstrate our commitment to helping our owners grow their businesses.”Lisa Graham-Peterson, a spokesperson for CHS, says the company wouldn’t be “speculating beyond the marketing agreement,” about potential acquisitions.“They have many elevators in the western part of the state so that’s going to help us,” Peterson says of CHS. “Now farmers won’t have to haul them so far. Even though we pay them a freight subsidy, it doesn’t compensate for having to go 50 miles and deliver at harvest-time.”Peterson notes the agreement gives Minn-Dak growers access to the agronomic field expertise and contracted services from CHS, along with expanded marketing support. Explore related topics:NewsagricultureBusinessAdvertisement

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Oregon winery goes way beyond organic Sokol Blosser boasts a LEED-certified underground wine cellar and some of the greenest pest control around -- bluebirds. Marsha Walton January 6, 2010, 8:17 a.m. SUN-POWERED: A 25-kilowatt solar system provides a third of the winery’s power. (Photos: Marsha Walton) From solar energy to soy ink to salmon protection, the Sokol Blosser Winery in Dayton, Ore., incorporates sustainability into many aspects of its farming, production and packaging. Some of the earth-friendly measures are evident driving across the 100-acre vineyard. Solar panels amidst the vines provide a third of the facility’s power. Bluebirds are valued residents that keep the insect population in check. This year the Prescott Western Bluebird Recovery Project banded 50 bluebird chicks in the winery’s 15 birdhouses. The winery was certified organic in 2005 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the estate has been certified by Salmon-Safe as a vineyard that protects and restores salmon habitat Many things have changed since the winery’s beginnings in 1971. Back then, no one knew what kind of grapes would do well in Oregon. It turns out pinot noir and pinot gris are the standouts. Founder Susan Sokol Blosser remembers when everyone in the Oregon wine business could fit in her living room. Now the state boasts a billion dollar wine industry with more than 400 wineries. She says pursuing environmentally friendly practices in all phases of the business is a constant effort. Her “aha” moment came in 1999 when she discovered The Natural Step, a global, not-for-profit organization that works with companies and municipalities to reduce ecological impacts. “The thing I like about Natural Step is that it is a science-based, holistic framework for looking at sustainability,” Sokol Blosser says. She realized that farming organically would be only one part of a commitment to sustainability. She had to consider the bigger picture, from how her employees got to work to what kind of paper was used on wine labels. “One of my pet peeves is that people take one aspect of sustainability — solar panels, biodiesel, organic farming. Those are all pieces of it, not the whole,” she says. That got her thinking about other things. “Because wine is part of meal, I started thinking about the food industry, which led me to look at fish and seafood and the plight of the oceans. We have over-harvested so many of the fish. All these things I had never thought about. The more I understood the whole of sustainability, the more pieces I knew we needed to work on a broader scale,” she says. Farming organically is both a commitment and an attitude. “There’s just a difference in mindset between organic pest control and traditional farming,” says Kitri McGuire, marketing communications manager. “Their bug killers have names like ‘Renegade’ and ‘Spider Killer 5000.’ We use things like ‘Serenade’ and ‘Sonata’,” she says, laughing. Their underground barrel cellar became the first winery in the country to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver certification. The building is covered with three feet of dirt, and native wildflowers grow on top. It is kept at a constant 59 degrees. There’s no air conditioning and only emergency heaters. Because it’s believed that the best-tasting pinot noir ages in French oak barrels, which cost $900 to $1,200 apiece, either the barrels or the wood to create them has to be imported. With that hefty carbon footprint, Sokol Blosser tries to make sure those containers last a long time. After their life at the winery, the barrels are sold for about $30. They have enjoyed second lives as flower planters, doghouses, beehives, rain water collection systems and for whiskey distilling. "Our bottles are 30 percent lighter — that cuts way down on transportation costs," McGuire says. Small paper labels on each bottle are made from 100 percent post-consumer waste, and printed with soy ink. Natural cork is still used as a closure, even though it causes spoilage in a small number of bottles. “We don’t want plastic; that’s made out of petroleum products. They just don’t mesh with what we do,” McGuire says. Neither do metal screwtops, a closure being used by some other wineries to replace cork. Sokol Blosser says her customers appreciate transparency about what’s green and what’s not. Sometimes, she says, costs are simply prohibitive. “It has to make sense, it has to make business sense, it has to be something we can live with. There are also lots of things we have done that don’t show, that we just feel good about,” she says. Being green in the wine business is different from most other businesses. Customers may be drawn to a winery for being sustainable, but they’re not going to come back if they don’t like the wine. “We don’t want to be ‘the green winery.’ We want to be known for making fabulous wine. And for being good to the Earth,” Sokol Blosser says. MNN homepage photo: BenGoode/iStockPhoto Farming & Agriculture, Organic & Sustainable Wine

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1809, Rockbridge County, VA 1884, Chicago, IL Cyrus McCormick was a passionate advertiser. "Trying to do business without advertising is like winking at a pretty girl through a pair of green goggles," he said. "You may know what you are doing, but no one else does." American Big Business A Virginia farmer invented a mechanical reaper, then harvested profits in the Midwest's exploding grain belt, innovating credit, service, and sales practices that became essential parts of American big business. Family Project In 1831, twenty-two-year-old Cyrus McCormick took over his father's project of designing a mechanical reaper. Working on his family's Virginia farm, McCormick implemented features of the machine that remain in use today: a divider, a reel, a straight reciprocating knife, a finger, a platform to catch the cut stalks, a main wheel and gearing, and a draft traction on the front. In 1834, in the face of competition from other inventors, McCormick took out a patent and soon after, began manufacturing the reaper himself. Midwestern Gamble The mechanical reaper was an important step in the mechanization of agriculture during the nineteenth century. Before the reaper, the amount of grain that could be cut by hand during the short harvest season limited both food supply and farm sizes. McCormick's reaper would win international acclaim at the first world's fair in London's Crystal Palace, in 1851. It would also free farm laborers to work in factories in the expanding industrial revolution. In the late 1840s, McCormick made a fateful business decision, moving to the young town of Chicago in America's western frontier and gambling that America's agricultural future was in the nation's prairie states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the territories that would become Nebraska, Kansas, and Minnesota. His venture would repay him with a fortune. "Work, Work, Work" McCormick single-mindedly devoted himself to work. In 1848 his factory made 500 reapers; in 1851 it produced a thousand; by 1857 it was turning out 23,000. Continuously introducing improvements, McCormick launched new models every year, as car dealers do today. He bought other agricultural patents and companies, expanding his empire to sell mowers, harvesters, and more. He offered money-back guarantees and credit to struggling farmers, saying, "It is better that I should wait for the money than that you should wait for the machine that you need." He established an extensive service organization, staffed with local agents who could befriend farmers, show them how to use the machines, and assess their credit-worthiness. McCormick died in 1884, hard-driving to the end; his final words were, "Work, work, work." His company would combine with others to become the International Harvester Company two decades after his death.

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> Agriculture, Fishing, and Food Vertical Farming- Providing Alternative Resources for Food Production written by: ciel s cantoria•edited by: Niki Fears•updated: 10/31/2010A closer look at vertical farming and how it can provide the solution to environmental problems. This greenhouse-based method of high-tech farming will provide alternative resources for food production, and will allow depleted agricultural lands to take a break from agricultural use and misuse. The Need for Alternative Resources for Food Production It is estimated that world population will increase to 8 billion people by 2025, and hopefully vertical farming will have full realization by then. Today, a hydrophonic vertical farm is fully operational at El Paso, Texas and its owners are proud of the fact that it's no longer a "pie-in-the-sky dream". At the rate that agricultural land used for food production is diminishing and the population increasing, it is expected that food scarcity will be the next biggest problem we have to contend with. Most of our planet's natural resources have eroded due to intensive farming, while other land areas have been devoted to industrial and suburban uses. GMOs, are not the alternative resources for food production, as means of feeding the increasing population. Vertical farming works In the U.S. alone, studies show that population increases by as much as 5,000 per day while the land correspondingly decreases by 15,000 acres.Based on agricultural reports, about 24 billion tons of topsoil are lost yearly due to farming methods that make use of harmful pesticides. Liberal irrigation on the other hand has caused the depletion of natural resources of ground water that supplies fresh water to wells and springs. Too much water is being drawn off the ground causing the water table to go down at an uncomfortable level. Other sources of water cannot be relied upon because it has been contaminated by agricultural run-offs that contain pesticides. Hence, the concept of indoor farming being used by some small scale industries for the past 15 years, is now gaining technological attention. The concept, modified by dedicating high-rise buildings in urban environments for food production purposes, is called vertical farming. What is Vertical Farming? Vertical farming is a greenhouse-based method of agriculture, where commercially viable crops would be cultivated and grown inside multi-storey buildings that will mimic the ecological system. Safe and efficient methods of recycling organic wastes as well as the recycling of water wastes from sewage systems will be implemented. This method of indoor farming will include the production of freshwater fishes, crustaceans, and mollusks, like tilapia, striped bass, trout, shrimps, crayfish and mussels. The success of vertical farming as the answer to the imminent problem of food shortage is also foreseen as a means of rehabilitating vast agricultural lands that were systematically eroded by aggressive commercial farming for the past 20 to 30 years. The aim of this concept is to follow the patterns of past civilizations and inhabitants; land was abandoned when it was no longer ecologically useful. Thus, the abandoned area will be left untouched to naturally rehabilitate and experience re-growth. Vertical farming will provide an alternative agricultural venue, allowing land that has been depleted to take a break and repair itself with natural growths. There are several underlying concepts that support the viability of vertical farming: The rainforests of Central America also experienced deforestation during the pre-Colombian era when an estimated 50 million people, including the Mayans, occupied this region. It was only in the 1950's that these rainforests completed full re-growth and it became impossible for archaeologists to look for more evidences of its ancient civilization. Another example was the grassland prairie of the Great Plains of the United States. Early immigrants used them for farming until the next 20 to 30 years brought drought and soil erosion. The devastating condition resulted to the abandonment of the land by the years 1932-1938. Most of the settlers headed further west to look for more sustainable land which they found in California. After 15 years, wildlife began to come back, while grasslands were rebuilt and other native plants reclaimed the region. However after World War II, farmers came back to plant wheat with the use of irrigational systems. Due to the rising costs of fuel needed to pump and raise water from its depths, farmers are again expected to abandon these lands. In the same pattern as before, the tall prairie grasslands are likely to dominate the land once more. There are other similar patterns that were observed in ecological studies conducted by the scientific community. These presented possible processes of recovery for different U.S. sites that include not only grasslands but also alpine forests, semi-arid deserts, wetlands, coastal savannas, estuaries, rivers and lakes. All have shown proof of their natural ability to return to their original state if given the chance to re-establish their natural ecological conditions. Henceforth, the concept of vertical farming will provide the alternative ecosystem for most of the world's traditional food requirements, in order to give room for most of the agricultural lands to rehabilitate itself. slide 2 of 3 There are more advantages than disadvantages that can be said about vertical farming. However, for some people this proposed urban farming method and its disadvantages may be few but they have more bearing than the advantages. Find out why. How Will Vertical Farming Work? According to scientific calculations, a single vertical farm that will occupy about one square block of a city and elevated up to 30 stories can provide enough food to supply the needs of about 10,000 people. Constructing these vertical farm units will develop a closed in system where waste products, air, water and minerals, needed by plants and vegetables to thrive, will be recycled within the building. It aims to generate energy, maintain a pesticide-free farming technology, effective waste management as a means of sustaining food production all within one vertical farm building. Channeling the city's wastes into its system which will undergo bioremediation process makes it a feasible integration to the farming technology. There is still a long way to go in constructing these vertical farms, since the aim is to generate greater yields for every square foot that the system uses. Therefore, it requires intensive researches in various fields, like industrial microbiology, hydrobiology, engineering, physics, plant and animal genetics, waste management, public health and urban planning, to name only a few. The researches have to support the concept of addressing food production in a modern city, where urban wastes, like black water will be composted, recycled and used for farming inside a standard tenement-like building. This will be expected to improve the living conditions since transportation costs in handling food supply and wastes will be greatly reduced. Hydrophonic methods which denote raising plants using water instead of soil will come into focus. This is a system already in use by some small industries. Hydrophonics was developed by a German scientist out of concern for the depleting effects of commercial agriculture over the land used. The city's sewage sludge will enter a machine called “SlurryCarb", to break down the sludge into carbon and water. The remaining slurry will be burned like coal to power steam turbines that will generate electricity. Part of the sludge will be treated with chemicals to kill the bacteria and will undergo heating and drying process that will convert the treated sludge into topsoil. Water extracted will undergo bio-remediation processes using cattails, sawgrass and zebra mussels, until it becomes clean enough for agricultural use. It can also be subjected for further refinement until safe enough to be used as drinking water. Vertical Farming Advantages and Disadvantages Aside from the main objective of giving the damaged agricultural resources the chance to rehabilitate and re-develop biodiversity, vertical farming as a self-sustaining method of food production will also bring the following possible benefits: 1. Crops will be protected from harsh weather conditions and disturbances like typhoons, hurricanes, floods, droughts, snow and the likes. Food production as well as food transport will not be affected. 2. Crops will be consumed immediately upon harvest since there is no need to transport them to far-off places. Spoilage will also be lessened. 3. The use of chemicals as pesticides will be eliminated; hence, even vector borne diseases can be prevented. 4. Waste reduction, especially those coming from fast foods and restaurants will be composted in every vertical farm building; this will also result to less garbage for rats and cockroaches to thrive on. 5. Reduction in vehicular transport is also foreseen; there will be less demand for delivery trucks, garbage trucks and other utilities. 6. Overall wellness because city wastes will be channeled directly into the farm building's recycling system, hence, less bacteria can find its way in the environment and the atmosphere. 7. Abandoned or unused properties will be used productively. It cannot be helped that there will be skeptics who will not be easily convinced about the benefits of vertical farming. In fact, the advantage of providing additional employment cannot be cited as such, since the system will require much automation. On top of that, other occupations like farming, delivery drivers, garbage collectors and even garbage scavengers will be placed at a disadvantage. Other possible disadvantages are: 1. The initial phase will be cost intensive, and certain flaws integrated in the system that may appear during its initial run can still dampen efforts for its full maximization. 2. There will be fewer variety of foods to choose from because not all plants and vegetables are suitable in a controlled and limited environment. 3. The public will find it hard to reconcile with the idea of using black water for food production. The whole idea may seem too ambitious and there are mixed reactions about the concept of vertical farming and the recycling of black water. The current state not only of our environment, but also of the world population's general health conditions leave us with no other choice but to try anything that offers even just a glimmer of hope. Vertical farming offers more than a glimmer, because its premises are all based from lessons of the past. ◄●●●►

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Leaders say it’s deadline week for farm bill House and Senate ag committee leaders say they'll need to have a new farm bill ready byDec. 3 if it's to be passed and signed by the president by the end of the year. By JERRY HAGSTROMFor the Capital Press Published on November 20, 2013 9:31AM WASHINGTON — Congressional farm leaders are trying to come up with a draft farm bill compromise between the House and the Senate by Nov. 22 just as lower prices for corn and other commodities are intensifying the need for an updated farm safety net.“This is the deadline week” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., told the Capital Press on Nov. 19, the same day Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she hopes a “framework” can be released “by the end of the week or very shortly thereafter.”If Congress does not finish a new farm bill by Dec. 3, the country will face higher dairy prices in 2014, just as it did last year when Congress included a one-year extension of the farm bill in what became known as the “fiscal cliff” legislation. The House-Senate conference committee needs to finalize the bill quickly so that each chamber can consider the conference report in December and, if passed, it could go to President Barack Obama for his signature.Both Lucas and Stabenow were cautious about their prospects.“We’re in the middle of everything,” Stabenow said. “One thing depends on another. It’s a big Rubik’s Cube.”Lucas noted that the conferees do not have “a common number” on cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps. Lucas noted that the Senate-passed bill cuts only $4 billion and that the House bill would cut $39 billion. “We’ve got to have real progress,” said Lucas, but in a possible sign of movement Lucas had a 20 minute discussion with Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Conn., a strong anti-hunger advocate, on the House floor on Nov. 19 during a vote on an unrelated matter.Lucas also said that the conferees “have had some pretty thorough discussions of all parts of the farm bill.”The only subject that conferees have not discussed, Lucas said, is the proposal to make changes to country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for red meat. Lucas said he believes that discussion will be left for a public meeting of conferees.Lucas and Stabenow talked to the press only a few days after the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is proposing to lower the volumetric requirements for biofuels in 2014 under the Renewable Fuel Standard. That decision plus a big crop caused corn prices to drop, but Lucas said the bright side of that situation is that it might cause farm groups to compromise on the commodity title of the bill.The core of the Senate farm bill commodity title is a program favored by corn and soybean growers that would pay for what they call “shallow losses” not covered by crop insurance while the House bill’s core is a target price-based program favored by rice and peanut growers and advocates who believe that the value of the Senate bill will decline over time if prices are low because the base for the payments will decline along with market prices.The differences in approach would also affect which region of the country gets most of those payments.Also controversial is whether payments would be made on farmers’ historic base acreage or current planted acreage. Advocates of free trade say that using planted acreage could bring charges in the World Trade Organization that the United States is encouraging production of specific commodities. But other farm leaders say that making payments on historic base acreage is indefensible to the American public.The American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the U.S. Canola Association on Nov. 19 proposed a compromise using the average of planted acres during the five years previous to the current year as the payment base for both the revenue and the price programs.“The average would move forward, adding and dropping a year every year, in order to remain as current as possible without including the current year, which would serve as a deterrent to building base,” the groups wrote.The possibility that lower prices may lead to higher subsidies has also increased farmer resistance to the farm subsidy payment limit provisions that are in both the House and Senate bills.Both versions of the farm bill would allow a single person up to $75,000 in marketing-loan gains and up to $50,000 in payments through whatever commodity programs are in the bill. The payment cap for a married couple would be double. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, an advocate of payment limitations, said that the battle is likely to be fought over the definition of who is “actively engaged” in farming and eligible for subsidies. If fewer people are eligible for subsidies, then a farm operation would get less in subsidies.Southern farmers, particularly rice growers with large operations, are fighting the hardest to avoid the tougher limits.The new bill also contains changes to conservation programs and programs to benefit fruit and vegetable growers and farmers’ markets but the differences between the House and the Senate on most of those issues is not as big as in the commodity programs.

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RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen The New Food Sovereignty Prize Emerges Back in July, at about the time that illegal GMO wheat was discovered in Oregon, destroying US wheat markets and jittering consumers, the World Food Prize committee announced their three winners. If anyone’s ever suspected that rich prizes like this consist of corporate flaks patting the backs of other corporate flaks, the announcement was confirmation. The winners, Drs. Marc Van Montagu, Mary-Dell Chilton and Robert T. Fraley, will be back slapped for “breakthrough achievements in founding, developing and applying modern agricultural biotechnology.” In the rather breathless announcement (revolutionary! Achievements! Discoveries! Innovation!), biotechnology was credited with “improved yields, resistance to insects and disease, and the ability to tolerate extreme variations in climate.” Putting aside criticisms of these claims, and there are plenty of challenges, we can remark that a close search of the document did NOT credit biotechnology with weeds that cannot be killed with ordinary doses of herbicide, crops that are being proven dangerous to mammal health and farmers that can’t pay their seed bills and sometimes resort to suicide. The corporates also rolled out their usual mantras that biotechnology will feed nine billion hungry mouths in an increasingly volatile world climate. Then they drove stakes through the hearts of the words “sustainability” and “food security,” reminding us that “a wide variety of useful genes have been transformed into a large number of economically important plants, including most of the food crops, scores of varieties of fruits and vegetables, and many tree species ...” This chilling information, flying in the face of many studies that prove food security is best achieved by producers in their own communities, working with familiar crops in their native ecosystems, has been repeated in ads and press releases until consumers begin to think it’s normal. “Oh, yes,” the loving mom is supposed to believe, “this apple won’t turn brown, so it will always be fresh.” For industry, a non-browning apple means indefinitely long, nutrition-sapping storage, but for Mom, generations from the farm, it’s supposed to make sense. But there are alternatives. There are farmers working in their own communities to save old foodways and familiar traditions. And, for them, an alternative to the World Food Prize has emerged. A few weeks after the World Food Prize was ballyhooed, a poorly-funded but honorable contender emerged, the Food Sovereignty Prize. For this prize, five groups were chosen from a field of 40. The nominees come from 21 nations, working at home to feed their own peoples. The prizes go to grassroots organizations in Haiti, Brazil, Basque Country, Mali and India. This is the fifth year for the awards. The Food Sovereignty Alliance gave top honors to the Haitian Group of 4 (G4) and the South American Dessalines Brigade. These groups of peasants are working to rebuild Haiti’s traditional food system, which has been dismantled mostly by the importation of cheap rice into the island nation. Rebuilding seed banks, soil and water systems, not to mention the farm culture itself, is a daunting task, but studies from several organizations including IAASTD, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, sponsored by the UN and the World Bank, agree that local peasant agriculture is the best way to feed people. The definition of food sovereignty, developed by IAASTD, is straightforward and reasonable: “the right of peoples and sovereign states to democratically determine their own agricultural and food policies.” One of the Honorable Mentions for the prize goes to Basque Country Peasants’ Solidarity in Europe’s contested Basque country. With 6,000 members, the group helps youngsters return to the farms and helps cities reclaim their right to local foods. Interestingly, the area has survived Europe’s financial crisis more easily than much of Europe proving that when people can raise their own food, they eat better for less money. Other winners are the National Coordination of Peasant Organizations in Mali and the Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective in India. Tamil Nadu is particularly interesting for its focus on women, the traditional farmers in indigenous groups. This collective works with the lowest casts, the most marginalized producers, emphasizing their right to land and opposing GMO seeds. They encourage cultivation of millet, a familiar, traditional grain that is drought-resistant and easy to grow in their ecosystem. The Alliance has arranged for representatives of all the winners to come to New York City on Oct. 15, and awards will be presented at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. The ceremony will be hosted by WhyHunger and feature Shirley Sherrod, a former USDA regional director and advocate for family farmers. After the ceremony, winners will tour farmland in Iowa and visit Detroit, on a tour Oct. 16-21. Progressive Populist columnist Jim Hightower will be the speaker at events in Iowa on Oct. 16. And, if you are so inclined, you can follow the buildup on Twitter at #foodsovprize. Margot Ford McMillen farms and teaches English at a college in Fulton, Mo. She blogs at progressivepopulist.blogspot.com. Email: [email protected]. From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2013 Populist.com

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Farmer's Market Frost By Jillian Risberg | Posted: Wed 5:27 AM, May 15, 2013 | Updated: Wed 6:19 AM, May 15, 2013 It's been an especially cold couple of nights and this can really affect the crops we eat and the folks who grow them. "It hasn't been too bad, my greenhouse temperatures have stayed about 40, even whenever it's gotten cooler outside," says Andrea Duke, who has a small hobby farm in South Parkersburg. A plunging thermometer isn't common for mid-May, but local produce seems to be staying strong. "The cold weather and the frost hasn't really affected us very much 'cause our farm's right down on the river," says Kyle Cross, of Davis Farms in Washington, West Virginia. "The moisture down there and the warmth coming off the water keeps it from frosting really and hurting any of the plants." I'm here at the farmer's market, where a May cold spell could wreak havoc on the plants, but it looks like warm weather is right around the corner. "I'm definitely not as busy as I was on Friday. I think with the sun coming out right now that it might pick up here at lunchtime a little bit more," Duke says. Duke does her best to protect her greens. "I covered a small bed of strawberries that I had last night and when I checked everything this morning and went out to get stuff for market, I didn't have any frost where I am," she says. Despite the brutal cold snap, there's been no loss. "I haven't really noticed a big difference as far as the other people that are here and their produce," Cross says. "It seems like it really hasn't just been bad enough to do any damage." Maybe it will start feeling more like spring. "I don't have any concerns. I would say this is probably one of our last, one of our last frost warnings," Duke says. You can support our local growers who make farm to table a reality Tuesday and Friday.

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Victory Gardens vs. the bad seed 4 avril 2017 premieradmincsNon classé Expropriation 2 When I was a very young child growing up in Sudbury during the Second World War, my mother planted a « Victory Garden,’’ and I helped her tend it. It was on a small patch of land behind the two-bedroom flat where the four of us lived — my mother and me, my sister, who was still a baby, and my grandfather. I can’t remember how much food we grew, but I do remember how proud I was of the garden. When we’d sit down to supper, I’d ask my mother, « Are these ours?’’ pointing to the carrots, or the potatoes, or to my favourite, the beets. And when she’d say they were, I always thought they tasted better. Everyone on our block had a garden, and on winter evenings, after the seed catalogue came out, neighbouring women would join my mother around the table to figure out what they’d order. Gardening was more than just growing vegetables; it was a social connector. When the Americans finally entered the war, two years after it began, they had « Victory Gardens’’ too. And with their penchant for figures, they calculated that in 1944, the gardens produced 44 per cent of the fresh vegetables grown in the United States. Now, however, the war has become a distant memory. In North America prosperity replaced peril, city dwellers grew time challenged, and urban vegetable gardens almost dropped from sight. But elsewhere they still flourish. In Singapore, for instance, 25 per cent of the city’s vegetables and 80 per cent of its poultry are supplied from within the city. In China, urban farming in and around 18 of its largest cities supplies them with 85 per cent of their vegetables. In Berlin, more than 80,000 gardeners farm on land where buildings, destroyed in the Second World War, have never been replaced. Meanwhile, here in Toronto, we’re gradually finding our way back to urban farming. It started when FoodShare Toronto was formed in 1985 as a publicly-funded organization, after it was realized that a growing number of people in Toronto were going hungry, and that food banks weren’t the answer. In the beginning, FoodShare’s job was to co-ordinate emergency food services, and to collect and distribute food. But by the time the nineties had arrived it was experimenting with self-help programs, such as cooperative buying systems, collective kitchens, and community gardens. Today, there are 28 community gardens in parks across Toronto. And Field to Table, a co-operative buying system and one of FoodShare’s creations, delivers 4,000 boxes of fresh produce a month in Toronto, at prices that are almost a third less than what supermarkets charge. Most of the produce is grown in, or close to, the city. That’s still a long way from the volume of food grown in « Victory Gardens.’’ But it’s enough to convince Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare, that urban farming can offer alternatives in a world where food is treated, too often, as just a commodity. Food is not like a bar of soap, she says. It’s much more intimately bound up with our health and our culture. And, as my mother discovered, with our relationships. Consequently, companies such as Monsanto Inc., the U.S. farm and food giant, deeply offend us when they treat it like a bar of soap that can be changed at will through genetic tinkering. That is theirs to own, once they fiddle with its DNA. Fortunately, there’s a lot of room for urban farming. « It’s not impossible to think that 25 per cent of the food for the Greater Toronto Area could be grown within the GTA,’’ says Sean Cosgrove, an urban planner with the Toronto Food Policy Council. And because urban farming is generally done on a small scale by many people, it has little need for the mass production techniques that Monsanto would have us believe is so necessary to commodity production. That, I hope, will ensure it expands as an alternative, as a new frontier, beyond the reach of acquisitive conglomerates. The ballad of a battered but happy ex-courier A truly cool hemp operation Breeding mite-proof honeybees Ontario’s anti-pollution angels Donevan Embracing the cosmos in Barrie Genotypes 2 Jolly gene giant turns terminatorNickel firm finds gold in sustainability

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Search Tech ag college works on cropping, livstock systems for area Published: Sunday, February 24, 2002 KIMBERLY WARMINSKIFOR THE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Texas Tech's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) is working to develop sustainable cropping and livestock systems for the Texas High Plains region. Vivien Allen, professor of forage and livestock systems at Tech, said this is a multidisciplinary project. CASNR is conducting research with Texas A&M, USDA-NRCS, USDA-ARS, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and individual producers and industries. The overall objective is to develop crop and livestock systems, which are environmentally sustainable and economically feasible. Allen said the research team came together because of its concern for the future of agriculture in this region. Agriculture depends on natural resources, such as water, which are very limited. The team decided they needed to look for alternatives to the monoculture systems of farming that will better conserve natural resources. "Cotton profitability currently is very questionable, and we have a lot of producers and industries centered around it," Allen said. "If current systems aren't profitable year after year, the producer has to quit or try something else." Although the team is looking at sustainable crops and livestock suitable for this region, it hopes its findings will improve agriculture worldwide. Allen said the need for sustainable agriculture is a global issue. She said water is becoming urgent in terms of quality and quantity around the world. "Our research is regionally focused with implications that could exist around the globe," Allen said. "The key to a cropping and livestock system is to discover the principles of how things work and how they can be used in different areas." Funding from the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Southern Region Program allowed the team to begin its project four years ago. However, the actual research started three years ago after a year of planning and developing the system. The research field is located at the Texas Tech Agricultural Field Laboratory near New Deal. The team is comparing a conventional cotton system with alternative integrated crop, forage and livestock systems. The two fields are placed beside each other in a statistically sound design for comparison. The conventional irrigated cotton system uses currently recommended practices. The alternative system is divided into three sections. The team rotates cotton with forages, wheat and rye, for grazing by steers. Half of the system is planted with "WW.B-Dalh" old world bluestem grass and functions as a permanent pasture. These two systems are replicated so that the team will have confidence in its findings. Allen said she is pleased with the success of the project. The data for the last three years indicate that the alternative system uses 21 percent less water than the conventional system. A second finding is that the alternative system requires 40 percent less nitrogen fertilizer. Allen said this is an important factor because fertilizer is very energy expensive to manufacture, and the fossil fuels used to generate current energy are a finite resource. "Anything we can do to save energy and conserve our natural resources will be better in the long run," Allen said. The profitability of the alternative system has exceeded that of the conventional cotton crop. Allen said the bluestem grass planted in the pasture contributes to the profitability. The seed is harvested in October and sold. She said this grass has an excellent economic product in its seed and requires less water than cotton. "We need to do more work with the grass to find out how we can optimize the seed yield and quality," Allen said. "Many grasses have the potential to create a forage and grass-seed industry in this area." Allen said that several producers in the area have contributed to the study. She said producers are essential partners because they help identify problems and test possible solutions on their fields. Rick Kellison, a Floyd County producer, has participated in the research by using a more sustainable system on his land. He planted his field with perennial warm-season grasses for livestock production. He said he used Allen as a primary source of information for management practices, and he has given her information about the successes of his system. "I believe that every county in the High Plains has marginal land that might lend itself to an alternative system that would provide a more sustainable approach," Kellison said. Allen said the team has every intention of continuing the existing project to develop a strong information base. "We must expand the project to the next step to continue to learn," Allen said. The team recently submitted a proposal to the USDA requesting funding for three additional systems. "We have learned some things that work and things that don't work," Allen said, "and now it's time to put these things into additional systems." Kimberly Warminski a senior Agricultural Communications major from White Deer. USDA TEXAS TECH'S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES FLOYD COUNTY TEXAS TECH'S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND TEXAS TECH'S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES ENERGY UNDERGROUND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT NO. 1 PROFESSOR OF FORAGE MONOCULTURE SYSTEMS TEXAS TECH AGRICULTURAL FIELD LABORATORY TEXAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION EXCELLENT ECONOMIC PRODUCT TEXAS A&M VIVIEN ALLEN PRODUCER TEXAS TECH AGRICULTURAL FIELD LABORATORY LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS KIMBERLY WARMINSKI POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ENVIRONMENT © 2017. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us

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A Review Of The Wild Relatives Of Some Favorite Food Plants Pensoft Publishers A new extensive study offers a complete revision and a new species from the vining Solanum species (the Dulcamaroid clade) The Solanaceae, also called the potato or nightshade family, includes a wide range of flowering plants, some of which are important agricultural crops. Tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, peppers and wolfberries are all representatives of the family present on many tables across the world. Solanum is the largest genus of the family, and with 1500 species, is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Solanum has 13 major evolutionary groups,or clades. This new study published in the open access journal Phytokeys offers a complete revision of all of the species of the Dulcamaroid clade, including the description of a new species endemic to the forests of Ecuador. The species-rich genus Solanum has remained remarkably underexplored until relatively recently, despite the economic importance of some of its members such as potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) . A project funded by the United States National Science Foundation's Planetary Biodiversity Inventory program begun in 2004 sought to redress this situation by attempting to accelerate species-level taxonomy and at the same time prove a robust genetic background to the research. This research is a part of this effort, providing a revision of all the species of an entire clade of Solanum. Extensive and detailed, this study follows historical and taxonomic changes within the Dulcamaroid clade to provide detailed and very importantly community shared summary. Publication in PhytoKeys means the data from the in-depth taxonomic work will be shared with a wide audience who can re-use the data for further work with these plants. "Work by participants of the 'PBI Solanum' project will result in a modern monographic treatment of the entire genus available on-line. This treatment is part of this collaborative effort."explains Dr. Sandra Knapp, the author of this extensive contribution. Members of the Dulcamaroid clade are all woody plants and vary in appearance from shrubs to vines. Some are large canopy lianas, while other vining species are woody only at the base. All representatives have beautiful clusters of flowers varying in color from deep purple, through fuchsia and pale pink, to pure white. Species in the group are native to both the New and Old Worlds - with the highest species diversity in Argentina and Peru. Among the species included in this revision is the common European woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, distributed all over the northern hemisphere and having a long history of medicinal use. The new species described in this revision, Solanum agnoston, discovered by Dr. Sandra Knapp, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, UK, comes from the inter Andean valleys of Southern Ecuador and is only known from two collections. Many of the other species of the group are similarly rare - of the 45 species 14 are threatened or endangered. Two of the most well-known decorative representatives of the group featured in the study are S. crispum, also known as Chilean potato vine or Chilean nightshade, and S. laxum, commonly called potato climber or jasmine nightshade. Both of these species are native to South America - S. crispum from Chile and S. laxum from southern Brazil and Argentina - but are today cultivated all over the world. Pensoft Publishers Advertising

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Welcome Guest. Login Videos & Posters View Video View Poster See Related: See Related: Judges’ Queries (12) Judges’ Queries and Presenter’s Replies Patricia Culligan May 20, 2013 | 01:54 p.m. Hello: Really interesting topic! You say in the poster that sulfur volatiles may be used to deter several insect vectors of citrus pathogens. Can you explain how these deterrent volatiles might be used or applied to an orchard in practice and if the volatiles themselves might have any harmful side-effects? Thank-you. Hyrum Gillespie The citrus pathogen Huanglongbing (HLB) is carried by the small fly-like insect, the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). The bacterial pathogen resides in the insect saliva of the ACP. Thus, when it feeds on healthy plant tissue, the bacteria can spread from plant to plant causing disease. HLB has been present in Asia for over 100 years and has now spread to many countries such as Africa and recently the U.S. There is no cure for this disease and wiping out entire orchards to stop its spread is costly to growers. Small citrus growers in Vietnam have known for a long time that planting guava next to citrus can repel the psyllid (Rouseff, et al., and Zaka, et al.). As such, scientists have worked to determine the volatile differences between the two plants and to determine the repelling agent. We now know that sulfur volatiles have this repelling effect. Consequently, inducing the emission of sulfur volatiles in plants that do not typically produce sulfur volatiles, by way of plant engineering, is one way this could be applied in practice. Other methods (which could potentially cause much less regulatory concern) would be the planting of border plants in the field (which naturally or via engineering produce sulfur volatiles) or by using these plants as rootstocks for young or older (inarching) commercial citrus varieties. In addition to HLB, there are many other citrus pathogens that potentially could be controlled in this same manner. Also, we have reason to believe that these same sulfur volatiles may have additional beneficial effects for the plant in combating disease. For example, they may be effective in combating fungal disease in tomato. Preliminary results show that sulfur volatiles can inhibit the fungus, Botrytis cinerea, grey mold which often ruins strawberries. Thus, sulfur volatiles may aid in improving shelf life of fruit post-harvest (unpublished). In regards to harmful side effects, thus far, growers in Vietnam see no negative effects in non-target insect populations. Moreover, the sulfur volatiles emitted by the plant exist in trace amounts and quickly diffuse through the air. Instead, it is believed that sulfur volatiles are potent enough to repel insect in close proximity to the leaf, but not further out. Thus we would not anticipate negative health effects. Sulfur volatiles could accumulate in enclosed spaces (ex. greenhouse), but as of yet, no negative health effects of growing sulfur volatile producing plants, such as guava, in enclosed spaces have been reported. However, the harmful side effects of any added volatile agent would need to be fully tested before being implemented commercially. —Elenor, Mitch, Hyrum 1. Rouseff, Russell L., et al. “Sulfur volatiles in guava (Psidium guajava L.) leaves: possible defense mechanism.” Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 56.19 (2008): 8905-8910. 2. Zaka, Syed Muhammad, et al. “Repellent effect of guava leaf volatiles on settlement of adults of citrus psylla, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, on citrus.” Insect Science 17.1 (2010): 39-45. Catherine Gehring I enjoyed your video and poster. It was apparent to me that the three projects you described are connected by a common goal of better control of bacterial pests in agriculture. However, they seemed to be otherwise somewhat distinct from one another. Can you describe ways that you can potentially integrate your approaches? Consider the case of Xylella fastidiosa. This bacterium causes disease in a wide range of hosts, including citrus (Citrus variegated chlorosis), grape (Pierce’s disease), almond (almond leaf scorch), and a variety of different crops. [1, 2]. After becoming infected with X. fastidiosa the spread of this disease is controlled using pesticides and the destruction of the plant/surrounding plants. One of the compounds X. fastidiosa uses to communicate has been identified as a fatty acid known as 2(Z)-tetradecenoic acid 3. This compound could potentially be applied via a spray by growers of grape or citrus. However, one way we could integrate two of our approaches for greater power in order to control this disease would be the hybrid of “Boosting the Plant’s Immune System” and “Jamming bacterial communication.” Plants could be engineered to produce either more of this communication molecule, or an alternative compound that competes with the native compound to bind with the communication receptor. Either way, the plant itself would be acting to misregulate the bacteria. This would save time and money for the growers of these plants—savings which would then be passed on to consumers. Further, this would minimize harmful side effects of heavy pesticide use in the environment, as excess spray would not be accumulating in our water reservoirs. Some plants have been shown to naturally have products with these capabilities 4, and the idea of engineering the plant to innately defend itself in this way is currently being used by Steven Lindow’s lab at UC Berkeley to fight Pierce’s Disease (5). It is recognized that the key to durable (long-lasting) pathogen resistance in the field is to “stack” or combine different traits in order to control or modify various aspects of plant-pathogen interactions. Ultimately, multi-tiered approaches will probably be most effective in combating destructive plant pathogens. To take our three projects as an example, it might be possible to engineer a plant to produce volatiles that deter herbivores or insect vectors of pathogens (Elenor). In order to further improve plant defense, we might be able to introduce additional traits into this plant, such as the ability to produce anti-quorum sensing compounds (Hyrum) only when the plant recognizes pathogen infection (Mitch). 1. Hill, B.L.,et al., Populations of Xylella fastidiosa in plants required for transmission by an efficient vector. Phytopathology, 1997. 87(12): p. 1197-1201. 2. Chatterjee, S., et al., Living in two worlds: The plant and insect lifestyles of Xylella fastidiosa. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 2008. 46: p. 243-271. 3. Beaulieu, E.D., et al., Characterization of a Diffusible Signaling Factor from Xylella fastidiosa. Mbio, 2013. 4(1). 4. Adonizio, A.L., et al., Anti-quorum sensing activity of medicinal plants in southern Florida. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2006. 105(3): p. 427-435. 5. Lindow, E. L., et al., Enhancing control of Pierce’s Disease by Augmenting Pathogen Signal Molecules, Symposium Proceedings, Pierce’s Disease Research Symposium, 2011. P. 144-153. May 23, 2013 | 09:13 a.m. Thank you, Hyrum. Liliana Lefticariu Hello: Interesting video, extremely entertaining and informative, good narration. However, I do have couple of questions: Are there any specific plants that would be benefited more or less by the 3 preventative steps mentioned? Do you know if there are any secondary effects that these molecules may do to the environment? In your opinion, could other communities of “good bacteria” be affected? Thank you. James Elmore Co-Presenter Hi Liliana, thanks for your interest. Most of my work has been done in tomato and the model plant Arabidopsis. However, due to the conserved nature of the plant immune system, it is highly probable that information gained in these systems will translate well into other important crops species. For example, a plant immune receptor (a protein called EFR which recognizes a bacterial molecule called EF-Tu) is only found in Arabidopsis and closely related species. EFR has been transferred to tomato and other plants through biotechnology and remarkably, it is fully functional in these distantly related species! It actually confers broad-spectrum disease resistance to multiple bacterial pathogens of these crops. Furthermore, because it is fully functional, it indicates that the downstream immune signaling components are conserved across a wide range of plant species. This finding also suggests that similar biotechnology approaches for enhancing disease resistance in crops is certainly feasible. Moreover, by engineering plants to be more resistant to pathogens, we can actually reduce the need for pesticide use and in turn, the harmful effects of heavy pesticide sprays on the environment. Here is a reference for further reading on this interesting topic: Lacombe, Séverine, et al. “Interfamily transfer of a plant pattern-recognition receptor confers broad-spectrum bacterial resistance.” Nature biotechnology 28.4 (2010): 365-369. Some plants, like citrus, already produce specific types of sulfur volatiles. However, these compounds do not deter the insect vectors that we are trying to control. Because the basic biochemical pathways for sulfur volatile production are present in citrus, it is certainly feasible that we can “tweak” these pathways by introducing an enzyme that produces the volatile of interest in these plants. Specifically, citrus naturally produces the sulfur volatile dimethyl sulfide, but the mono sulfides show no repellent effects. Thus, we are working to change the biochemistry to produce the sulfur volatile dimethyl disulfide (di-sulfide) that show repelling effects to the insect that causes disease in citrus (Zaka, et al. 2010) With regards to sulfur volatiles, we do not see any negative effects thus far. Growers in Vietnam have used guava plants that emit sulfur volatiles naturally as border plants to repel the insect carrying disease for many years. Thus far, we see no negative effects in regards to changing the food chain of insects. Moreover, the sulfur volatiles that plants emit are present at trace levels and quickly diffuse in the air. The idea is that sulfur volatiles are potent enough to repel insect in close proximity to the leaf, but not further out. In addition, not all insects are deterred by sulfur volatiles. For example guava and some broccoli varieties produce the volatiles we are interested in and this has not impacted their ability to be pollinated by beneficial insects. -Elenor & Hyrum Yes, in our opinion other bacterial communities could be effected by trying to misregulate the bacterial communication of pathogens. We are learning more and more that the microbiome of every living organism is effected in a number of ways by perturbations in the system. However, it has been found that many species of bacteria have very specific signaling compounds 1. The ideal compounds will effect specific pathogen but not nonpathogenic species and be biodegradable. 1.Newman, K.L., et al., Cell-cell signaling controls Xylella fastidiosa interactions with both insects and plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2004. 101(6): p. 1737-1742. J Yeakley Hi all. Nice video, with informative descriptions of the three projects. Each project seems novel and interesting, but also somewhat exploratory and open-ended. I’m wondering if one or more of you can stake out some expected results (i.e. alternative hypotheses) from your project(s)? Thanks, Alan Hi Alan, thanks for your question. You are right; my main project is “exploratory” in that I am using quantitative proteomics to identify and understand plant immune responses at the plasma membrane. I would like to emphasize that although my project would be considered more in the discovery phase of a plant biotechnology pipeline, it has already yielded some important outcomes. So far we have identified many proteins that are modulated during plant defense. I have used this information in conjunction with a reverse genetics approach to demonstrate that several of these proteins do indeed control plant immunity to pathogens (please see one example in Figure 4 of our poster). To extend this work, we are currently exploring the potential of using these genes to engineer crop plants like tomato to be more resistant to agricultural pathogens. As you alluded to, a key factor in plant biotechnology (or any biotech field) is to translate basic science discoveries into something that is beneficial to the public (e.g. farmers, consumers, etc.). I anticipate that my work will contribute to a framework for understanding an important aspect of biology (plant immunity to pathogens), but it also has direct applications to important agricultural problems (enhancing pathogen resistance). A large portion of the work with quorum sensing is also exploratory. We are developing a high-throughput screen to detect anti-quorum sensing compounds (compounds that jam the bacterial communication). However, interestingly, we can see that communication compounds are often very specific for bacterial species—meaning, even very closely related bacterial species many times do not share the same signaling compound (the changes are enough to cause only partial bioactivity). For example, a biomonitor strain of Xanthamonas campestris that brightly fluoresces upon the detection of its own communication compound shows greatly less fluorescence in the presence of Xylella fastidiosa’s communication compound (X. fastidiosa is so closely related that it was once considered Xanthamonas and the identified signaling molecules are very closely related biochemically) 1. As such, when our screen identifies a quorum sensing (communication) compound or a compound that inhibits this communication (anti-quorum sensing) with “small” bioactivity, we expect that this compound may have large effects in an alternative bacterial strain. Additionally, though most work has concentrated on carbon chains of different lengths, saturation, and side groups, it has recently been found that proteins can also serve as quorum sensing compounds 2. We expect to find that many microbe associated molecule patterns (MAMPs), which the plant innate immunity system has used to detect bacteria, are in actuality detecting the bacterial communication signals. 2.Han, S.W., et al., Small Protein-Mediated Quorum Sensing in a Gram-Negative Bacterium. Plos One, 2011. 6(12). Further posting is closed as the competition has ended. Presentation Discussion Marc Weinstein Clear, concise & compelling. Tony Reames Trainee May 23, 2013 | 12:26 a.m. I really enjoyed your video and illustrations, they definitely facilitated the ability to understand your project. Thank you very much. It was fun to put together, and has already taught us that it really pays to take the time to explain the basic premises behind what we are doing, as people in return become much more interested in our research. Neil Tabor IGERT Alumni May 23, 2013 | 05:35 p.m. Well done. The video clearly shows the importance of your work Geoffrey Harlow Trainee May 23, 2013 | 07:23 p.m. This was a simple and elegant explanation of your research problem, nice work! Patricia Mokhtarian Faculty May 23, 2013 | 08:07 p.m. Alyona Bobkova Coordinator May 23, 2013 | 10:38 p.m. Your video is amazing! I really enjoyed your presentation! Sukhwinder Kaur great job, well done and very clear to understand. David Cliche A very good and informative presentation. marilyn mcmillan Great and clear information regarding your very needed investigation into the world’s agriculture picture. You will undoubtedly help a lot of countries and people. http://www.igert.org/profiles/3970 Presenter’s IGERT Elenor Castillo Beating Back the Bugs! Innovative Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture Plants are constantly attacked by microbes looking for a meal. In fact, crop losses to pathogens can be a major factor to field productivity and have a big influence on the prices we pay at the grocery store. Many people do not realize that plants are not helpless in their fight against pathogenic organisms; plants can recognize and actively respond to pathogen threats. Plants use their immune system to sense attacking pests and mount a defense response. In fact, the plant immune system ensures that most plants are resistant to most pathogens. In order to understand plant defense responses, we are using large-scale proteomic profiling of plant tissue after activation of immune receptors. In addition, we are investigating ways to disrupt bacterial communication signals (quorum sensing) and modulate the behavior of insects that vector important plant pathogenic bacteria. By studying different aspects of plant-pathogen interactions we hope to gain a comprehensive understanding of pathogen virulence strategies and plant immune responses. Ultimately, these approaches should contribute to the development of novel methods of plant disease control in agriculture. Share Presentation Presented by IGERT.org. Funded by the National Science Foundation. Copyright 2017 TERC.

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The Golden Record…Young Floral Designer breaks RHS Chelsea Flower Show records. Today Floral Designer Joseph Massie has broken RHS Chelsea Flower Show records in winning his fifth consecutive gold medal in the RHS Chelsea Young Florist of the Year competition. Joseph Massie is the youngest designer to ever win five consecutive Chelsea gold medals at the world famous flower show. This latest Gold marks, not only, Massie’s fifth Chelsea award but also his tenth national win. Joseph’s fifth award winning appearance at the competition has coincided with the 100 year celebration of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Massie and the other competitors have created ‘An Eternal Ring’ to represent the 100 year history of the prestigious flower show. Joe’s design has been created using a contemporary, gold mirrored Perspex framework, which was chosen for its reflective qualities intended to reflect looking back upon the 100 year history of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The design featured exotic Vanda orchids, miniature oranges and a sensational selection of golden hued blooms. This was Joseph’s final chance to compete in the Young Florist of the Year category and he is delighted to be bowing out with another gold. Massie said of the win: “I am so unbelievably thankful and grateful for this fifth gold. It is more than I ever believed I would possibly achieve and I feel so humbled by everyone’s support.” Having dominated the competition world for five years, Massie is now focusing his attentions on the business world. Earlier this year Joseph founded Joseph Massie Creative, a unique design and life style brand with a focus on the innovative use of fresh flowers, plants and botanical materials. This followed a tenure in New York City as Artist in Residence with a world renowned Event Design Company. Joseph Massie Creative has already been commissioned to produce innovative and impressive designs for a range of campaigns and projects including Asda’s 2013 Valentine’s Day floral campaign. Having set the standards so high, Joseph has already experienced a golden era, the colour of his future is yet to be determined but looks set to be bright. About Joseph Massie: Joseph Massie (25) is one of the UK's most original, young floral designers. Joe began working with flowers as a career aged 13 and based in his hometown of Liverpool, Joe began competing in floristry competitions from 16 years old. He has won several prestigious awards, including four RHS Chelsea Gold Medals, and four Best in Shows consecutively since 2009. With 10 National Championship Gold’s under his belt and currently ranked 2nd in the European Youth Finals (Eurofleurs), and 3rd in the World Youth Finals (Worldskills), Joe has worked and trained in over 10 countries; competing, teaching and demonstrating his unique aesthetic in botanical art. Awards won by Massie: · RHS Chelsea Gold Medals and Best in Show x 4 (2009/2010/2011/2012) · BFA Young Florist of the Year (2007/2009) · 2nd Place - European Youth Finals (Eurofleurs 2010) · 3rd Place - WorldSkills Floristry Finals (2009) · Interflora Florist of the Future · WorldSkills UK Floristry Champion · Rosie Hughes Designer Award ******************************************************************************************* Congratulations, Joseph! Posted by wow...gorgeous ...it reminds me of the work of Francoise Weeks & her bouquets in wire nests that she has been doing for years :) Color Inspiration: Turquoise The Darkest Berries Succulent Saturday Trend Watch: Glitter & Sequins (inter)National Lonely Bouquet Day Pretty Pew Ends Behind The Scenes: Julia Rose Creates a Floral Gow... Mostly Green Wrist Corsages And the Winner… Floral Arches Pincushions (Leucospermum) Study With Françoise Weeks

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Related subjects: Plants Background InformationSOS believes education gives a better chance in life to children in the developing world too. SOS mothers each look after a a family of sponsored children. Oats redirects here. It may mean either the common cereal oat discussed here, or any cultivated or wild species of the genus Avena. Oat plants with inflorescences A. sativa Avena sativaL. (1753) The common oat plant (Avena sativa) is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other grains). While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed. Oats make up a large part of the diet of horses and are regularly fed to cattle as well. Oats are also used in some brands of dog and chicken feed. The wild ancestor of Avena sativa and the closely-related minor crop, A. byzantina, is the hexaploid wild oat A. sterilis. Genetic evidence shows that the ancestral forms of A. sterilis grow in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. Domesticated oats appear relatively late, and far from the Near East, in Bronze Age Europe. Oats, like rye, are usually considered a secondary crop, i.e. derived from a weed of the primary cereal domesticates wheat and barley. As these cereals spread westwards into cooler, wetter areas, this may have favoured the oat weed component, leading to its eventual domestication. Top Oats Producers in 2005 (million metric tons) World Total Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Oat output in 2005 Oats are grown throughout the temperate zones. They have a lower summer heat requirement and greater tolerance of rain than other cereals like wheat, rye or barley, so are particularly important in areas with cool, wet summers such as Northwest Europe, even being grown successfully in Iceland. Oats are an annual plant, and can be planted either in autumn (for late summer harvest) or in the spring (for early autumn harvest). Historical attitudes towards oats vary. Oat bread was first manufactured in England, where the first oat bread factory was established in 1899. In Scotland they were, and still are, held in high esteem, as a mainstay of the national diet. A traditional saying in England is that "oats are only fit to be fed to horses and Scotsmen", to which the Scottish riposte is "and England has the finest horses, and Scotland the finest men". Samuel Johnson notoriously defined oats in his Dictionary as "a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people". Given the centrality of oats in traditional Scottish cuisine, it is not surprising that in Scotland the word "corn", when otherwise unqualified, refers to oats, just as in England it refers to wheat and in North America and Australia, to maize. Oats grown in Scotland command a premium price throughout the United Kingdom as a result of these traditions. Closeup of oat flowers Oats have numerous uses in food; most commonly, they are rolled or crushed into oatmeal, or ground into fine oat flour. Oatmeal is chiefly eaten as porridge, but may also be used in a variety of baked goods, such as oatcakes, oatmeal cookies, and oat bread. Oats are also an ingredient in many cold cereals, in particular muesli and granola. Oats may also be consumed raw, and cookies with raw oats are becoming popular. Oats are also occasionally used in Britain for brewing beer. Oatmeal stout is one variety brewed using a percentage of oats for the wort. The more rarely used Oat Malt is produced by the Thomas Fawcett & Sons Maltings and was used in the Maclay Oat Malt Stout before Maclay ceased independent brewing operations. In Scotland a dish called Sowans was made by soaking the husks from oats for a week so that the fine, floury part of the meal remained as sediment to be strained off, boiled and eaten (Gauldie 1981). Oats are also commonly used as feed for horses, where it is dehulled and rolled. Cattle are also fed oats, either whole, or ground into a coarse flour using a roller mill, burr mill, or hammer mill. Oat straw is prized by cattle and horse producers as bedding, due to its soft, relatively dust-free, and absorbent nature. The straw can also be used for making corn dollies. Oat extract can also be used to soothe skin conditions, e.g. skin lotions. Oats are generally considered "healthy", or a health food, being touted commercially as nutritious. The discovery of the healthy cholesterol-lowering properties has led to wider appreciation of oats as human food. Oat grains in their husks Soluble fibre Oat bran is the outer casing of the oat. Its consumption is believed to lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol, and possibly to reduce the risk of heart disease. After reports found that oats can help lower cholesterol, an "oat bran craze" swept the U.S. in the late 1980s, peaking in 1989, when potato chips with added oat bran were marketed. The food fad was short-lived and faded by the early 1990s. The popularity of oatmeal and other oat products again increased after the January 1998 decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when it issued its final rule allowing a health claim to be made on the labels of foods containing soluble fiber from whole oats (oat bran, oat flour and rolled oats), noting that 3.00 grams of soluble fibre daily from these foods, in conjunction with a diet low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and fat may reduce the risk of heart disease. In order to qualify for the health claim, the whole oat-containing food must provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving. The soluble fibre in whole oats comprises a class of polysaccharides known as Beta-D-glucan. Beta-D-glucans, usually referred to as beta-glucans, comprise a class of non-digestible polysaccharides widely found in nature in sources such as grains, barley, yeast, bacteria, algae and mushrooms. In oats, barley and other cereal grains, they are located primarily in the endosperm cell wall. Oat beta-glucan is a soluble fibre. It is a viscous polysaccharide made up of units of the sugar D-glucose. Oat beta-glucan is comprised of mixed-linkage polysaccharides. This means that the bonds between the D-glucose or D-glucopyranosyl units are either beta-1, 3 linkages or beta-1, 4 linkages. This type of beta-glucan is also referred to as a mixed-linkage (1→3), (1→4)-beta-D-glucan. The (1→3)-linkages break up the uniform structure of the beta-D-glucan molecule and make it soluble and flexible. In comparison, the non-digestible polysaccharide cellulose is also a beta-glucan but is non-soluble. The reason that it is non-soluble is that cellulose consists only of (1→4)-beta-D-linkages. The percentages of beta-glucan in the various whole oat products are: oat bran, greater than 5.5% and up to 23.0%; rolled oats, about 4%; whole oat flour about 4%. Oats after corn (maize) have the highest lipid content of any cereal, e.g., greater than 10 percent for oats and as high as 17 percent for some maize cultivars compared to about 2–3 percent for wheat and most other cereals. The polar lipid content of oats (about 8–17% glycolipid and 10–20% phospholipid or a total of about 33% ) is greater than that of other cereals since much of the lipid fraction is contained within the endosperm. Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) 1,628 kJ (389 kcal) - Dietary fibre Pantothenic acid (B5) 1.3 mg (26%) Folate (vit. B9) 56 μg (14%) 5 mg (38%) 177 mg (50%) β-glucan (soluble fibre) 4 g Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.Source: USDA Nutrient Database Oat is the only cereal containing a globulin or legume-like protein, avenalin, as the major (80%) storage protein. Globulins are characterized by water solubility; because of this property, oats may be turned into milk but not into bread. The more typical cereal proteins such as gluten and zein are prolamines (prolamins). The minor protein of oat is a prolamine: avenin. Oat protein is nearly equivalent in quality to soy protein, which has been shown by the World Health Organization to be equal to meat, milk, and egg protein. The protein content of the hull-less oat kernel ( groat) ranges from 12–24%, the highest among cereals. Oats are sown in the spring or early summer, as soon as the soil can be worked. An early start is crucial to good yields as oats will go dormant during the summer heat. Oats are cold-tolerant and will be unaffected by late frosts or snow. Seeding rates Typically about 125 to 175 kg/hectare (between 2.75 and 3.25 bushels per acre) are sown, either broadcast, drilled, or planted using an airseeder. Lower rates are used when underseeding with a legume. Somewhat higher rates can be used on the best soils, or where there are problems with weeds. Excessive sowing rates will lead to problems with lodging and may reduce yields. Winter oats may be grown as an off-season groundcover and plowed under in the spring as a green fertilizer. Fertilizer requirements Oats remove substantial amounts of nitrogen from the soil. They also remove phosphorus in the form of P2O5 at the rate of 0.25 pound per bushel per acre (1 bushel = 38 pounds at 12% moisture); Phosphate is thus applied at a rate of 30 to 40 kg/ha, or 30 to 40 lb/ac. Oats remove potash (K2O) at a rate of 0.19 pound per bushel per acre, which causes it to use 15–30 kg/ha, or 13–27 lb/ac. Usually 50–100 kg/ha (45–90 pounds per acre) of nitrogen in the form of urea or anhydrous ammonia is sufficient, as oats uses about 1 pound per bushel per acre. A sufficient amount of nitrogen is particularly important for plant height and hence straw quality and yield. When the prior-year crop was a legume, or where ample manure is applied, nitrogen rates can be reduced somewhat. The vigorous growth habit of oats will tend to choke out most weeds. A few tall broadleaf weeds, such as ragweed, goosegrass, wild mustard and buttonweed (velvetleaf), can occasionally be a problem as they complicate harvest and reduce yields. These can be controlled with a modest application of a broadleaf herbicide such as 2,4-D while the weeds are still small. Oats are relatively free from diseases and pests, with the exception being leaf diseases, such as leaf rust and stem rust. A few Lepidoptera caterpillars feed on the plants—e.g. Rustic Shoulder-knot and Setaceous Hebrew Character—but these rarely become a major pest. See also List of oats diseases. Modern harvest technique is a matter of available equipment, local tradition, and priorities. Best yields are attained by swathing, cutting the plants at about 10 cm (4 inches) above ground and putting them into windrows with the grain all oriented the same way, when the kernels have reached 35% moisture, or when the greenest kernels are just turning cream-colour. The windrows are left to dry in the sun for several days before being combined using a pickup header. Then the straw is baled. Oats can also be left standing until completely ripe and then combined with a grain head. This will lead to greater field losses as the grain falls from the heads and to harvesting losses as the grain is threshed out by the reel. Without a draper head, there will also be somewhat more damage to the straw since it will not be properly oriented as it enters the throat of the combine. Overall yield loss is 10–15% compared to proper swathing. Historical harvest methods involved cutting with a scythe or sickle, and threshing under the feet of cattle. Late 19th and early 20th century harvesting was performed using a binder. Oats were gathered into shocks and then collected and run through a stationary threshing machine. After it is combined, the oats are transported to the farm-yard using a grain truck, semi, or road train, where it is augered or conveyed into a bin for storage. Sometimes, when there is not enough bin-space, it is augered into portable grain rings, or piled on the ground. Oats can be safely stored at 12% moisture; at higher moisture levels, it must be aereated, or dried. Yield and quality In the United States, No.1 oats weighs 42 lb per bushel; No.3 oats must weigh at least 38 lb/bu. If it weighs over 36 lb/bu, it is a No.4, and anything under 36 lb/bu is graded as "light weight". Note, however, that oats are bought and sold, and yields are figured, on the basis of a bushel equal to 32 lb in the United States. A Canadian bushel of oats, however, is 34 lb. Yields range from 60 to 80 bushels on marginal land, to 100 to 150 bushels per acre on high-producing land. The average production is 100 bushels per acre, or 3½ tonnes per hectare. Straw yields are variable, ranging from one to three tonnes per hectare, mainly due to available nutrients, and the variety used (some are short-strawed, meant specifically for straight-combining). Oats processing is a relatively simple process: Cleaning & sizing Upon delivery to the milling plant, chaff, rocks, other grains, and other foreign material are removed from the oats. Dehulling Separation of the outer hull from the inner oat groat is effected by means of centrifugal acceleration. Oats are fed by gravity onto the center of a horizontally spinning stone, which accelerates them towards an outer ring. Groat and hull are separated on impact with this ring. The lighter oat hulls are then aspirated away while the denser oat groats are taken to the next step of processing. Oat hulls can be used as feed, processed further into insoluble oat fibre, or used as a biomass fuel. Kilning The unsized oat groats will then pass through a heat and moisture treatment to balance moisture, but mainly to stabilize the groat. Oat groats are high in fat (lipids) and once exposed from their protective hull, enzymatic (lipase) activity begins to break down the fat into free fatty acids, ultimately causing an off flavor or rancidity. Oats will begin to show signs of enzymatic rancidity within 4 days of being dehulled and not stabilized. This process is primarily done in food grade plants, not in feed grade plants. An oat groat is not considered a raw oat groat if it has gone through this process: the heat has disrupted the germ, and the oat groat will not sprout. Sizing of groats Many whole oat groats are broken during the dehulling process, leaving the following types of groats to be sized and separated for further processing: Whole Oat Groats, Coarse Steel Cut Groats, Steel Cut Groats and Fine Steel Cut Groats. Groats are sized and separated using screens, shakers and indent screens. After the whole oat groats are separated, the remaining broken groats get sized again into the 3 groups (Coarse, Regular, Fine) and then stored. The term steel cut is referred to all sized or cut groats. When there are not enough broken to size for further processing, then whole oat groats get sent to a cutting unit with steel blades that will evenly cut the groats into the three sizes as discussed earlier. Final processing Three methods are used to make the finished product: Flaking This process uses two large smooth or corrugated rolls spinning at the same speed in opposite directions at a controlled distance. Oat flakes, also known as Rolled Oats, have many different sizes, thicknesses and other characteristics depending on the size of oat groat passed between the rolls. Typically the three sizes of steel cut oats are used to make Instant, Baby and Quick rolled oats, whereas whole oat groats are used to make Regular, Medium and Thick Rolled Oats. Oat flakes range from a thickness of 0.014" to 0.040". Oat bran milling This process takes the oat groats through several roll stands that flatten and separate the bran from the flour (endosperm). The two separate products (flour and bran) get sifted through a gyrating sifter screen to further separate them. The final products are oat bran and debranned oat flour. Whole flour milling This process takes oat groats straight to a grinding unit (stone or hammer mill) and then over sifter screens to separate the coarse flour and final whole oat flour. The coarser flour gets sent back to the grinding unit until it's ground fine enough to be whole oat flour. This method is used very much in India. Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oat&oldid=224772341" Wikipedia for Schools is a selection taken from the original English-language Wikipedia by the child sponsorship charity SOS Children. It was created as a checked and child-friendly teaching resource for use in schools in the developing world and beyond.Sources and authors can be found at www.wikipedia.org. See also our Disclaimer. These articles are available under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Version 3.0 Unported Licence. This article was sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/?oldid=224772341 .

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Wednesday, 05 May 2010 15:14 Farm preservation tour a lesson in community conservation North Carolina’s farmland is rapidly disappearing. The state has lost more than a million acres of it since 2007, and only 17 percent of the land in cultivation in 1950 is still farmed. In the mountains, the pressure to develop flat land near water sources accentuates the problem. “That’s the first place a developer will build,” said John Beckman, pointing at his melon field in bottomland. “I could have subdivided this into one-acre lots and sold them all as waterfront property.” Beckman and a handful of other property owners along Tilley Creek in Cullowhee are working in conjunction with the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee to save their land from development and keep it farmed by using conservation easements and elbow grease. Last Saturday, they opened up their properties to the public to showcase the effort. Four separate landowners in the Tilley Creek watershed have put more than 200 acres of land into conservation easements and kept close to 20 of those acres bearing food. “People look to county and state government to conserve land, but there’s another way it can happen,” said Paul Carlson, executive director of LTLT. “There’s starting to be a cumulative conservation story in Tilley Creek.” Tough row to hoe Beckman doesn’t have any illusions about why farming has all but disappeared in Western North Carolina. “Nobody wants to farm. It’s hard work. There’s not hardly any money in it. I still haven’t found anything that makes money,” Beckman said. A builder and a developer who was raised in upstate New York and has lived in Maine, Colorado, West Virginia and Wyoming, Beckman moved to Jackson County from Raleigh in the mid-1990s to run an organic farm on Betty’s Creek. After selling that property to developers, he intended to take a break from farming, but fate intervened. The historic Pressley farmstead, a picturesque piece of land that was farmed by Bob Pressley between 1900 and 1960, was in danger of becoming a shooting range. In 2006, Beckman bought the 200-acre property, which is only three miles from the Western Carolina University campus, in a tax foreclosure auction with the intention of preserving it. “Rather than being smart and taking a break, I got involved in another project right away,” Beckman said. But Beckman couldn’t afford to pay taxes on the entire property, so he put 135 acres into a conservation easement with LTLT. He has divided the rest into 5 to 10-acre lots centered on a common area that can be farmed. So far he has only sold one of them, to Cindy Anthony, a Pressley descendant who has hopes of restoring the old farmhouse to its original splendor. But Beckman’s broad aim is to create a new model for land conservation and development. On his own piece of the land, he’s spent the past three years creating an organic farm that produces a wide array of vegetables to sell at farmers markets. The effort to clear his garden plot, which had reverted to a mixed poplar forest, was tremendous. “The saying is we’re blessed with rock and it’s true,” Beckman said. “You can’t stick a shovel in the ground without hitting rock.” Beckman hauled out 20 truckloads of rock and used it to build his “Frank Lloyd Lite” house beside the burbling waters of Tilley Creek. But for Beckman, the job of figuring out how to minimize the workload of running a 5-acre farm is part of the challenge. To that end, he was thrilled to welcome interested conservationists for a tour. “It doesn’t do any good to get other farmers out here,” Beckman said. “That’s the choir. Half of my job is education. Showing people this is possible. Showing people you don’t have to kill yourself.” Russ Regnery came to the tour having never been to Tilley Creek. Beckman’s farm and the precedent it offers blew the Macon County native away. “It’s just a fantastic example to set for people,” said Regnery. “You can have a way of life that pays for itself and preserves an agricultural tradition that almost doesn’t exist anymore.” Beckman estimates that he spends 20 hours per week in his fields during the growing season, but he maintains that people should bite off whatever they feel they can chew. “What I want to emphasize to people is that farms don’t have to be 100 acres,” Beckman said. “Everybody should have a 10 by 10 plot in their backyard.” As for the broader picture of farmland conservation, Beckman believes there isn’t a single approach that will do the job. County and state government will have to spend money to preserve what they can, and private landowners will need to work with land conservation groups like LTLT to create a patchwork quilt of farmland in places like Tilley Creek. “It’s going to take the contributions of a lot of people working a lot of different angles,” Beckman said. Setting the example Joan Byrd has lived on Tilley Creek for almost 40 years. She started her life there on a one-acre lot on the ridge above where she lives now. Twenty-six years ago she married her husband, George Rector. Both of them are ceramics instructors at WCU. They purchased land and began farming a pasture alongside Bryson Branch, a picturesque mountain stream off Bo Cove Road. In order to preserve their peaceful life on the mountain, they continued buying land that was likely to be developed. Five years ago, they put 40 acres into a conservation easement with LTLT. “We just didn’t want it to be developed,” Byrd said. While Byrd still focuses her energy on her pottery studio in summer, Rector has embraced the backbreaking work of maintaining a stunning garden of raised beds, grapevines and kiwi pergolas. To look at the perfectly manicured beds is to understand that a garden can be artistic as well as functional, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t require hard work. “There’s a lot of stoop labor involved,” said Rector. “The Italians have a saying that the ground is very low. I remember that a lot at the end of the day.” While Beckman fights the rocks on his land, Rector has settled into a 30-year war with voles, burrowing rodents that have a taste for vegetables. His potatoes sit in the ground in makeshift containers with hard bottoms and wire mesh sides, and as the season goes forward, he mounds the plants with soil. The struggle is worth the effort for Rector, who sees producing food as a step towards self-sufficiency that may become critical in the future. “Cheap food is a luxury right now, but it’s cheap because oil is cheap,” said Rector. “That may not always be the case.” For Kate Parkerson, outreach coordinator for LTLT, Beckman and Rector are the unsung heroes of the farmland conservation movement because they have succeeded in showing how the land can be saved and used by the people who live on it. “Some people think that if you put your land in conservation you can’t use it,” Parkerson said. “You can’t use it for development, but you can use it in a way that’s productive and energizing and free and still protects the resource.” The landowners of Tilley Creek –– Vera and Don Guise own another historic farmstead higher up Tilley Creek with a 48-acre conservation easement, and Kathy Ivey, their neighbor, has 46 acres in conservation –– are preserving a watershed that could easily have been cut up into tiny pieces for second home lots. “If the people who owned these properties didn’t see the risk and take the steps to get the conservation easements, that might have happened,” Parkerson said. Through their efforts, they want to show that the value of land is in the way that you use it, not how much you can get for selling it. About LTLT LTLT helps to conserve the landscape of the upper Little Tennessee and Hiwassee river valleys by protecting private lands from inappropriate development. LTLT does this by working with private landowners to place conservation easements on their property, by accepting gifts of land, and by purchasing at-risk properties. As of September 2009, LTLT had protected 3,564 acres through conservation easements, and another 1,278 acres through acquisition. LTLT also played an important role in the State of North Carolina’s acquisition of the Needmore Tract, a 4,500-acre tract on the banks of the Little Tennessee River. www.ltlt.org. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Federal dollars fuel WNC farmland conservation: $8 million allocation is region’s largest ever No elk allowed: Two-mile fence keeps elk off dairy farm following winter shooting of seven animals Putting the pieces together: Archeologists continue to uncover mysteries of Cowee Mound Operation box turtle: Waynesville vet works to give baby turtles a leg up Plateau land trust conserves record number of acres LTLT becomes Mainspring Conservation Trust Preserving to persevere: Relating to one another through music and dance The Art of Preservation: Stecoah Valley Center bridges past, present « Stand up paddling takes off Park ranger programs offer window on Smokies »

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Karcher to leave Pulaski County 4H after 15 years Posted: Friday, November 14, 2008 11:12 pm 4-H Coordinator Waita Karcher shows the manual for the new Operation Military Kids program that she will head up in southwest Missouri. PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Nov. 14, 2008) — Staff members of the Pulaski County Extension Center held an open house Thursday at the county courthouse to introduce new programs and explain existing programs for the extension center.About 50 to 60 people, mostly courthouse employees, attended the open house, staff members said.Sara Traub, the center’s human development and family services specialist who was hired in 2006, and Waita Karcher, who has headed up Pulaski County’s 4-H programs for 15 years, explained the role of the extension center in food and nutrition programs, the Master Gardeners Club, soil testing, and 4-H programs for youth.Originally organized to help rural farmers learn better agricultural techniques and improve rural family life, extension centers maintain those core missions but have added related functions to serve a less-rural population. Nel Yates, a volunteer member of the Master Gardeners Club, said her programs have become especially popular with Fort Leonard Wood families who don’t have enough land to farm and won’t be in the area long enough for semi-permanent flower gardens, but still want to improve the landscaping of their on-post quarters or off-post property.“On the street every week, wherever I go, people know that I am with the master gardeners and can answer their questions,” Yates said. “They share their plant issues and we try to help.”Yates said several people asked her during the open house about the soil testing services of the Extension Center that can help gardeners know what type of fertilizer or other nutrients they need to add to the soil to make their plants grow.“People come in and ask, ‘Why won’t this grow?’ and often we can help them with a soil test,” said staff member Ombica Reeves.After 15 years with Pulaski County 4-H that began when her husband was an officer assigned to the post, Karcher will be moving on to new duties for military families. Extension Center officials hope to have her replacement named early next year.It hasn’t been widely announced, but Karcher accepted a new position on Oct. 1 serving as Operation Military Kids coordinator for southwest Missouri. That includes Fort Leonard Wood but is much broader and intended to continue her current role with Fort Leonard Wood’s 4-H program and expand it to providing services to military families throughout her region of the state with a special focus on National Guard and reserve component families.For many years, Karcher’s position has been half-time with the Pulaski County Extension Center assigned to 4-H programs and half-time with the military 4-H program. Karcher said the extension councils for Pulaski County and Laclede County plan to combine their funding to hire a single full-time person to coordinate 4-H in both counties.The new position’s duties haven’t been fully worked out yet, Karcher said, though her office will continue to be in the Extension Center in the courthouse and not on post.“Things are changing minute-by-minute,” Karcher said. “Operation Military Kids really started because there were so many National Guard families living in our communities and they are suddenly becoming active-duty military, and don’t always live anywhere close to a military installation. They are sometimes the only military kids in their school.”The new program’s duties will include training middle school and high school students to go into schools and explain what it’s like to be a military dependant, and help fellow students, Karcher said. Fifteen people have already been trained for that program, she said, and plans are underway to hold special summer camps in four locations where many National Guard and Army Reserve units have deployed which will offer various activities to students including community emergency response training for natural disasters.Another part of her work includes assembling “hero packs” —backpacks filled with school supplies and comfort items like teddy bears that are given to children whose parents are deploying, and include a letter written by another military child. Donations of money or items are being accepted, Karcher said, and members of family readiness groups or other organizations that would like to help pack the “hero packs” are welcome to contact her office.“A hero pack is for children who are taking on extra responsibilities once their dad or mom is deployed,” Karcher said.Karcher will continue her work with military 4-H clubs and use existing support networks of Child and Youth Services as well as family readiness groups to find military families who don’t live near Fort Leonard Wood.“The most difficult thing is knowing where these families are — there’s not a lot of information available because of security reasons unless people contact us,” Karcher said. “On Fort Leonard Wood for the most part I work through CYS, but I am also available for training outside of that. We want military kids off-post to have opportunities as well.”Local Opinion

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Ventura County farmers face labor shortages Charles Castaldi Workers at Leavens Ranch in Ventura County must stand on tall ladders to harvest all the avocados. Leslie Leavens checks avocados as workers dump them into a bin. They’re Haas avocados — bright green, firm, some as big as softballs. “This year we have a really big crop,” she says. “Last year and the year before was pretty light. But this year is just enormous.” Leavens grows 1,200 acres of avocados and lemons in Ventura and Monterey counties. Normally, a big crop would be good news for a farmer. But this year Leavens has a problem: finding enough workers to harvest her crops. “Because were having such a hard time finding labor this year, he brought in a crew from Ontario,” Leavens says of her foreman. “And he’s been bringing them up in a van every day. That's another 25 guys, but we've never had to do that before though.” Tony Gomez, the foreman, has worked on the farm for almost 40 years. He blames the labor shortage on increased border security. “I have some friends [who] tried to come over, but they can't because the border line is so tough to get across, so dangerous right now,” he says. “So we’re short on people right now. We have orchards that we haven’t touched, even though we're supposed to pick them in January, February.” John Krist, director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, says the problem extends throughout the U.S., but has been particularly acute in California, where so many crops need to be picked by hand. He believes the reasons for the labor shortage are multiple. “The agriculture industry in Mexico itself has improved,” Krist says. “There are just more job opportunities in Mexico than there used to be. You combine that with the increased border enforcement, the drug cartel violence along the border, and the general economic malaise in the U.S., and there’s just been a big decrease in the flow of migrant labor across the border.” Because almost all of the agricultural work force in Ventura County is Mexican, growers such as Leavens have had to scramble to find workers. The county Farm Bureau estimates the number of workers has dropped by 25 percent over the past two years. “We are dependent on a foreign-born work force,” Leavens says. “This is not the kind of work that people raised here want to do.” “I mean look at this,” she says, pointing to workers working above. “There are guys climbing up in trees on ladders with 40 pounds of avocados, and once they get up there they need both hands for a picking pole, so it's pretty precarious.” The problem is, without enough labor, crops are harvested late and lose value. This applies to all of Ventura’s almost $2 billion worth of fruits and vegetables. Leavens believes the Senate’s immigration reform bill could be a big help. If it becomes law, the number of seasonal visas would increase five-fold, from 20,00 to more than 100,000. In addition, the bill would remove many of the bureaucratic hoops farmers have to jump through to obtain workers under the old program. “It would be a huge benefit to be able to bring in workers for just the harvest season," Leavens says, "or the parts of the year where we need the extra labor." The bill would also create a so-called blue card, which would give farm workers who are undocumented a fast track to becoming legal residents. Isauro Hernandez, a worker from Mexico, would qualify for that part of the program. He says if undocumented workers like him could obtain papers, they could come out of the shadows and contribute more to the U.S. economy. “Many people for this reason don’t even want to buy a house,” he says. “Because one never knows in what moment one’s luck is going to turn and you get deported.” Hernandez crossed north eight years ago and he hasn’t returned to Mexico since. Even though he’d like to see his family, he’s afraid that — given how much border security has increased — he wouldn’t make it back into the U.S. and his job. The Senate bill, in its present form, has the support of the Farm Worker’s Union and big growers — two groups not accustomed to agreeing on much. But not everyone is on board. Some Republicans are concerned, especially in light of the attack at the Boston Marathon, that the bill doesn’t do enough to safeguard the border. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) expressed his doubts at a recent Judiciary Committee hearing. He said he's not convinced that unions and growers had the best interest of the U.S. in mind. His primary focus, he said, was national security. He also wasn’t buying the notion that only foreigners would want these kinds of jobs. “I’m also dubious about the idea that they’re jobs that Americans won’t do," Sessions said. “I worked construction in the Alabama sun, hauling lumber and stuff. I know Americans do that every single day — tough work. Where I was raised, we were taught to respect people who did hard work and not to say it’s a job an American won’t do.” But José Perez, the crew boss at Leavens Ranch, says he’s never seen an American who wanted to do this sort of work. The solution to the labor shortage, he says, is to provide undocumented workers with papers. He says it’s not fair that workers have benefits deducted from their paycheck without actually being able to make use of them. He says immigration reform is necessary, but he’s not sure about the chances. “I’ll be an optimist when I see people coming and going with their visas,” Perez says. Leavens is more sanguine. “I'm really optimistic,” she says. “At this point we've gotten very, very far. The bill is pretty much not loved by anybody and so that’s probably a good place to start.”

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Pulled raisin vineyards led 2016 decline in California grape acreage Apr 20, 2017 GMOs, fertilizer spark good rural-urban discussion Apr 18, 2017 Napa County farm, wine grape values jump 33 percent Apr 19, 2017 Arizona tree nut plantings on the fast track Apr 18, 2017 Management Biofuel oasis in the desert Southwest Fuels developed from biomass such as sugar or grain crops or algae could be used more widely in the future to power automobiles, homes, industrial manufacturing facilities and airplane engines. To be a viable biofuel crop for Arizona, the plants need to do well in arid environments. That rules out corn, which requires a lot of water, as an option in most parts of the Southwest. Shelley Littin, University of Arizona | Mar 28, 2011 Scientists and engineers at the University of Arizona are on a mission to develop sustainable agricultural biofuel field crops for Arizona and the desert Southwest – crops that will fuel a new industry as well as America's engines. Biofuels – fuels developed from biomass such as sugar or grain crops or algae – have as many and diverse uses as traditional energy sources and could be used more widely in the future to power many technologies including automobiles, homes, industrial manufacturing facilities and airplane engines. "There's no doubt that we're going to have biofuels in the future because no matter what, petroleum is a finite resource," said Dennis Ray, a plant geneticist at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "Problems today are not solved by one discipline." The biofuel development project could benefit Arizona's economy as well as the environment. "We're looking at rural development. If you have a little industry in this area, you need people to run the processing plant. That means jobs. That means bringing money back into these communities," said Ray. "It's always a much bigger picture for what we're looking at in the long run." An ideal place for biofuels Arizona could be home to a thriving biofuel industry in the future, said Mark Riley, professor and department head of agricultural and biosystems engineering. "We get a tremendous amount of sunlight," said Riley, which enables crops to be grown year-round or off-sequence from other parts of the country. "A good example is from traditional agriculture. Yuma County in the western part of the state grows 95 percent of the country's winter vegetables because nowhere else can grow vegetables during that time of the year. In that same vein, we could be growing sources of sugar to make ethanol off-sequence from when other regions are growing corn." "Biofuels don't make sense if you have to transport them long distances," said Riley. "Some of the largest population growth in this country is in the Southwest, and there really isn't yet a whole lot of agriculture geared toward producing fuels." "We need to be producing the fuels close to where they're going to be used." Petroleum is transported through an extensive network of pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard. The pipes are not completely watertight, so the greater the transport distance, the more water leaks in. This works because petroleum does not mix with water, but ethanol does. Ethanol, therefore, needs to be transported by truck, so producing it locally would save on fuel and transportation costs. Sugarcane of the desert To be a viable biofuel crop for Arizona, the plants need to do well in arid environments. That rules out corn, which requires a lot of water, as an option in most parts of the Southwest. "There are hundreds of plants that you could use as biofuels," said Ray. "Oil seeds where you can use the oil almost directly for diesel, cellulosic plants where you can break down cell walls into ethanol, and plants like sorghum where you use the sugar to make ethanol." "I'm a plant breeder geneticist, so what I do is improve or change the plants for whatever's needed," said Ray. "I work on three very different crops. One is lesquerella, which is an oil seed. Another is guayule, a rubber-producing plant that also makes these amazing resins, and these resins can be burned directly or used in all sorts of different ways as a fuel source. And then of course there's sweet sorghum." Called the sugarcane of the desert, sweet sorghum is one of the most promising crops for biofuel. "Sweet sorghum is a tall grass, and it grows to about 3-4 meters," said Riley. "It can grow in about 110-120 days, and it produces a substantial amount of ethanol. We think we can get 500-600 gallons of ethanol per acre – generally for corn you get about 300 gallons of ethanol per acre." Sweet sorghum also is easier to process into fuel than corn. Ethanol is produced from corn and other grain crops in basically two steps: First the starch is broken down into sugars, and then the sugars are fermented into ethanol by yeast, just as beer is fermented. When juiced, crops such as sugarcane and sweet sorghum yield sugars instead of starch, thus eliminating the first steps of the process for corn-based ethanol. "Even after you squeeze the stalks and get the juice out, there's a lot of biomass that's still available," said Riley. "That could be used as animal feed as a way to supplement what a grower would be able to get." Don Slack, a professor in the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering, has studied the irrigation needs of sweet sorghum. "It's known as a drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant, tough crop," said Slack. "Sorghum would be a preferred crop in a hot, arid region." Sweet sorghum needs little water, and since it's not intended for food it can be irrigated with treated wastewater, which provides many of the nutrients the crop needs. It also has very low nitrogen requirements, according to a study by Mike Ottman, an agronomist in the plant sciences department. Said Ottman: "You wouldn't think about it but nitrogen fertilizer is made using fossil fuels. In the case of corn, maybe one-third to half of the energy that goes into growing the crop is the energy required to make the fertilizer." "Sweet sorghum's not part of the food chain, so if there's more sweet sorghum that's going toward producing biofuels it's not taking away corn that's used to feed animals or people," added Riley. The researchers are trying to develop a way to plant and harvest effectively two crops in one year. "You could effectively double the growth, double the amount of ethanol per year, just because our growing seasons are much longer than other parts of the country," said Riley. "It's really taking advantage of our location." Search for sustainability The scientists are testing and developing several other crops, including three types of switchgrass and three varieties of perennial grasses in the genus Panicum. These grasses produce cellulose instead of starch. Like starch, cellulose is made up of chains of sugar molecules held together by what are called glycosidic bonds. However, the orientation of the bonds in a cellulose molecule creates a more rigid structure, making cellulose harder to break down. "The conversion of cellulose to sugar is a little more difficult than the conversion of starch to sugar," said Ottman. "You can't just do straight chemical hydrolysis. You need enzymes, and these enzymes are expensive." For now, most of the ethanol production plants in the U.S. process grain crops. But that could change: The cellulosic process should start taking off by 2015, according to the target date of our energy policy, said Ottman. And perennial grasses as biofuel crops have important benefits. Cellulose is one of the most abundant organic molecules on Earth and could yield an equally abundant source of fuel on the future. Numerous research questions remain for each crop, including the amount of water and fertilizers needed, when to plant and when to harvest, how far apart to plant the seeds to optimize the harvest and how best to store and transport the fuel once it's processed. Said Ray: "These are all little things that make a big difference." "The goal of the project, of all these projects, is to have a commercial product," said Ray. "The end goal is to give back to folks who have given to us through funding and in other ways." The agricultural methods developed in Arizona would work in many arid or semi-arid environments, said Ray, "which actually applies to much of the Earth. So what we do here is transferrable. The desert plants don't know if they're in Chihuahua or Texas. Borders mean nothing to them. It has to do with the environment." "One hundred and fifty years ago petroleum was used for kerosene for lamps in the Northeast to replace whale oil. In 150 years you wouldn't recognize what we're doing with biofuels now," said Ray. "We're gaining knowledge so that we understand what's needed and how this whole process works." Biofuels research at the UA is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Sun Grant Initiative from the U.S. Department of Energy and the UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

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‘Future of Food’ Urban Farming Field Trip to Explore Urban Ag Endeavors in Inland SoCal April 4, 2017/0 Comments/in Local Food, Urban Agriculture /by Robert PuroSlated for Saturday, May 20, 2017 the ‘Future of Food – Urban Farming Field Trip’ will visit a series of innovative urban farming ventures in Inland Southern California that have emerged to grow the local food marketplace, increase food access, educate local communities, advocate for food equity, and improve health and nutrition. The field trip hosted by Seedstock, a social venture that seeks to foster the development of sustainable local food systems, will also include lectures from experts in urban farming. The tour is the third in a series of Seedstock ‘Future of Food’ field trips that was recently launched to facilitate the exploration of food system innovations that are generating economic and community capital. Early Bird Discount Tickets are available for a limited time, so grab your tickets before it’s too late! **Profit generated from the trip will be donated to the participating organizations below** Scheduled Field Trips Stops include: Sarvodaya Farms is the educational, community-based urban farming initiative of The Growing Club, based in the Pomona Valley of California. Through this initiative, The Growing Club seeks to demonstrate how urban farms can be centers of social, economic, and ecological regeneration and healing in (sub)urban centers. The farm’s goal is to educate the community about regenerative urban farming through its farmer training program, community events, and workshops. Huerta del Valle operates a 62 family community garden and 2.5 acre urban farm in Ontario. Its mission is to create healthy food access for low-income community members, create community empowerment through food, create job opportunities and educate community members about sustainable agriculture. Huerta’s overarching goal is to provide all 160,000 people in the city of Ontario with accessible organic food. Amy’s Farm is a real, working polycultural farm focusing on sustainable, organic methods to farming. The farm provides fresh produce to the local community and offers education with hands-on, guided tours to visitors of all ages through its educational 501c3 non-profit organization. Amy’s Farm was founded in an effort to provide residents of San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles Counties and surrounding areas the opportunity to visit and experience a true operating urban farm. Rishi Kumar – Urban Farmer, Co-founder and Director of The Growing Club Arthur Levine – Projects Manager at Huerta Del Valle Community Garden Randy Bekendam – Farmer and Manager of Amy’s Farm Robert Puro Robert Puro2017-04-04 02:41:422017-04-03 18:45:05'Future of Food' Urban Farming Field Trip to Explore Urban Ag Endeavors in Inland SoCal On Rich Soil Long Since Forgotten, an Urban Farm Rises to Reconnect Region to its Agricultural Roots February 6, 2017/0 Comments/in Urban Agriculture /by Trish PopovitchElliott Kuhn, founder of Panorama City, CA-based Cottonwood Urban Farm. Photo courtesy of Cottonwood Urban Farm. In San Fernando Valley today, however, on a formerly vacant plot of land a small urban farm has emerged to help reconnect the region to its agricultural roots. Founded in 2011 in Panorama City by Elliott Kuhn, Cottonwood Urban Farm is a sustainable farming venture that not only offers a reliable source of locally grown fruits and vegetable to area restaurants, chefs, and community members, but also functions as an educational resource for the community. Read more → Trish Popovitch2017-02-06 17:03:182017-02-06 17:08:28On Rich Soil Long Since Forgotten, an Urban Farm Rises to Reconnect Region to its Agricultural Roots ‘Future of Food’ Field Trip Explores Commercial and Community Driven Urban Farms in Los Angeles, CA January 30, 2017/0 Comments/in Urban Agriculture /by Robert PuroAttendees of the Seedstock ‘Future of Food – Urban Ag Field Trip’ at USC Teaching Garden, learning about the farm’s aeroponics operations from LA Urban Farms’s Wendy Coleman and Niels Thorlaksson. Photo credit: Robert Puro, Seedstock. On Friday, January 27, Seedstock hosted the inaugural ‘Future of Food – Urban Ag Field Trip’, which provided attendees an excursion into the diversity of urban farming and state-of-the-art hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic agriculture operations in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S. The sold out tour treated participants to lectures and sessions from pioneering farmers who are embracing innovative business models and growing systems to both increase food security and take advantage of the escalating demand for local food. The tour kicked off with a stop at The USC Teaching Garden, a joint venture between L.A. Urban Farms and USC Hospitality, which utilizes aeroponic tower gardens to challenge the food systems status quo on campus. The garden was established to supply fresh produce to the university’s on-campus restaurants, dining halls, catering services, and hotel, while also teaching students and staff about flavor and sustainability. Attendees heard from Chef Eric Ernest, Executive Chef of USC Hospitality, discuss the economic viability of the garden. Chef Ernest noted that the garden is not just for show, and that its 90 aeroponic garden towers grow enough food for campus retail units to break even each year. “The garden is about connecting chef and customer,” said Chef Ernest. We also heard from L.A. Urban Farms founder Wendy Coleman, and partner Niels Thorlaksson, discuss the technical details of the farm, its water usage, and maintenance requirements. Thorlaksson explained that each aeroponic garden tower utilizes 5 – 10 gallons of water per week. Read more → http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/seedstock-future-of-food-field-trip-growing-experience-urban-farm-min.jpg Robert Puro2017-01-30 21:30:042017-01-30 21:32:23'Future of Food' Field Trip Explores Commercial and Community Driven Urban Farms in Los Angeles, CA On Land Once Occupied by a Tomato Cannery an Agrihood Rises to Grow New Farmers and Feed a Community January 24, 2017/0 Comments/in Urban Agriculture /by Karen BrinerThe Cannery, a farm-to-table housing development in Davis, California, is the first agrihood of its kind in California. With its own urban farm and small orchard, the unique housing development can offer its residents fresh, hyperlocal produce as well as pastured chickens and eggs. The land for The Cannery, aptly named because it was once the site of a tomato cannery, was sold to The New Home Company by ConAgra. The City of Davis has a rule that if developmental land borders agricultural land, then a 300-foot buffer is required. In this case, the buffer was about seven acres in total. Instead of opting for a plain green space, though, the developers were attracted to the idea of creating a working farm on the land. Once the City of Davis accepted its proposal, the company turned to the Center for Land-Based Learning to plan, develop, and run the farm. It has taken over six years to get to the point where the farm is now operational. Read more → http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/cannery.jpg Karen Briner Karen Briner2017-01-24 18:26:272017-01-24 18:27:08On Land Once Occupied by a Tomato Cannery an Agrihood Rises to Grow New Farmers and Feed a Community SoCal Urban Farming Org Increases Supply of Fresh Produce to Homeless Shelter by Healing Soil and Residents January 16, 2017/0 Comments/in food access, Local Food, Urban Agriculture /by Charli EngelhornVelva, an employee of GrowGood, a CA-based nonprofit that has been working with the Salvation Army since 2011 to develop a garden-based program for the residents of the Bell Shelter that uses healthy food and gardening as a catalyst for healing. (Photo courtesy of GrowGood. Photo credit: Amy Gordon.) Prior to the establishment of the GrowGood urban farm on a lot across the way from the Salvation Army Bell Shelter located in Bell, CA, the shelter, which serves nearly 6,000 meals per week, incorporated very little fresh produce into its menu. “They were spending cents per meal on fresh produce. Food was donated, so no one was going hungry; but the nutritional quality was often low,” says Brad Pregerson, co-founder of GrowGood, a CA-based nonprofit that has been working with the shelter since 2011 to develop a garden-based program to not only increase the supply of fresh produce to the shelter, but also to provide its residents with meaningful work and act as catalyst for healing. The Salvation Army Bell Shelter, which opened in 1988, was established with help from Pregerson’s grandfather, Harry, a federal judge and veteran, who perceived the dire need to provide housing for the growing Read more → http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/GrowGood-Urban-Farm-Shelter-Volunteer-Photo-Credit-Amy-Gordon.jpg Charli Engelhorn Charli Engelhorn2017-01-16 05:18:412017-01-15 19:24:16SoCal Urban Farming Org Increases Supply of Fresh Produce to Homeless Shelter by Healing Soil and Residents SoCal University’s Aeroponic Garden Challenges Food System Status Quo January 2, 2017/0 Comments/in Local Food, Urban Agriculture /by AJ HughesA new teaching garden at the University of Southern California uses aeroponics to grows its fruits, vegetables and herbs. Photo courtesy Erika Chesley/USC Auxiliary Services AJ Hughes2017-01-02 18:08:522017-01-02 18:09:13SoCal University’s Aeroponic Garden Challenges Food System Status Quo ‘Future of Food: Urban Ag Field Trip’ to Explore Urban Farming Operations in L.A. County December 20, 2016/0 Comments/in aquaponics, food access, Local Food, Urban Agriculture /by Robert PuroUrban agriculture ventures of all different stripes – from commercial hydroponic enterprises and rooftop aeroponic farms to community gardens planted atop formerly vacant lots – are not only disrupting the food system, but also generating community and economic capital. To give you an up close and personal look at a series of innovative urban farming operations that have emerged to tackle challenges to food access, meet marketplace demand for local food, and increase food security, Seedstock has put together the ‘Future of Food – Urban Ag Field Trip’. Slated for Friday, January 27, 2017, the field trip will look at the community and economic development potential of urban farming. Tour stops include the USC Teaching Garden, Local Roots Farms, and The Growing Experience. Scheduled for Friday, January 27, 2017, the field trip will look at the impact of urban farming in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, and include lectures on such topics as the past, present, and future of urban agriculture, vertical farming, and sourcing local food from urban farms. Spots on the field trip are limited, and it will sell out. So grab your Early Bird Tickets before it’s too late! The USC Teaching Garden is utilizing aeroponics to challenge the food systems status quo on campus. The University of Southern California (USC) Teaching Garden was established this spring to supply fresh produce to the university’s on-campus restaurants, dining halls, catering services, and hotel, while also teaching students and staff about flavor and sustainability. The garden utilizes aeroponic towers to produce chemical-free fruit, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers without traditional soil growing media. Local Roots Farms is an indoor vertical farming company based in Los Angeles that designs, builds, deploys, and operates controlled environment farms. Situated in shipping containers, the farms (called TerraFarms) grow with up to 99% less water, 365 days a year, pesticide and herbicide free, and with absolute consistency in production. Their plug and play form provides an innovative solution to the retail and foodservice sectors by greatly reducing supply-chain risks such as price volatility and food safety exposure. The Growing Experience (TGE) is a seven-acre urban farm in North Long Beach that is located on a previously vacant lot. TGE is unique in that it is owned and operated by the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles (HACoLA), which manages 3,229 units of public and other affordable housing for the county’s Public Housing program. The urban farm utilizes traditional as well as aquaponics growing systems to help meet the needs of the community by increasing access to healthy foods. Register Now for Early Bird Tickets! http://seedstockurbanag.eventbrite.com Select Confirmed Speakers include: Rachel Surls – Sustainable Food Systems Advisor for UC Cooperative Extension and co-author of the book ‘From Cows to Concrete: The Rise and Fall of Farming in Los Angeles’. Erik Oberholtzer – Co-founder and CEO of Tender Greens Chef Eric Ernest – Executive Chef of USC Hospitality A farm-to-fork lunch hosted by Local Roots Farms featuring lettuce grown on site in the company’s TerraFarms will be provided by lunch sponsor: http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2160-copy.jpg Robert Puro2016-12-20 05:45:202016-12-16 20:03:44'Future of Food: Urban Ag Field Trip' to Explore Urban Farming Operations in L.A. County From Lima Beans to City Hall: A Los Angeles Couple Brings Food and Beauty to Local Neighborhoods December 12, 2016/0 Comments/in Urban Agriculture /by Charli EngelhornJason Wood and Emily Gleicher run Farm LA, a Los Angeles-based non-profit that converts underutilized parcels of land into vibrant urban farms. Photo credit: Dan Fujiwara. A mutual passion for gardening and supporting underserved communities were the motivations behind the conception of Farm LA, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization geared toward converting dilapidated and underutilized parcels of land for urban farming. Emily Gleicher, a freelance producer for design and animation projects, and Jason Wood, a former commercial diver who now works as an electrician and framer in construction, founded Farm LA after a non-traditional gift sparked their interests. “For Valentine’s Day, Jay found these lima bean plants at CVS that sprout out and say ‘I Love You,’” says Gleicher. “We had already become very passionate about gardening… so the lima beans took off, and we all of a sudden had lima bean plants all over our house. That is where our love for gardening and lima beans started.” Soon after, the young couple started looking at properties around Los Angeles for fun in the event they decided to build a small house somewhere. Along the way, they began stumbling across run-down properties of various sizes around the city and began inquiring about what it would take to gain access to them. What they discovered were numerous barricades that hindered development. Most of the properties Gleicher and Wood saw were on hillsides or narrow streets in low-income communities. There were no foundation structures in place or evidence of previous use. “Once we became aware of all of this land, we wanted to do something to beautify it and that we were passionate about,” Wood says. “We wanted to do something that could inspire the neighborhoods and maybe leave a cool legacy behind that we were proud of,” Gleicher adds. “We thought, what if we became a charity and got grants to turn these properties into beautiful, weird hillside gardens… people go hungry, and there are food deserts and health problems. It could solve a lot.” Farm LA became a 501(c)(3) non-profit shortly after, but the organization officially launched May 1, 2015. Since that time, Gleicher and Wood have worked to promote and support the mission of Farm LA by building small public sidewalk gardens in rundown curbside plots around different Los Angeles communities. Currently, the organization has 11 of these plots, mostly located on the east side of Los Angeles. “We’re still trying to grasp one of the larger overgrown properties, but you don’t need a permit or anything too extravagant to garden in the curbside plots,” says Wood. “It’s a great way to get our name out there and really inspire people. We are actually producing food on them, and people are taking it.” Two of these gardens have been certified by LA County as urban gardens, and Farm LA will begin prepping and selling lima bean kits from these gardens this December. Although these are the only certified plots, all of Farm LA’s gardens are fortified with organic matter to enrich the soil. The upkeep and timely harvesting of the curbside plots is made possible with the help of dedicated and passionate volunteers. Over the past two years, the organization has been able to generate a large volunteer base and now boasts 500 subscribers to its newsletter. Some of these volunteers are people who Gleicher and Wood met as part of their certification classes for the Grow LA Victory Garden Initiative, a four-session program for beginning gardeners run by the University of California Cooperative Extension. The Victory Garden program nurtured the already budding passion for gardening in both Wood and Gleicher and provided them with the proper tools and knowledge to not only conceive Farm LA, but also advocate for more opportunities for urban farm development and policies from the city. Part of this work includes working with the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) to help champion Assembly Bill (AB) 551, which empowers California cities and counties to create policies in support of Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones, according to information provided on the LAFPC website. The bill aligns with Farm LA’s mission of producing healthy, locally grown food in areas that are food deserts using sustainable processes and technologies. Land owners within the incentive zones can receive a significant reduction in their property tax rates if they offer their land up for agriculture use. Toward this end, Farm LA is working to provide a list of available properties for this type of expansion to LAFPC to present to the county’s planning department. “Los Angeles is getting really active in urban agriculture, and they are looking to us to help push this act forward,” says Gleicher. “Once this is done, we will have the documentation and literature to help convince and educate people to bring local farming into food deserts and change people’s lives.” Gleicher and Wood are looking to grow their organization and continue to work to attain a large parcel of land to convert. Part of that plan includes continuing to help support mini-orchards and fruit-sharing initiatives through Wood’s side project We Farm, locating more properties in neighborhoods where development of urban agriculture can have a real impact, and possibly creating small solar farms to put money back into communities. Gleicher says if they are able to attain the right funding, they can start focusing on cultivating more drought-tolerant edibles, such as certain types of corn, barley, and lima beans, and developing atmospheric water generators to take water directly from the desert air. This post originally appeared on Seedstock.com: http://seedstock.com/2016/11/03/from-lima-beans-to-city-hall-a-los-angeles-couple-brings-food-and-beauty-to-local-neighborhoods/ http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Emily-Gleicher-and-Jason-Wood-of-Urban-Farming-Organization-Farm-LA-Los-Angeles.jpg Charli Engelhorn2016-12-12 15:33:502016-12-12 15:34:08From Lima Beans to City Hall: A Los Angeles Couple Brings Food and Beauty to Local Neighborhoods Master Gardener Program Grows Food and Community Across L.A. County December 5, 2016/0 Comments/in Local Food, Urban Agriculture /by Charli EngelhornSince University of California Cooperative Extension established the first Master Gardener Programs in the state in 1981, its army of certified volunteer gardeners, who are today spread across more than 50 counties, have supported programs aimed at educating California residents, especially those living in low-income communities, about growing their own food. In Los Angeles, one such program that Master Gardener Program volunteers supported was the Common Ground Garden Program, which was established in 1976 with funds from a Congressional appropriations bill to support a national Urban Garden Program. Working in collaboration with the Common Ground Garden Program, the Master Gardener volunteers played a pivotal role in helping to set up several community and school gardens across the county. After funding from the Urban Garden Program ceased, the Los Angeles County branch of the Master Gardener Program formally took over the task of training community gardeners. “Our overall mission is to teach California residents science-based information about sustainable gardening practices,” says Rachel Surls, sustainable food systems advisor for the Cooperative Extension Los Angeles County and one of the contacts for the Master Gardener Program. “The focus is on non-commercial gardening—home and community gardeners.” Since 1993, the Los Angeles County Master Gardener Program has trained 1,233 Master Gardener volunteers. At the heart of the Los Angeles County curriculum is the goal of teaching people to grow food, but the knowledge and skills gained by program participants often lead to greater impacts in local communities. Master Gardener volunteer efforts in communities can result in more productive gardens, implementation of sustainable water use practices, and the creation of effective and well organized school and community gardens. In communities experiencing food insecurity, or poor access to healthy foods, the education and support that Master Gardeners bring to their gardens have the potential to positively impact the lives of the residents. According to Surls, the focus on social justice is a continuation of the history of the founding program and something she is proud of. “Although our mission has broadened to include non-edible gardening, helping to empower underserved communities to grow their own food is still a strong focus,” Surls says. “We do this through partnerships with other organizations.” One such program is Pacoima, CA-based MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity), whose mission is to “break the bonds of poverty by providing basic human needs and a pathway to self-reliance.” Members of the MEND staff have taken part in the Master Gardener Program and help organize educational training sessions in communities where gardens can make a difference, according to Surls. Cynthia Hubach, a Master Gardener and the founder of the Elysian Valley Community Garden, has seen first-hand the difference a community garden can make for residents. “EV (Elysian Valley) is in the midst of a development boom that has created tension among the residents and the newcomers. The garden is a place where people can come together and get to know one another,” Hubach said. “In this neighborhood, where there is lot of diversity, people are learning about different types of plants and methods for growing. The community gardeners really share their knowledge with each other.” Hubach left her job as a TV producer to go back to school and earn a master’s degree in urban sustainability at Antioch University. In possession of a vacant lot, she wanted to start a community garden for the neighboring residents. With help from the LA Community Garden Council and eager community members, Hubach set up and began operating her community garden. Shortly thereafter, she joined the Master Gardener Program to learn more about actual gardening. “The program is a lot of book work. You learn mostly about botany and get in deep with how plants work, how the seeds work, and irrigation,” Hubach says. “However, more than the physical elements of gardening, the program puts an emphasis on people who will make a contribution to the community, who will take the information gained and disseminate it to the most people, and who will create the greatest benefit. “The greatest benefit for me was becoming immersed in a community of people who really want to engage with food access and urban agriculture,” she says. Other Master Gardeners have started community gardens, including Florence Nishida, who co-founded LA Green Grounds with Vanessa Voblis and Ron Finley, a graduate of the Grow LA Victory Garden Initiative. The Grow LA Initiative is a project that was started in 2010 as a response to the growing public interest in edible gardening. The initiative is a four-week mini-Master Gardener course to teach the basics of growing vegetables, with sessions held in churches, community gardens, and schools, according to Surls. After the four sessions, led by Master Gardener volunteers, the participants become certified UC Victory Gardeners. The members of Farm LA, a non-profit organization working to turn vacant lots into gardens, are also Victory Gardeners. Since its inception, the Grow LA Victory Garden Initiative has trained 2,740 Victory Gardeners at 185 garden locations. More than 300 Master Gardener volunteers taught those classes, which is a major requirement for those wishing to obtain and maintain Master Gardener certification. In fact, Master Gardeners must complete 50 hours of volunteer service their first year and 25 hours each subsequent year, as well as 12 hours of continuing education annually. According to Surls, the volunteer hours only count if the activity includes an educational component. “In the most recent program year, 277 Master Gardeners logged 17,524 volunteer hours, helping 119,789 Los Angeles County residents to garden more sustainably,” Surls says. Those hours included work at 96 community gardens, 127 school gardens, 10 senior gardens, 8 shelter gardens, and 70 fairs and farmers’ markets. Whereas the Victory Garden Initiative meets twice a year for four weeks, the Master Gardener Program meets every Saturday for 13 weeks between February and May. Of the 100-200 applications received, only 50 participants are chosen for the Los Angeles County division. Information about the application process for Los Angeles County or other counties throughout California can be found online. Applications must be submitted by January 9, 2017. This post originally appeared on Seedstock.com: http://seedstock.com/2016/11/29/master-gardeners-across-l-a-use-skills-and-training-to-grow-food-and-community/ http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/alegria-fresh-garden-soxx-orange-county-urban-farm.jpg Charli Engelhorn2016-12-05 17:56:122016-12-05 17:56:34Master Gardener Program Grows Food and Community Across L.A. County Self-Fertilizing Vertical Growing System Makes Home Gardening More Accessible November 6, 2016/0 Comments/in Local Food, Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Urban Agriculture /by Robert PuroSponsored Post: Garden Tower Project is the Barn Sponsor for the upcoming Grow Local OC: Future of Urban Food Systems Conference. Colin Cudmore, the inventor of the Garden Tower, a garden container with perforated tubing technology that facilitates composting, the movement of Red wiggler worms and nightcrawlers within it, says he does not consider himself a gardener. Yet, Cudmore, and his two business partners, Tom Tlusty and Joel B. Grant, have designed and implemented full-scale production of a new gardening container concept that includes composting and worms, in a self-contained mini-ecosystem. At the urging of his mother, Ann, a food activist in Bloomington, he attended a lecture by Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power on the subject of “Food Security” and “Food Deserts”. What he heard inspired the inventor to find a way to make gardening more accessible to people all over the world. A Garden Tower 2. Photo courtesy of Garden Tower Project. The idea germinated one weekend, as he visited a local farmer’s market in Bloomington, Ind. He noticed a couple of Amish farmers, who were selling seedlings and starter plants, but had few customers, despite the bustling crowd in the marketplace. Curious, he asked the two farmers why no one had bought their starter plants. The answer surprised him. The farmers told him customers did not buy the plants, because the market’s patrons had lacked the time, space and felt they lacked the knowledge to grow their own food. That revelation inspired Cudmore to dig deeper into the subject of home gardening, which subsequently nurtured a vision: Turning patios, balconies, and decks into self-fertilizing gardens that would give food-deprived areas of the world a new weapon to fight hunger and poor nutrition around the globe. The idea sprouted, and a vision took shape in the form of a garden container that would provide habitat for a healthy worm culture. What began as a desire to encourage gardening, would eventually lead the inveterate tinkerer to devise a completely self-sustaining gardening container that creates its own compost. The technology needs no electricity, so it may be used around the globe, Cudmore says. Neither a gardener, nor an environmental scientist, Cudmore recalls he wasn’t sure how well the concept would actually work. So, he networked with permaculture experts, gardeners, and advanced master gardeners in the Bloomington area, asking them to test the process. As it turned out, it worked far better than he had ever expected. He tweaked the process further, “and it performs incredibly well,” he says. The innovative breakthrough was inserting vermi-composting tube. This provides a compost highway, through which worms and nightcrawlers spread worm castings throughout the gardening container. The end result works so well, and creates so many worm castings, there’s enough rich organic fertilizer to spread over the neighbor’s garden beds, too, says Cudmore. With the Garden Tower, anybody may grow 50 plants in one container, without using even one kilowatt of electricity, Cudmore says. Tlusty spent five years working at the Chicago Board of Trade, and through that experience, he gained an understanding of the disparity effects caused by market speculation, in what he calls an “industrial” agricultural system. He observed market dynamics that have crushed small farmers. “The beauty of this design is that it’s self-contained and the plastic covers the majority of the soil, so there’s very little evaporation. The water that’s not needed by the plants, drains out of the bottom, is captured and reintroduced back into the soil” he says. “So it’s incredibly efficient and extremely beneficial for areas of the world that are suffering from water scarcity, poor or sandy soil conditions, or toxic soil.” Cudmore says the reason the design works so well is that roots have access to water and nutrients in a continual down-flow, on a regular basis. The composting worms, and night crawlers, which are easily obtained in most areas of the world, travel through perforations that run the entire length of the column. As the critters move in and out of the column into the surrounding soil, those passageways become oxygen pockets that also revitalize the soil, says Cudmore. A nutrient-rich tea from the leachate is collected in a drawer at the bottom of the system. Company Information and Mission: The Garden Tower Project, founded in 2012, is a socially-responsible business concept, based in Bloomington, Indiana. Focusing on the accessibility gap for wholesome food, the Garden Tower Project strives to create easy availability of fresh, organic food to populations who lack either the access, or the ability to grow their own food. The primary goal is to make this happen innovatively, collaboratively, and affordably. Our Mission is to provide a superior portable, Non-GMO & heirloom supporting, gardening ecosystem. The Garden Tower is a revolutionary self-contained garden/composting system with the potential to transform home gardening, urban gardening, and world hunger programs. At the Garden Tower Project, we are passionate about healthy food for everyone. We believe in doing everything we can as a sustainable and responsible business to help those most in need. We are working towards a more resilient and sustainable economic future for individuals and communities. We believe that the Garden Tower can play a major role in this effort. The Garden Tower is a uniquely viable solution for areas of the world where poor soil conditions, water scarcity, flooding and drought contribute to chronic hunger. Further, the Garden Tower is perfect for gardeners of all sorts, especially the millions who lack access to land to start a garden, those with physical restrictions, and beginning gardeners. Anyone who is ready for a faster, easier way to grow food will love it. Absolutely no gardening experience is necessary. The design is elegant in its simplicity, and initial setup is straightforward and easy. ———— Garden Tower Project Vision The Garden Tower Project has a vision of a world with healthy produce, accessible gardening, and food for all. The existence of a Centralized Agriculture system is faced with a variety of challenges both in the quality of food that’s produced, the impact on the environment, and ultimately being unsustainable. A move to Distributed Agriculture is a good solution to these problems, and we believe that The Garden Tower can be a means to that end. Garden Tower Project – Partnerships The Garden Tower Project seeks ventures and partnerships with local businesses, Not-For-Profits, Universities, Government and non-governmental agencies, Corporations and Public and Private sector agencies. We seek to educate individuals and communities on the benefits of “Distributed Agriculture”, as a path to increasing resilience during times of price shocks or disruptions to the food supply. Our plan is to teach the importance of concepts, such as, sustainability and diversity while demonstrating this by integration of our projects in the community. The Garden Tower Project will allow individuals and communities to easily become more self-sufficient, sustainable and ultimately create a more resilient local economy. We share a vision of a world enhanced by easier gardening, healthier produce, and food security for all. We believe there is great need for education and community involvement in protecting ourselves from contaminants in our monolithic, over processed and inefficiently transported food supply. Our food system is troubled today, but much great work is being done to create a more sensible, sustainable, and healthy food system tomorrow. Garden Towers, when planted in any community, tend to grow and thrive along with that community bringing fresh, organic produce and a shared sense of beauty, awe and wonder, to those who are attentive. *Feed yourself, feed your community, feed your world!* http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Garden-Tower-Project.jpg Robert Puro2016-11-06 22:00:422016-11-08 23:51:47Self-Fertilizing Vertical Growing System Makes Home Gardening More AccessiblePage 1 of 41234

农业

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Black Gram(Urad Dal) Diseases Causal Organism Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, C. capsisi Damage The fungus attacks all aerial part parts and at any stage of plant growth. Symptoms are circular, black, sunken spots with dark center and bright red orange margins on leaves and pods. In severe infections, the affected parts wither off. Seedlings get blighted due to infection soon after seed germination. Survival & Favourable Conditions The pathogens survive on seed and plant debris Disease spreads in the field through air-borne conidia. The disease is more sever in cool and wet seasons. Hot water treatment at 54 degree centigrade for 10 min. Use disease free seed. Follow crop rotation Spray mancozeb 0.3% or carbendazim 0.5/Litre. ********************************************************************************** Bacterial Leaf Blight Xanthomonas phaseoli Damage It is characterized by many brown, dry and raised spots on the leaf surface. When the disease is severe several such spots coalesce, the leaves become yellow and fall off prematurely. The lower surface of the leaf appears red in colour due to the formation of raised spots. The stem and pods also get infected. The bacterium is seed-borne and through vines grow perennially. Rain splashes play an important role in the development and spreading of the disease. Grow tolerant varieties of the disease. Use disease free seed Destruction of debris and stubbles. Soaking the seed in 500 ppm Streptocycline solution for 30 min. before sowing followed by two sprays of Streptocycline combined with 3 g of Copper Oxychloride per litre at an interval of 12 days is recommended. ********************************************************************************** Cercospora leaf spot Cercospora canescens Damage Spots produced are small, numerous in number with pale brown centre and reddish brown margin. Similar spots also occur on branches and pods. Under favourable environmental conditions, severe leaf spotting and defoliation occurs at the time of flowering and pod formation. The fungus is seed-borne and also survives on plant debris in the soil. High humidity favours disease development. Cultivate resistant varieties. Intercrop the moong with tall growing cereals and millets. Follow clean cultivation. Maintain low crop population density and wide row planting. The crude extracts of cassava, spiny amaranth, poinsettia, ipil-ipil, alascuatro, tagetes, garlic, mayana and zinger are applied for controlling the disease effectively. Mulching reduces the disease incidence resulting in increase yield. Chemical Control Cercospora leaf spot was effectively controlled by only a spray of Carbendazim (0.05%) at 30 days after sowing. ********************************************************************************** Corynespora Leaf Spot Corynespora cassiicola Damage By this disease yields decrease drastically. Symptoms of this disease develop on leaves when the crop reaches flowering stage. Lesions begin as dark reddish brown circular spot usually on the upper surface of the leaf and they expand to become larger spots. In advanced stages the spots coalesce to form patches. Shot-holing and severe defoliation is a marked symptom in advanced stages of infection. The fungus is seed-borne and can survive on host debris for two years. Use tolerant varieties LBG 167. Corynespora leaf spot was effectively controlled by only a spray of ********************************************************************************** Leaf Curl Leaf Curl Virus Damage An important and potential killer of green gram plants, more severe in Kharif season. The earliest symptoms appear on youngest leaves as chlorosis around some lateral veins and its branches near the margin. The leaves show curling of margin downwards. Some of the leaves show twisting. The veins show reddish brown discolouration on the under surface which also extends to the petiole. Plants showing symptoms within 5 weeks after sowing invariably remain stunted and majority of these die due to top necrosis within a week or two. Plants infected in late stages of growth do not show severe curling and twisting of the leaves but show conspicuous venial chlorosis any where on the leaf lamina. The disease develops in the fields mainly through seed or rubbing of diseased leaves with the healthy ones. Timely sowing. Complete field and crop sanitation. Take control measures for thrips. The virus is transmitted by thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis, and hence can be managed by controlling thrips by spraying 1 g Acephate or 2 ml Dimethoate per litre. Leaf Crinkle Virus Rhizotonia solani Damage The disease usually attacks black gram in all seasons. Characterized by enlargement of leaves followed by crinckled surface of leaf lamina. The crinckling is more pronounced on younger leaves. Flowering is delayed by 8-10 days. Inflorescence turns bushy in appearance. Pod setting is curtailed which decreases the yield drastically. The virus is seed transmitted. Whiteflies, aphids and epilachna beetles also transmit the disease. The viral diseases can be controlled by applying following measures. The crop must be sown timely. The spacing between the lines should be maintained at 30 to 40 cms. Only certified seeds should be used for sowing. If the seeds are not treated then seed treatment should be done. In endemic areas only tolerant and resistant varieties should be used. Weeds plants should be rouged out at their inception. Insect, fungal and nematode vectors should be controlled using suitable pesticides. Control white fly as it spreads the virus. Grow resistant varieties like ADT-3. Removal and quick burning of the infected plant. Seed-borne infection can be eliminated by hot water treatment of seed at 55 deg C for 30 minutes Spraying insecticides 3 weeks after sowing to control sucking pests can help checking the spread of the disease. ********************************************************************************** Macrophomina Blight Macrophomina phaseolina Damage In pre-emergence stage, the fungus causes seed rot and rotting of germinating seedlings. In post-emergence stage, seedlings get blighted due to soil or seed borne infection. Decay of secondary roots and shredding of the cortex region of the tap root are symptoms. Small, circular, brown spots appear on the cotyledons or on young leaves. At podding stage, some of the veins in the leaf develop copper colour. As the severity increases, drooping of leaves occurs due to weakening and breakage of the veins. Such leaves droop, dry and shed. The pathogen can survive through seed, soil, diseased plant parts and host plants. The severity of the disease increases with the increase in temperatures. Fungus survives in upper layers of the soil and enters plant through stem. Deep ploughing. Clean cultivation. Crop rotation with non pulse crop. Destroy the diseased plant debris by burning of burying in the soil. Seed treatment with carbendazim + Thiram 1:2. *********************************************************************************** Erysiphe polygoni DC Damage White powdery patches appear on leaves and other green parts which later become dull coloured. These patches gradually increase in size and become circular covering the lower surface also. When the infection is severe, both the surfaces of the leaves are completely covered by whitish powdery growth. Severely affected parts get shriveled and distorted. In severe infections, foliage becomes yellow causing premature defoliation. The disease also creates forced maturity of the infected plants which results in heavy yield losses. The pathogen has a wide host range and survives in oidial form on various hosts in off-season. Secondary spread is through air-borne oidia produced in the season. Use resistant varieties The seeds must be sown early in the month of June to avoid early incidence of the disease on the crop. Powdery mildew could be controlled by spraying Carbendazim (0.05%) and Penconalzole (0.05%) Two spray of Carbendazim or Thiophanate Methyl 1 g ml or Tridemorph 1 ml per litre, one dose immediately after the disease appearance and the second dose 15 days later effectively manage the disease ********************************************************************************** Root Rot and Leaf Blight Rhizoctonia solani Damage The pathogens cause seed decay, root rot, damping-off, seedling blight, stem canker and leaf blight in green gram. The disease occurs commonly at podding stage. In the initial stages, the fungus causes seed rot, seedling blight and root rot symptoms. The affected leaves turn yellow in colour and brown irregular lesions appear on leaves. On coalescence of such lesions, big blotches are formed and the affected leaves start drying prematurely. Roots and basal portion of the stem become black in colour and the bark peels off easily. The affected plants dry up gradually. When the tap root of the affected plant is split open, reddening of internal tissues is visible. The pathogen is soil-borne. Grow resistant varieties. Avoid moisture stress in the soil especially at podding stage. Seed treatment with 4g Trichoderma viride formulation Seed treatment is effective is reducing the disease incidences. Seed treatment with Thiram + Carbendazim (2:1) 0.25% seed reduces the disease. ********************************************************************************** Uromyces phaseoli The disease appears as circular reddish brown pustules which appear more commonly on the underside of the leaves, less abundant on pods and sparingly on stems. When leaves are severely infected, both the surfaces are fully covered by rust pustules. Shriveling followed by defoliation resulting in yield losses. Use tolerant varieties Spray Mancozeb 3g to control of the disease. ********************************************************************************** Seed and Seedling Rot Rhizoctonia solani, Macrophomina phaseolina Pythium aphanidermatum, Sclerotium rolfsii Several fungi growing on the seed coat of green gram cause rotting of the seeds resulting in failure of germination. Leaves of affected seedlings dry and die suddenly. Basal portion of the stem weakens and appears brown in colour. Dried seedlings are seen sparsely here and there in the field within 3 weeks after sowing. The pathogens are soil-borne. Green gram cultivars, PS 16 and Pusa Bisaki are tolerant. Seed treatment is advised. Seed treatment with 3g Thiram per kilogram of seed can reduce the disease incidence. ********************************************************************************** Stem canker In rice fallows, symptoms appear on 4 weeks old black gram crop as raised white cankers at the base of the stem. These enlarge gradually and turn as raised brown streaks spreading upwards. Plants are stunted and leaves dark green, mottled and reduced in size. Normal leaves on the affected plants drop suddenly and dry. Flowering and podding is greatly reduced. When the affected plants are split open vertically from the collar downwards reddish discolouration of the internal tissues is clearly visible while the internal root tissues appear white. Use tolerant varieties. Field and crop sanitation. Summer ploughing. Crop rotation. Seed treatment with carbendazim + Thiram 1:2. ********************************************************************************** Yellow Mosaic Virus The disease is prevalent on black gram. Initially mild scattered yellow spots appear on young leaves. The next trifoliate leaves emerging from the growing apex show irregular yellow and green patches alternating with each other. Spots gradually increase in size and ultimately some leaves turn completely yellow. Infected leaves also show necrotic symptoms. Diseased plants are stunted, mature late and produce very few flowers and pods. Pods of infected plants are reduced in size and turn yellow in colour. The disease is transmitted by whitefly, Bemisia, tabaci. Use reistant/ tolerant varieties. Conserve Paecilomyces farinosus fungus, a parasite of whitefly. Apply 10% phorate granules at the rate of 1kg/ha in the soil before sowing. OR Control white fly using insecticides. ********************************************************************************** Posted by Pravakar Padhial Urad DalBlack Beluga Lentils) Aeroponic farming agriculture machineries Aloe Vera(Herb) Ash gourd(winter melon) Asparagus(Satavari-herb) Ber Fruit Bitroot bitter gourd/bitter melon Cantola(Kankad) Cardamom(Ilaichi) Cassava(topioca/simili alu) Cinnamon(Dalchini) Cluster beans(guar) Coriander(spice/herb) Cotton Agriculture Cowpea(barbatti/jhudanga) Cumin(spice) Decorative plants-Cactus Dolichos(sem/vegetable) Elephant Foot Yam/vegetable Emu Farming Fenugreek(Methi) Flower - Marigold Ginseng(Herb) green vegetable(ayurvedic herb-brahmi booti) hitech farming Irrigation for agriculture Jatropha(biodiesel) Masoor Dal(Masoor Gram) Methi(Fenugreek) cultivation Mung Dal(Yellow Lentils) Nutmeg(Jaiphal) paddy(rice) Pan(betel vine) Parval(Potala) Pegeon pea(Arhar dal) polyhouse Rajma(Kidney Beans) Spinach the green vegetable Sponge Gourd(tarali) Sugarcane Cultivation taro(saru)/vegetable Tendli(Ivy gourd) Trachyspermum ammi True yams(khamba alu) Urad Dal(Black Beluga Lentils) Water Spinach/kalam shag watermelon cultivation Cuttack, Orissa, India I am a graduate from B.J.B.College, Bhubaneswar,Orissa,India with political science (Hons).Presently working in an Indian Nationalised Bank,Kolkata with twenty seven years of experience . All Copyrights belongs to Pravakar Padhial. Picture Window theme. Powered by Blogger.

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The Potential of Urban Agriculture Innovations in the City, from Hydroponics to Aquaponics November 5, 2016/0 Comments/in aquaponics, Local Food, Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Urban Agriculture /by Robert Puro How large a role will local food demand play with respect to the growth of indoor and controlled environment urban farming ventures? What are the costs involved in starting a small scale commercial hydroponic/aquaponics farm? What are the opportunities (community and economic) for high-tech controlled environment growing in urban environments such as Orange County? What tools or assets would give an entrepreneur the best chance for success in launching a vertical farming venture in the city? To learn the answer to these questions, and more, you won’t want to miss the ‘The Potential of Controlled Environment Agriculture in the City’ panel at the upcoming Grow Local OC: Future of Local Food Systems slated for Nov. 10 at California State University, Fullerton. The following expert speakers will address the challenges and opportunities present in employing innovative agricultural growing systems in cities: Erik Cutter is Managing Director of Alegría Fresh, an urban farming company engaged in promoting and deploying zero waste regenerative food and energy solutions using hybrid soils and integrated technologies. In 2009, Mr. Cutter founded EnviroIngenuity with a group of forward-thinking professionals to take advantage of the growing demand for more efficient, cost effective sustainable energy solutions, employing solar PV, hi-efficiency LED lighting, green building and zero waste food production systems. More than 35 years of travel throughout the US, Mexico, South America, Africa, French Polynesia, the Peruvian Amazon, Australia and New Zealand gave Mr. Cutter expert insight into the unique investment opportunities that exist in each region, focusing on sustainable living models and the increasing availability of super foods as a major new market opportunity. Chris Higgins is General Manager of Hort Americas, LLC (HortAmericas.com) a wholesale supply company focused on all aspects of the horticultural industries. He is also owner of UrbanAgNews.com (eMagazine) and a founding partner of the Foundation for the Development of Controlled Environment Agriculture. With over 15 years of experience, Chris is dedicated to the commercial horticulture industry and is inspired by the current opportunities for continued innovation in the field of controlled environment agriculture. Chris is a leader in providing technical assistance to businesses, including commercial greenhouse operations, state-of-the-art hydroponic vegetable facilities, vertical farms, and tissue culture laboratories. In his role as General Manager at Hort Americas he works with seed companies, manufacturers, growers and universities regarding the development of projects, new products and ultimately the creation of brands. Chris’ role includes everything from sales and marketing to technical support and general management/owner responsibilities. Register here: http://growlocaloc.eventbrite.com Ed Horton is the President and CEO of Urban Produce. Ed brings over 25 years of experience from the technology industry to Urban Produce. His vision of automation is what drives Urban Produce to become more efficient. With God and his family by his side he is excited to move Urban Produce forward to provide urban cities nationwide with fresh locally grown produce 365 days a year. Ed enjoys golfing and walking the harbor with his wife on the weekends. Chef Adam Navidi – In a county named for its former abundance of orange groves, chef and farmer Adam Navidi is on the forefront of redefining local food and agriculture through his restaurant, farm, and catering business. Navidi is executive chef of Oceans & Earth restaurant in Yorba Linda, runs Chef Adam Navidi Catering and operates Future Foods Farms in Brea, an organic aquaponic farm that comprises 25 acres and several greenhouses. Navidi’s journey toward aquaponics began when he was at the pinnacle of his catering business, serving multi-course meals to discerning diners in Orange County. Their high standards for food matched his own. “My clients wanted the best produce they could get,” he says. “They didn’t want lettuce that came in a box.” So after experimenting with growing lettuce in his backyard, he ventured into hydroponics. Later, he learned of aquaponics. Now, aquaponics is one of the primary ways Navidi grows food. As part of this system he raises Tilapia, which is served at his restaurant and by his catering enterprise. Nate Storey is the CEO at Bright Agrotech, a company that seeks to create access to real food for all people through small farmer empowerment. By focusing on equipping and educating local growers with vertical farming technology and high quality online education, Nate and the Bright Agrotech team are helping to build a distributed, transparent food economy. He completed his PhD at the University of Wyoming in Agronomy, and lives in Laramie with his wife and children. http://growlocaloc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/controlled-environment-agriculture-panelists.jpg Robert Puro Robert Puro2016-11-05 23:33:302016-11-06 17:19:18The Potential of Urban Agriculture Innovations in the City, from Hydroponics to Aquaponics Only 6 Days Left Until the ‘Grow Local OC: Future of Urban Food Systems... Self-Fertilizing Vertical Growing System Makes Home Gardening More Accessib... Scroll to top

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20130314RC.WisteriaVine023.JPG The wisteria vine blooming at a Sierra Madre home on March 14, 2013 near Los Angeles, California. The wisteria vine is more than one acre in size and weighs 250 tons. It has more than 1.5 million blossoms every year with 40 blooms per square foot. The branches of this wisteria vine reach an 500 feet long. Horticultural experts have estimated the branches can grow 24 inches in 24 hours. The wisteria vine is a Chinese variety. It was planted in 1894 by William and Alice Brugman. The Guinness Book of World Records has certified the vine as the world's largest blossoming plant. (Photo by Ringo Chiu/PHOTOFORMULA.com). The Guinness Book of World Records The World's Largest Wisteria Vine

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For Immediate Release: November 19, 1996 Media Contact: Claudia Chandler -- 916 - 654 - 4989 Energy Commission's Irrigation Program Commended by U.S. Department of Energy For its efforts to save both power and water, the California Energy Commission's Energy in Agriculture Program has received a 1996 National Award for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy from the United States Department of Energy. The award, presented to the Energy Commission in Sacramento on November 13, gives special recognition to the water conservation aspects of the agricultural irrigation program "for its outstanding contributions in promoting an environmentally sustainable energy future." "Since water pumping accounts for more than 30 percent of the state's total on-farm energy use, achieving irrigation energy efficiency and conserving water has become a priority of the Energy Commission's agricultural program," explained Energy Commission Chairman Charles Imbrecht at the awards presentation. A total of 70 demonstration irrigation projects have targeted successful water and energy management projects. As an example of the program's success, Imbrecht cited a pepper farm in Ventura County that recently replaced a hand-moved sprinkler system with a sub-surface drip irrigation system. The innovation increased crop yield by 30 percent while reducing water use by 20 percent and improving the average yearly net revenue by $1,900 per acre. "The new drip irrigation system allows the grower to use energy more efficiently, contributes to a decline in plant disease problems, and improves the efficient use of chemical fertilizers," Imbrecht said. In addition to irrigation projects, the Energy in Agriculture Program promotes other agricultural advances such as newly developed greenhouse technologies, improved pest management and soil fertility practices, the development of sustainable agriculture and energy production. "Since 1987, the program has provided financial support, technical assistance and educational materials to California's farmers," Imbrecht added. "By promoting energy efficient, cost effective and environmentally safe alternatives to conventional farming practices, it enhances our state's food and fiber industries." For their leadership in irrigation innovation, Imbrecht also recognized the organizations contributing to the success of the program, including Dr. Charles Burt, Director of the Irrigation Training and Research Center at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo; Dr. Blaine Hanson and Dr. Larry Schwankl, irrigation specialists at the University of California, Davis; and UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisors. "These agricultural professionals provide invaluable technical support and serve as key players in our educational outreach program," said Imbrecht. Return to What's New! Do you have a question about this News Release? Call us at 916-654-4989 or send e-mail to: [email protected]

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World forestry in perspective An interview with C.H. Murray, Assistant Director-General, FAO At the end of his first year as head of the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Assistant Director-General C.H. Murray reflects on the challenges and opportunities facing world forestry. (Interview conducted by Unasylva Editor Stephen A. Dembner) C.H. Murray, Assistant Director-General, FAO Unasylva. First of all, from your vantage point as head of the Forestry Department of the leading UN agency for agriculture and rural development, what do you see as the major challenges facing world forestry in the 1990s? Murray. The world forestry situation today is an interesting mixture of opportunities and problems. The challenge facing the forestry sector globally has never been more serious, but at the same time the general understanding and appreciation of the role of the forest have never been better. Hence, the forestry sector and foresters have an opportunity that has never been presented before, and probably will never come again. The ground is fertile, there is clear expectation of advances in dealing with the problems we are facing. It behoves the foresters and the managers of the sector to exert themselves to the utmost to make serious attempts to confront the problems. How can one categorize the issues before us? As we come to the end of the twentieth century and begin to look forward to the next, there are four specific issues that I feel we must focus upon: land use and the reconciliation of competing objectives; the question of the environment, which is only just beginning to be understood and will unquestionably loom larger; international trade as it affects forestry and forest products; and of course social issues, because in the final analysis the underlying objective is neither to benefit the foresters nor the powers that be, but rather the people who populate this soon to be overcrowded planet. Unasylva. Let's deal with each of those four points in a little more detail. First of all, land use. We are in a situation where the developed countries are producing more than they need while at the same time, in the developing countries, forests are coming under tremendous pressure from people simply trying to make ends meet. Murray. In fact, the question of land use is one of the great paradoxes of our time. While the developed countries are taking highly publicized and only partially successful measures to reduce their cropland area in an attempt to curb their surplus of agricultural produce, the forests of the developing world are being destroyed largely, although not exclusively, to meet the everyday basic needs for food and fuel of increasing rural populations. Having said this, let me hasten to add that the solution cannot be found in the forests alone, but rather requires an integrated approach to land use planning. In this respect the forester needs to collaborate with the agriculturist, the sociologist, etc. in a true multidisciplinary approach. We need to look at the resource as a whole and not just at the forestry subsector in isolation. There are hundreds of forestry plans that languish in cupboards and on shelves because these plans totally ignored the wider reality. In this connection, I would refer to the expression of concern over this aspect on the part not only of FAO but of the international community at large, which led eventually to the launching of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan (TFAP). Suffice it to say that one of the basic principles of the TFAP process is that the planning for the forestry subsector must be consonant and closely interrelated with the overall socio-economic development plans of the nation. Unasylva. You also refer to environmental concerns as a major issue for forestry in the decade, and you note that we are just at the beginning of an understanding in that field. Where do you feel the most significant battle lines will be drawn in terms of environmental issues in forestry? Will they be in developed or developing countries? Murray. I would prefer not to discuss the issue in terms of battle lines, but the fact is that concern for the environment is of global relevance. The developed countries have their own sources of environmental damage-acid rain, industrial wastes, heavy consumption of carbon fuels, etc. In the developing countries, concern over industrial pollution has not been expressed to dale simply because it is not relevant to the immediate needs of the majority of the people; but now the heavy destruction of forest land is being recognized as an enormous threat to the environment. The point is that growing populations require an expansion of agricultural production. Part of this can be met by increased productivity from land that is currently under cultivation, but part of this need will have to be met by the transfer of forest land to agricultural use. The issue is how to ensure that the land which is transferred is, in fact, suitable for sustained cultivation, and that as this transfer takes place, trees continue to play a role in farming systems. Unasylva. How would you characterize the importance of social issues in forestry development? Murray. Social issues are fundamental. It is important to remember that the forests ale in the true sense of the word, a primordial resource. That is to say, at one time the entire global population was made up of forest dwellers, deriving benefits-direct and indirect-from this natural resource. In fact, those people who are still true forest dwellers in the original sense, by and large live in complete harmony with their natural environment. They know exactly how to utilize it without destroying it. The forest dwellers of the Amazon are an example that comes to mind. In many civilizations, for example, the system of fallow has been used for centuries if not millennia. In fact, in a situation of plentiful land the fallow system is eminently sustainable. But where you have more people than the available land can support in a fallow system, depletion of the resource and thus of its productive capacity is inevitable. What has happened is that man has become "civilized" and then "industrialized". This has had the effect of moving the so-called civilized man so far from his original environment that there is a great deal of ignorance about nature even among relatively well-read people. In the developing world, the situation is even more critical because so great a percentage of the population is rural and they depend much more than has been realized in the past on the goods and services of the forest for their very existence. Then we look at the rural poor who are on the fringes of the forest. They are not forest dwellers in the original sense, and they are not urbanized. Instead, they are farmers trying to make a living by converting forest resources to agricultural lands. If the pressure is to be relieved we have to look increasingly beyond the forest; but for those who remain dependent on the forest, we have to involve them more and more in its conservation and utilization. People will only preserve and protect the forest when they perceive it as more valuable to them as forest than under some other form of land use. What it comes down to is ensuring that the local community is provided with the means to obtain the basic necessities for their survival and development. Here the FAO Forestry Department has been doing pioneering work for some years now with its Community Forestry Programme. Through community forestry, we are aiming at reversing the situation of the past in which bright young professionals from the cities assisted by forest guards went to tell the people in rural communities what was good for them. Instead, through the process of consultation and two-way communication at the local level, people are being informed about and involved in the management of the land and the forest so that they are both participants in and beneficiaries of the protection of the resource. In my early years as a forester, much time and effort were devoted to devising codes and enforcing laws aimed at keeping people out of the forest. Today the concern is how to ensure that rural people can satisfy their needs for the goods and services of the forests on a sustainable basis. Unasylva. To pick up on the question of international trade-certainly we are seeing a lot of attention focused on this aspect of forestry right now. Why is that the case? Murray. International trade has always been a very important element of the relationships between countries, and has become more so recently. It is in trade that we see the basic differences in outlook between the developed north and the developing south. This is particularly true in the case of forestry, including trade of both amber and highly processed products such as pulp and paper. The more the developing countries of the world seek to flex their industrial trade muscles, the more these differences in point of view come to the fore. Here it is important to note the major international efforts in this area, for example, UNCTAD and the Punta del Este declaration, and the ongoing Uruguay Round of negotiations of GATT on natural based products. All of these aim as far as possible to encourage the free interchange of goods and more effective development of international trade. In this connection it might be opportune to refer to well-meaning suggestions whereby, as a means of slowing down the destruction of forests, some organizations or interest groups have been advocating actions such as the banning of the importation of timber from developing to developed countries. I am certain these suggestions are well-meaning but, in fact, if these proposals were to be pursued they would be counterproductive. Why? First, the figures show that the greatest part of the destruction of the forests is not caused by logging, nor by the expansion of the timber trade. On the contrary, most of the destruction is caused by poor people who, denied access to good agricultural land or other means of providing for themselves and their families, have no choice but to clear forest in an attempt to eke out an existence. Second, I have to repeat that the forest is a renewable resource, to be used to the greatest extent possible, so long as this is in a sound manner. Timber, like other resources, has value, and by barring timber imports from countries for which timber is a major source of export revenue, we would in fact aggravate the very problem we are trying to solve. We would cut off a source of revenue at both national and local levels, and the possibility of further investment in forest resource protection and management. Unasylva. One of the advantages forestry has had so far over agriculture is the absence of the overregulation that is threatening to throttle international agricultural trade Perhaps freedom in the international forestry trade is one of its strongest points. Murray. Up to this point, I would agree. In fact, in 1986 the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) was born out of the necessity to ensure that this trade freedom continues. FAO shares with this organization the concern that efforts to conserve tropical forest resources be based on appropriate utilization and management rather than on arbitrary trade embargos or tariffs. The FAO Forestry Department will continue to cooperate as closely as possible with organizations such as the ITTO in which we have strong interest. Unasylva. In your characterization of the issues facing forestry in the 1990s, you referred several times to the Tropical Forestry Action Plan. The TFAP has been heralded as a unique, ground-breaking attempt to confront the challenges facing forestry, particularly in the developing countries. Exactly where do we stand in terms of implementation of the TFAP? Murray. The Organization was given a tremendous vote of confidence by our Member Nations and the international community at large when we were called upon to discharge the coordinating role in the TFAP. Perhaps first I should clarify that the Tropical Forestry Action Plan is not a plan that FAO (or anyone else) is seeking to impose on the world. It is an approach or a strategy which we are encouraging member countries to apply to their national situation in order to relieve bottlenecks in the subsector that impede progress in utilizing their forest resources for sustained development. Thus the Plan is to be applied at the national level, as far as possible by nationals, in full consonance with their planning authorities. Plans for forestry development must be fully in accord with overall plans for development. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION is a major threat to the forest environment in the developed countries In attempting to ensure this, as the coordinating agency, we seek to involve-along with governments-as many as possible of the international organizations that have an interest, the private sector, NGOs, etc. Most important, we try to encourage the government authorities themselves to involve their own local communities so that whatever is ultimately built into the Plan reflects the felt needs of the local people. The Plan has been extremely well received by the international community, member countries, international banks and most NGOs; some 70 countries have expressed interest in it and are in fact taking steps to implement the Plan according to their own particular situations and needs. This is a source of satisfaction but, in all fairness, I must comment that I have two sources of concern. One, because of the general acceptance of the Plan at all levels, expectations are high, particularly at the national level. My concern is that these expectations should not be frustrated. Should that occur, the whole objective of the exercise could suffer a setback from which it might be impossible to recover. Following on from this is the question of how one seeks to fulfil these expectations. We have to face the reality that there are very few developing countries which have at their disposal the necessary resources (by resources I mean trained personnel as much as finance) to make a significant impact on the problem of tropical deforestation. Therefore, if the international community is to be seen to be serious about its expressed concern over deforestation, this expressed concern needs to be substantially backed by the application of resources. Although we have now completed eight TFAP national exercises, the rate of flow of resources in response to the needs that have been identified is not what had been hoped for. C.H. Murray - A profile The appointment of Mr C.H. Murray to the post of Assistant Director-General of FAO and bead of the Organization's Forestry Department in December 1988 marks the culmination of more than 30 years dedicated to forestry development and international service. After early work experiences as a science teacher and oil-drilling engineer Mr Murray, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, joined his country's Forest Service. Showing high promise in his initial responsibilities, Mr Murray was approved for participation in a foreign study programme, and gained a BA and MA in forestry, both with honours, from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom). His specialization was forest resource management and policy implications. Upon completion of his studies in 1961, Mr Murray returned to Trinidad and Tobago as Assistant Conservator of Forests. In 1963, at the age of 33, he became Chief Conservator of Forests-the administrative and technical head of the national Forest Service-responsible for the planning, implementation and monitoring of all matters relating to forestry and wildlife management. The magnitude of the job can be inferred from the fact that government-owned forest resources covered 40 percent of the total land surface of the newly independent nation. Mr Murray joined FAO in 1968 as an officer in the Forest Policy Service; after serving in the Forestry Department as Project Operations Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, and then as a specialist in integrated approaches to land use planning in the Forest Resources Division, he was seconded to the United Nations Development Programme in 1975 as Senior Agricultural Adviser and FAO Country Representative in Jamaica. On his return to FAO in 1977, Mr Murray served as Attaché de Cabinet, and in 1986 was appointed Directeur de Cabinet. In 1980 Mr Murray received an award from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in recognition of outstanding service in the field of forest resources management. AN EARLY IMAGE Mr Murray as a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Forest Service Unasylva. Is everyone really on the TFAP bandwagon? There seem to be misunderstandings or misconceptions that are leading to a lack of support in some quarters, particularly among some NGOs. What is the root of the problem and what is FAO doing to try to counterbalance it? Murray. I believe that the root of the problem is an information gap that has led to misunderstandings about what the TFAP really is, its mechanisms, procedures and ultimate goals. It should be remembered that the TFAP was launched not only by FAO but by a group of concerned organizations including the World Resources Institute, one of the most respected NGOs. I am convinced that the criticisms, and fortunately they have been few although those few have been particularly loudly trumpeted, spring from a misunderstanding of the TFAP as a whole. All the guidelines on TFAP stress the critical role of local and national NGOs in ensuring grassroots participation. For the TFAP to be truly successful, they must be deliberately and systematically involved at the earliest possible stage so as to ensure that the priorities identified reflect the real needs and social perceptions of these communities. For this reason the harmonization of approaches between forestry and other sectors, i.e. an intersectoral, multidisciplinary approach, becomes fundamental. Involvement of the private sector is also encouraged. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN TROPICAL TIMBER must not be restricted by the implementation of unilateral embargos However, the fact that there are misunderstandings in some quarters means that FAO and the other organizations involved in the TFAP need to do more. Therefore, one major element in correcting this situation will be the dissemination as widely as possible of more information on the TFAP. Of course, because the TFAP is a national exercise, it must be the government that takes the initiative in each country. FAO has the responsibility to assist in this all-important planning effort. Unasylva. It is now just over one year that you have been Assistant Director-General and head of the FAO Forestry Department. When you came to the job you inherited a budget and an operating situation under severe stress from an agency-wide financial crisis. Now, however, a new budget has been approved reflecting a two-year programme of work and budget which seems to be characterized by at least cautious optimism. What are some of the key points in terms of FAO's plans to respond to the issues you characterized earlier as being of primary importance? Murray. It is true that the Forestry Department and the Organization have been living through a very lean period, and I have to say that while the prospects seem to be improving, the diet has not changed. We are still in a situation of budget restraint and because of the earlier crisis, there has developed and still exists a significant number of vacancies in the staff of the Forestry Department. This is particularly serious because what the Organization has to offer at headquarters is talent and brain power. When posts become vacant activities languish. In this new biennium coinciding with the beginning of the 1990s, I would like to feel that the Department will launch a strenuous effort. Although small, it will be called upon increasingly to carry a heavier burden. To highlight some of the areas where we will be focusing our attention, I must refer again to the Tropical Forestry Action Plan. The TFAP has become and will remain the main thrust of the Department for at least the next five years. From the TFAP exercises under way two areas of importance have already emerged. The TFAP is fundamentally a planning exercise and the Department is being called upon to redouble its ability to assist governments in their planning efforts. Therefore, one primary focus of this biennium will be the strengthening and streamlining of the planning service. The second area which has emerged is that of research. One of the main conclusions of the Bellagio II meeting in December 1988 was that the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) should widen its mandate to include forestry research. It is my intention that the FAO Forestry Department gear itself to complement the efforts of the CGIAR, in particular to strengthen national research institutions. Thus the current work programme calls for the creation of a new position of forestry research officer. Forest protection is another area that will be receiving extra attention, in response to environmental challenges confronting forestry worldwide-fire, pollution, pests and, of course, deforestation. Much of the rural population depends directly on the forests as a source of goods and services but traditionally at government levels the forests have been seen as a source of timber, pulp and paper. Over these last years it has become manifestly clear that rural populations obtain many other products from the forests. In fact, some recent research has produced convincing evidence that the value of one hectare of Amazonian forest is worth much more if it is managed on a sustained basis for non-traditional products than if it were cleared for its timber. With that in mind, during this biennium we will focus on non-timber forest products and seek to understand better their value in development. This effort will be linked closely with our work in community forestry, as we will need to explore and benefit from the knowledge and experience already existing at the community level. This does not mean however, that we will neglect the so-called traditional forest industries or our responsibilities in respect of the developed countries. The Department on behalf of FAO continually monitors the global situation through our outlook and timber trend studies. FAO remains the only source of global statistics on forestry. I would be remiss if I did not mention our field programme which represents the cutting edge of the Department's activities. Through the joint efforts of the field programme and the regular programme, we expect that in this biennium we will be able to channel some 100 million dollars of extra-budgetary resources to the projects and programmes of our member countries to support their developmental efforts in forestry. Unasylva. To conclude, looking forward first to the end of the decade, and then to the end of the twentieth century, what are your aspirations to for world forestry in general and for FAO in particular? Murray. The major problem facing the world is that of the destruction of the forest and if by the end of the decade we will have succeeded in slowing the rate of destruction by even 50 percent, I think we will have made a major achievement. From the point of view of the Organization I would like to see a stronger, more vibrant, more active and even more aggressive Forestry Department. FAO has such a pivotal role to play in helping countries-and here I stress "helping". FAO cannot solve the problems alone; we can only help and inspire countries to deal with their forestry challenges-and to do this we need to have at our disposal the best talent available and a liberal amount of resources.

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A new way to make machinery Apr 19, 2017 Tobacco purchasing should be based on value, not price Apr 03, 2017 Some Georgia growers wanted to talk soybean weed control, most didn’t Apr 10, 2017 Caledonia: Where prisoners have grown their food for 125 years Apr 04, 2017 Livestock There’s plenty to see for everyone at the 36th annual Sunbelt Ag Expo • The Sunbelt Expo is North America’s Premier Farm Show, offering some 300 seminars and demonstrations during the three days that will appeal to farm families and rural enthusiasts. • This year’s show will have more than 1,200 exhibits, many of them featuring cutting-edge farm production technology. By John Leidner, Contributing Writer | Oct 10, 2013 This year marks the 36th anniversary of farm-related innovation and education for the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition. If you are involved in agriculture, make your plans to attend this eventful three-day celebration, to be held Oct. 15-17, near Moultrie, Ga. The Sunbelt Expo is North America’s Premier Farm Show, offering some 300 seminars and demonstrations during the three days that will appeal to farm families and rural enthusiasts. This year’s show will have more than 1,200 exhibits, many of them featuring cutting-edge farm production technology. Harvesting and tillage demonstrations set the Expo apart from other static agricultural trade shows. This year, you’ll see a major change in the operation of the shuttle wagons that take visitors to the crop fields. For the first time, you’ll be able to take a shuttle ride to specific locations. For instance, if you want to see cotton harvesting, there will be designated shuttle wagons for that route. Or if you want to see hay harvesting, you can take a shuttle that will go directly to the hay fields. The same is true for peanut harvesting. The change this year will allow you to save time in getting to and from the field demonstrations that are most important for your farming operation. This year’s Expo will feature corn and soybean harvesting demonstrations for the first time in many years. Corn and soybean harvesting were popular during the early years of Expo, but as acreage of these crops declined, these demonstrations were dropped from the field demonstration schedule. Higher prices in recent years for both corn and soybeans and an accompanying increase in bean and corn acreage in the Southeast have helped to convince major equipment manufacturers to show off their newest grain combines during the 2013 Expo. Corn, soybean harvest schedule Corn and soybean harvesting will only take place on Tuesday and Wednesday of the show, and for a limited time. On those two days, the corn will be picked at 11 a.m. and the soybeans will be harvested at 1 p.m. You can download an appfor your smart phone and other handheld devices to get updates on demonstrations and events. The Sunbelt Expo Mobile App is available for the third consecutive year from Penton Media, publisher of Southeast Farm Pressand this official Expo program. The mobile app will also keep you heading in the right direction during your time in the exhibit grounds. (The app can be downloaded by clicking on the icon at the bottom of this website’s homepage). Florida is this year’s spotlight state at the farm show. The Florida exhibit (location B-6) will feature the theme of Viva Florida 500. This is a celebration of the 500 years since Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon arrived on the shores of Florida in 1513 and gave the state its name. While Florida’s Native American heritage dates back more than 12,000 years, Spain’s claim in 1513 began a new era. Viva Florida 500 promotes the state as a place where the world’s cultures began to unite and transform into the great nation we know today as the United States of America. A ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the Florida spotlight state exhibit will be held on the opening day of the show. Wednesday, Oct. 16, is a day set aside for activities for Young Farmers and their families. These events will include the traditional pork barbeque cooking contest, the horseshoe pitching tournament, and an evening dinner with entertainment and valuable door prizes. Titan/Goodyear will again sponsor a tire auction during the first two days of the show, with proceeds benefiting the Georgia FFA Foundation. Since the auction began, more than $250,000 has been raised for Georgia FFA. The auction will take place at 1 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday (location A-3). You’ll find a wide variety of tires that can be used on all terrain vehicles, combines, small tractors and logging equipment. Test drive pickup trucks The Expo has an expansivedisplay of pickup and automotive exhibits. You’ll be able to test drive the new 2014 Chevy Silverado at the Chevy test track. Formerly in-the-field demos, the truck test track has been relocated to C-14 in the exhibit grounds adjacent to the Chevy static exhibit. Also, be sure to register to win a prize pickup from Chevy, GMC or Ram Trucks that will be given away to some lucky visitor. The Expo will also have a drawing for the main gate prize, so be sure to register in front of the Expo water tower for the chance to win a new lawn tractor from Massey Ferguson. Among in-the-field demos, John Deere will offer test drives for its Gator line of all terrain vehicles. Titan Tire will offer a brand new test track that will showcase some of the unique tire configurations used by growers in order to overcome field challenges for their applications. You can also test drive Honda ATVs (B-14) and Yamaha ATVs (A-10). Among the changes you’ll see on the exhibit grounds, T-L Irrigation will open a new permanent exhibit building (location C-2). The RFD television network will be one of the new Expo exhibitors (A-10), with a 53-foot bus and entertainer Kevin Sport. Kevin hosts as well as performs on a show called The Right Place.The show is an entertaining and encouraging mix of interviews of and performances by country music artists and gives its television audience an opportunity to see seasoned artists as well as the up-and-coming. The family living exhibits will return with another strong lineup, including the popular Kitchen Craft cooking demonstrations. Kitchen Craft will have a prize drawing for a free set of cookware on Thursday at 1 p.m. The Family Living building, located to your left as you enter the main gate, will once again host Backyard Gardening seminars throughout each day of the show. Packer Produce, a firm located at the State Farmer’s Market in Moultrie, will be one of the new exhibitors in the Family Living building. They’ll feature a “Taste of Georgia” and offer a wide variety of edible souvenirs in an exhibit that will be like a mini farmer’s market. Dairy exhibits The dairy exhibits (F-7) will feature a mobile dairy classroom, along with a cow-milking contest for state agriculture commissioners from the Southeast. The cow-milking contest will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Seminars of interest to dairy farmers will cover topics such as ultrasound for reproduction management, silage basics and forage-based rations. Each day of the show, you can see alpaca seminars and demonstrations, along with related exhibits (F-8). Northeast of the exhibits, and near the Expo fish ponds, you can pick up information on pond management and aquaculture throughout each day of the show. The beef cattle exhibits (E-8), along with cattle management and forage seminars will be sponsored for the second consecutive year by Santa Gertrudis Breeders International. A popular beef producer panel discussion will also return for the second year in a row starting at 1:30 p.m. each day. Sheep and goat herd health seminars will also be held each day of the show (E-11). Nutrition, forages, marketing and health care for small ruminants are among the seminar topics. You’ll also get to see dairy goat milking demonstrations twice daily. The poultry exhibits (E-6) will offer seminars covering climate change, alternative litter materials, small layer flocks, poultry health and backyard flocks. The Southern States cooperative will again sponsor horse demonstrations and seminars in the Priefert Horse Arena (E-11). Some of the events planned for equine enthusiasts include pole bending, calf roping, goat tying, horsemanship, breakaway roping, team roping and barrel racing. At 12 noon each day, you can catch a presentation from Georgia Special Olympics on how children with special challenges can benefit by working with horses. The stock dog trials are among the most popular entertainment venues atthe farm show, and will feature continuous sheep trials each day of the show. You’ll find the stock dogs working in a field near the shuttle wagons and across from the Expo’s farm shop. The Expo features several special exhibit sections where you’ll see displays devoted to forestry and sawmills, antique tractors and equipment, pickups and automotive accessories, lawn and garden equipment, all terrain vehicles and hunting and fishing gear. The Expo has had a longstanding close relationship with land grant colleges and universities in the Southeast. You’re invited to visit these exhibits from the region’s agricultural colleges to see the latest in agricultural research, education and Extension programs. For much more on this year’s Expo, visit http://www.sunbeltexpo.com. A tale of two farmers: Loss of safety net tops worry list Florida adds three ag weather stations to network Georgia cotton growers shifting variety selections Illinois growers joining battle against resistant pigweed TAGS: Equipment Soybeans Cotton Peanuts Corn 0 comments Hide comments RelatedSunbelt Ag Expo executive director previews this year's eventAug 23, 2013Research farm sets Sunbelt Expo apart from other shows Sep 16, 2013Sunbelt Expo beef demos get new sponsor, producer presentationsSep 21, 2013Trump's trade rhetoric sends Mexico searching for new trading partnersApr 26, 2017 Load More

农业

2017-17/1827/en_head.json.gz/16961

The summer of '14: Short, cool and dry Enrique Martinez, 13, of Waterbury jumps over his brother, Jeremiah LaPorte, 14, Saturday at Ocean Beach Park in New London. Published August 31. 2014 12:01AM | Updated September 12. 2014 1:03PM By Izaskun E. Larrañeta Day Staff Writer Summer unofficially ends this weekend, but some are still wondering when it will begin. "There really hasn't been a summer this year, but more like late spring conditions," said Gary Lessor, a meteorologist with the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center. "After the cold and harsh winter we had, we were all excited for the summer to come, but it really never did ... and before you know it, it's Labor Day weekend." It was a summer without a single heat wave, which is defined by the National Weather Service as three consecutive days with temperatures above 90 degrees. In fact, there was not a single day this summer where it reached 90. The average summer temperature this season has been 67.8 degrees, one degree cooler than the normal average. As of Friday, the thermometer had hit 80 degrees only on 19 days in southeastern Connecticut. The warmest days of the season were June 18 and Aug. 9, when it reached 86 degrees on both days. "Last winter was too long and this summer was too short," said Lessor. This summer has been so cool that stores never ran short of air conditioners and the utility companies didn't have to ask consumers to conserve energy. Tara Vece, a manager of Morgan & White Appliance in Groton, said air conditioner sales this season were much less than last summer. "Usually, there is a significant rush on air conditioners when there is a heat wave," she said. "There haven't been multiple days in a row where it has been unbearable, so people just hold out. Air conditioners are usually used at night, but the nights have been nice and there really hasn't been a need for them." Marcia Blomberg, spokesperson for ISO New England, which operates high-voltage power transmission systems for six New England states, said air conditioner use drives the demand for electricity in the summer. Blomberg said peak demand, which refers to the highest amount of power used in a single hour, for June in New England was recorded on June 30 at 21,228 megawatts. One megawatt of electricity can serve about 1,000 average homes in New England, she said. The peak day for the following month was on July 2, when 24,409 megawatts were used. New England used about 8 percent less power in total this June and July compared to last year - about 22,600 gigawatt-hours this year compared to about 24,600 gigawatt-hours last year. One gigawatt is equal to 1,000 megawatts, and one gigawatt-hour can serve about 1 million homes for one hour. Rainfall below average Lessor said not only was this summer cooler than usual, the region received very little rain. The average rainfall total so far has been 6.92 inches, where it would normally be around 11.3 inches. The region is down 4 inches of rain, or about a month's total. And some garden centers have been feeling its effects. Rick Verkade, owner of Green Survival Gardens in Waterford, said the lack of water has been difficult on plants, but because he has an irrigation system, he has been able to water his plants properly. But some produce, such as tomatoes, have been slower to ripen this year because of the cooler temps. He said homeowners can avoid brown lawns or dead plants if they water deeper. That is exactly what Wayne Henson, advertising manager at Holdridge Home & Garden in Ledyard, is telling his customers. He noted that this month's showers, which produced several inches of rain, just ran off the ground because the soil was too dry. "We've been stressing to people that they will need to water extra this year," he said. Henson said because spring was so late to arrive, they lost a lot of plant sales in April. "We had a long cold winter," Henson said. "Some days in March could reach the 60s, but not this year. It wasn't until May when it started to get warm, and we had to play catch-up the entire time." Teri Smith, who owns Smith Acres in East Lyme with her husband Joe, said the lack of rain nearly caused them to lose their crop of corn. But she said the recent rainfall has helped to perk up the crop. The cool weather also delayed the ripening of peppers and eggplants. Lessor said as the fall approaches, temperatures will get above normal, but nothing record-breaking. But the extended forecast doesn't bode well for those wishing for a reprieve from last winter. Lessor said the extra moisture in the air brought forth by El Niño, an irregular warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific, could make this winter snowier than usual. The winter also could be about 1 degree cooler because of colder air lingering over central and southeastern Canada. "The sad part of the forecast is that the Farmer's Almanac also says the same thing," Lessor said. "That's something we don't like to see. We like to be a little different." [email protected] Twitter: @larraneta

农业

2017-17/1827/en_head.json.gz/17051

Pulled raisin vineyards led 2016 decline in California grape acreage Apr 20, 2017 GMOs, fertilizer spark good rural-urban discussion Apr 18, 2017 Napa County farm, wine grape values jump 33 percent Apr 19, 2017 Arizona tree nut plantings on the fast track Apr 18, 2017 HLB pressures citrus industry Americans may find a glass of their favorite breakfast staple, orange juice, hard to come by in the next few years if a certain bacteria has its way. According to a spokesperson with the Florida Citrus Mutual, Florida's orange crop could shrink within five years by about 12 percent, to 140 million 90-pound boxes, as the state battles the tree-killing disease known as the "Citrus Greening Disease," or Citrus Huanglongbing. Citrus Huanglongbing (HLB) – also known as "citrus greening" – is a serious bacterial disease that is adversely affecting citrus groves worldwide. The disease has already been responsible for the significant decrease in citrus production in many countries in Asia, Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Brazil. HLB disease, spread by insect called a citrus psyllid, has no known cure, affects all of the main types of citrus, and can ultimately kill the trees. If unstopped, the potential economic impact to the multi-billion dollar citrus industry of the U.S. and the rest of the world could be devastating. HLB was first detected in Florida in 2005. The Sunshine State's citrus industry is now mounting a multi-million dollar research effort to try and overcome citrus greening, as the increasing spread of HLB disease is threatening the future of this sector in the U.S. With commercial citrus production across the entire state now affected by citrus greening, the Florida citrus industry said it plans to carry out extensive research to find short and long-term solutions to the disease. The 2008-2009 harvest, which ended in July, is forecasted at 159.6 million boxes, down from 170.2 million last year. Growers are awaiting a September tree census to determine how many acres of citrus groves have been lost to citrus greening. The disease was first discovered after a parade of hurricanes battered the groves, and has spread to all 32 of Florida's citrus-growing counties. At present, the only methods available to curtail citrus greening involve using pesticide to kill the insects, hiring more scouts to inspect the groves, and immediately removing infected trees. According to molecular biologist Nathan P. Lawrence, Ph.D, vice president of marketing at Pressure BioSciences, Inc., researchers have recently sequenced the DNA of the HLB bacterium, an important step toward starting the process of genetically engineering trees to resist the disease. Lawrence believes a novel process called Pressure Cycling Technology (PCT) may have played a role in helping to extract high quality DNA from the bacterium. Lawrence commented, "New sample preparation technologies enable scientists to extract biomolecules related to agriculture and soil-based pathogens more quickly, accurately, and efficiently than ever before. PCT employs cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels (up to 35,000 psi and greater) to safely, reproducibly, and efficiently release DNA, RNA, and proteins from food, plant, microbial, and other biological samples within minutes, allowing for more rapid and accurate downstream testing." Scientists from three separate U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratories presented data generated through the use of the company's patented, cutting-edge pressure cycling technology ("PCT") at the American Phytopathological Society's ("APS") 2009 Annual Meeting, held Aug. 1-5, 2009, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. The presentations related to innovative plant pathology studies of various pathogens that can significantly and adversely affect important food crops, such as strawberries, wheat, peas, lentil, barley, canola, and especially citrus. Lawrence said, "We are committed to working with plant pathologists in the U.S. and abroad to help improve their understanding of this very serious citrus disease. We are therefore very pleased that PCT combined with our patent-pending ProteoSolve-SB buffer has been reported to extract yields of DNA from cultured HLB that greatly exceed other existing methods." "Being able to identify a pathogen in existing plants and soil based on its DNA before planting can alert growers to the high risk of failure before they plant, thus helping to avoid failed crops and even potentially financial ruin", said Lawrence. "The problem of contaminated soil and infected plants and trees is not only affecting oranges, but other fruits and agricultural products, such as strawberries and wheat – pretty much any staple on any diet on a global scale," says Lawrence. "The goal is to thwart global starvation by identifying problem areas, curbing cross contamination, and eradicating the problem before the losses become catastrophic." Dr. Norman Schaad, USDA-ARS, Ft. Detrick, Md., presented data on the ability of PCT, when used concomitantly with the ProteoSolve-SB buffer, to extract a yield of double-stranded HLB DNA that was at least 10 times greater than any other DNA extraction method tested. Dr. Schaad also stated that the extracted DNA was of very high quality, and that this should support the effective sequencing of the genome of the HLB bacterium. Genome sequencing is a very important step in gaining a better understanding of a disease and potential disease resistant mechanisms. Another USDA team, this one including Dr. K.L. Schroeder, USDA-ARS, Pullman, Wash., and colleagues reported on the incidence and distribution of Rhizoctonia (causes "damping off", or the death of seedlings in agriculture) and Pythium (causes "root rot") fungi species in the soil of wheat, pea, lentil, barley, and canola fields. Fungal DNA was extracted from contaminated soil using PCT, their lab's standard sample preparation method. Another team that included Dr. G. J. Bilodeau, USDA-ARS, Salinas, Calif., reported on the development of improved tests for the fungus Verticillium dahliae, a pathogen that can cause significant losses in highly susceptible crops such as strawberry. Dr. Bilodeau stated that V. dahliae presents challenges for disruption and extraction of intact DNA, and that he and his colleagues were evaluating different DNA extraction kits, combined with processing by PCT. Growers are optimistic that the industry can survive if they can control the psyllids, the insect that spreads HLB, and remove infected trees early enough to hang on until resistant trees are available, something that could take a decade. To that end, the recent USDA findings indicate that PCT can be very useful in the laboratory analysis of HLB disease, and consequently may play an important role in the development of new procedures for diagnosing and controlling HLB. "Such advances must be brought to market quickly", commented Lawrence, "as we believe that this disease has the potential to significantly adversely affect the citrus industry worldwide."

农业

2017-17/1827/en_head.json.gz/17052

Pulled raisin vineyards led 2016 decline in California grape acreage Apr 20, 2017 GMOs, fertilizer spark good rural-urban discussion Apr 18, 2017 Napa County farm, wine grape values jump 33 percent Apr 19, 2017 Arizona tree nut plantings on the fast track Apr 18, 2017 Tomato Spot Wilt Virus spreading Harry Cline | Aug 29, 2006 Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) in tomatoes has been increasing, both in the southern San Joaquin Valley as well as in San Joaquin County, according to Brenna Aegerter, vegetable farm advisor for the county. While there have been “hot spots” of high disease incidence especially down south, “the majority of fields have just a few infected plants,” according to Aegerter. Symptoms of TSWV are bronzing of leaves followed by the development of necrotic spots and streaks on the foliage and stems, which may be followed by shoot dieback. On fruit, characteristic ringspots develop. On red fruit these can be quite striking, but they are also faintly visible on green fruit, said the veg crop farm advisor who is a specialist in plant pathology. TSWV has an extremely wide host range, including hundreds of plants species spanning both broadleaves and monocots like as orchids and lilies. Economic hosts in California include tomato, pepper, beans, corn, lettuce, radicchio, celery and many ornamentals. “There are many potential weed hosts, including nightshade, purslane and pigweed. This virus is vectored by at least 10 thrips species, including the western flower thrips and the onion thrips,” said Aegerter. After egg hatch on TSWV-infected plants, the first and second instar larvae acquire the virus. The virus reproduces within the thrips and they can then transmit the virus to healthy plants when they are adults. “Adults cannot pick up the virus, nor can they pass the virus on to their offspring,” said the farm advisor. “Therefore, in order for a plant to be a source of the virus for new infections and spread, it must support reproduction of both the thrips and the virus. “In the past, we thought that there was no build-up or secondary spread within tomato fields because tomatoes did not support reproduction of thrips. However, observations this season of very heavily infected tomato fields adjacent to unaffected fields suggest that the vector and virus may be capable of building up within a tomato field. If this turns out to be the case, then controlling the thrips may prove beneficial in reducing the spread of the virus within a tomato field.” Because there are so many potential sources of inoculum and because their contribution to the problem may change from year to year, there is no clear strategy for positioning tomato crops to avoid infection, according to Aegerter. Resistant varieties have been developed for both processing and fresh market varieties and these are currently being evaluated. “Unfortunately, where resistance to TSWV has been introduced into other crops, the resistance has nearly always been overcome by the rapid occurrence of resistance-breaking strains of the virus,” said the farm advisor. The geographic distribution of the problem (increasing southward in the Central Valley) may reflect the effect of winter temperatures on survival of the vectors. Colder winter temperatures may limit the overwintering of the western flower thrips in the Sacramento Valley. Its development does not progress at below 49 degrees. Higher disease incidence in the San Joaquin Valley might also be due to winter vector host crops such as lettuce and radicchio. The overlap of winter and summer host crops may provide a year-round habitat for the virus and its vector, said the farm advisor. The disease could be spreading due to mildew winters of late. Plant pathologists from UC Davis are currently studying the outbreaks in tomatoes in conjunction with Cooperative Extension Farm Advisors who are looking for fields with high incidents of wilt. “Hopefully we will soon have a better grasp on what factors increase the risk of significant infection,” said the farm advisor. e-mail: [email protected]

农业

2017-17/1827/en_head.json.gz/20186

Plant Healthcare for Poor Farmers: An Introduction to the Work of the Global Plant Clinic Eric BoaHead of Global Plant Clinic, CABIEgham, Surrey, United [email protected] Boa, E. 2007. Plant Healthcare for Poor Farmers: An Introduction to the Work of the Global Plant Clinic. Online. APSnet Features. doi: 10.1094/APSnetFeatures-2007-1007 I’ve been a plant pathologist for 26 years, working in developing countries, originally studying diseases of bamboo, clove, woody legumes, and neem. In the last ten years the hosts and diseases that have concerned me have broadened to include many major crops. The hosts and diseases may change but one persistent question remains: How can plant pathologists best help poor farmers? Is it helpful, for example, to consider the need for fundamental and applied research separately, a distinction commonly made by scientists? George Porter, a British scientist and Nobel laureate, made a simpler distinction: there was applied and “not yet” applied research. I like this approach since it emphasizes the need to find answers to problems. Robert May, past head of the British Office of Science and Technology, once said that scientists were good at asking questions, suggesting that research is not going to find answers easily. To help poor farmers manage their plant diseases better we need to find new ways of putting theory into practice. That is the simple idea behind the Global Plant Clinic (GPC). In this article I want to show how an informal, multi-national network of colleagues (mostly but not exclusively plant pathologists), created and encouraged by the GPC, is attempting to use scientific knowledge and skills to help farmers in developing countries. This is an ambitious aim and one that a small network cannot do on its own. To make the task more difficult, we learned quickly that responding to plant diseases was not enough. Farmer demand is not readily defined by scientific discipline. For most growers it is symptoms that define problems and not causes, many of which are invisible, such as viruses. Growers have one question: “What do I do?” The GPC’s job is to find the best way of answering this question for as many farmers as possible. Fig. 1. Doña Felicia of Pulquina Arriba, near Comarapa in Bolivia, holds tomatoes with virus-like symptoms. She hasn't seen these symptoms before. However, it became clear that gauging farmers’ demands is a complex task in developing countries, as illustrated by a study in Bolivia (7). The researchers note the importance of implicit demands (those not expressed at first). An example from my own experience was when staff from CIAT Santa Cruz in Bolivia used a rapid diagnostic test for Tobacco mosaic virus, developed by the Central Science Laboratory, on tomato plants with unusual virus-like symptoms. The result was negative. The farmer never “demanded” this particular test, yet it provided useful information quickly on deciding what the farmer should do about the problem (the explicit demand). Highlighting implicit demands in plant health emphasises the role that molecular plant pathology, for example, can play in helping poor farmers. History of the Global Plant Clinic (GPC) First, some background to the GPC and its origins. The 1970s and 1980s saw a gradual rise in agricultural projects in developing countries. This was a time when many gained their independence and the previous colonial agriculturists, a proud and notable scientific heritage paid for by the United Kingdom, were becoming “technical cooperation officers.” The colonial service provided many of the early records of plant diseases in the tropics, as noted by Ainsworth (1). There was also a notable tradition of research by scientists based in the UK, travelling overseas. The new cadre of post-independence agriculturists made valuable contributions to important diseases such as lethal yellowing of palm in Jamaica (12), Cocoa swollen shoot virus in West Africa [e.g., (10)], and the less well known but equally damaging Sumatra disease of cloves in Indonesia (3). Fig. 2. Host records of Colletotrichum lindemuthianum. Handwritten for many years, the records include material received at the IMI Herbarium over the last 90 or so years. Such projects often continued for many years. The clove project in Indonesia began in the mid-1970s and did not end until 1990. But the vogue for big disease projects began to wane, partly because those who funded them (governments and multilateral organisations under the United Nations, World Bank, and similar) began to ask the same question: Is this science doing any good? The unstated accusation was that researchers were “capacity driven” and, as Robert May said, were “good at asking questions.” Donors wanted answers and practical methods that solved real problems, such as: How do you stop all these coconut palms from dying? A plant pathologist will rightly say that this is an unfair question and that answers are not easy to find. It is less easy, however, to explain why huge rural development projects failed to deliver, and though plant diseases were a small component at best, the tarnished reputation of such projects has fed notions that development doesn’t work. That is the pessimistic view of William Easterly in a recently published book (The White Man’s Burden) while Jeffery Sachs (The End of Poverty) takes a more positive view. Paul Collier, an economics professor at Oxford University appears to fall between gloom and glory with his 2007 book The Bottom Billion. Does development work? In a nutshell, Sachs says “yes,” Easterly “no,” and Collier says “sometimes.” My own view is that development does work, based on our experience of plant health clinics, which are at the centre of what the GPC does. Plant health clinics offer new avenues for applying the results of plant pathology research and for those results to make a positive contribution to farm family livelihoods. We are, however, still at an early stage of establishing clinics and more data is needed to assess their long term impact. It is also important to state that plant health clinics alone cannot overcome the many challenges of providing good advice to all farmers. Plant clinics are nothing new, but they don’t always perform the same functions. The GPC grew out of a “diagnostic and advisory service,” a unique facility that became a distinct part of the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (CMI) in the 1980s under the fine leadership of Dr. Jim Waller. The GPC name and identity is more recent and has only become well established since around 2000. The GPC is managed by CABI. CMI became the International Mycological Institute before being absorbed into CABI Bioscience. The early history of IMI is described by Aitchison and Hawksworth (2). The Bioscience label has been dropped and now scientific and publishing activities are grouped under the single identity of CABI. In the 1990s the diagnostic and advisory service expanded to include phytoplasmas and viruses under Prof. Phil Jones at Rothamsted Research. The virus identifications are now done at the Central Science Laboratory (CSL). In 2001, Rothamsted Research was funded under a single grant to CABI. CSL was formally included in the three way GPC alliance in 2005. Fig. 3. Prof. Philip Jones of Rothamsted Research and Dr. Yaima Arocha of CENSA, Cuba share a curious delight in finding a confirmed phytoplasma disease on basil in a Havana organopónico. GPC Operations A similar pattern of work was maintained for many years under the diagnostic and advisory service. People sent us samples from overseas and we would isolate fungi, bacteria, and so on and try to determine the cause of the problem. The number of samples stayed more or less the same and the people who sent them were regular users. We sent back information about control gleaned from CABI abstracts and from the Crop Protection Compendium. The information provided was often quite general, more a list of possible control options rather than specific advice. The information needed interpretation and local iteration to make it useful to farmers. Fig. 4. How to send samples of Melia yellows, a phytoplasma disease, collected in Cochabamba in Bolivia. As email became more widely available, people sent us photos. This was sometimes less useful than a sender had planned. When we received clear photos with unequivocal symptoms it was often easy to diagnose the problem (though we still received a major part of a tea plant covered with Phellinus noxius from Sri Lanka after identifying it from a photo). More tricky to diagnose were the blurred, poorly composed photos (of which there are rather too many), often of dead rather than dying plants, or simply showing equivocal symptoms. We often request samples, though these too are of variable quality. The heart sinks as you unwrap dried up and dead material. Equally disappointing are the plant samples that someone has collected and dispatched … in a plastic bag. There’s not much you can do with a festering mess of plant sample. These problems aside, scientists plus a small group of users from commercial companies regularly sent us samples. Drawn from over 60 countries, users were pleased that someone could help them. Finding a laboratory that could help and receive samples from overseas was and remains a major challenge for many potential users. Once the samples had arrived there was an expectation that a result would quickly follow. We explained that a diagnosis might take weeks rather than days because the quality of samples varied (a much neglected reason) and because of the challenges of dealing with a wide variety of crops and diseases (you try it!). I mentioned early that plant clinics perform different functions. Some are simply diagnostic laboratories and do not make recommendations. The US is one of the few countries I know where extension and research are regularly integrated around a clinic (e.g. North Carolina State University). A more common model is to have a ‘clinic’ staffed by experts in different types of pathogens (rarely all groups) often with little or no knowledge of growing crops. It would be more accurate to call them diagnostic laboratories. It highlights a lack of clarity and distinction between identification of pest organisms, diagnosis and advice. (Not so in human health, where pathologists analyse and offer a diagnosis but cannot, at least in the UK, treat patients — even then it is confusing, since pathology labs include clinicians who are also scientists and can treat patients.) When the diagnostic and advisory service was part of IMI the institute was best known for its taxonomic expertise in mycology. There was an uneasy relationship with plant pathology which only improved when CABI Bioscience was created. As the development focus became stronger so it became easier to develop a more integrated US-style clinic, as we now have with the GPC. Advisory work is usually associated more with extension than research. Extension and research co-exist well in the US but in many countries and among many scientists it would be fair to say that advisory work has an image problem. It appears less glamorous compared to research, with a suggestion that it requires less effort. That was the impression I had when doing my Ph.D in an Agricultural Sciences Department at Leeds University. Now I see advisory work as a highly skilled job and have deep admiration for those who do it well. At CABI, we wanted to know what happened to the advice we gave, but despite repeated efforts we rarely received feedback. At first I thought this was because of poor correspondents, but later the same people happily adopted email, suggesting that the real reason for poor feedback was weak contact with farmers. Under the diagnostic and advisory service it was scientists who were sending the samples to us, not the extension agents and agronomists who work regularly with farmers. These were the two groups that needed better access to our service. We needed to improve the way we worked. Fig. 5. Marvin Isidro digs up a sick coffee plant at the request of the plant doctors from nearby Jalapa in Nicaragua. They explain the importance of examining roots for swellings (possible nematod attack) and well-defined internal staining (possible fungal attack). Changing the GPC: Plant Health Service Initiatives The pressures to change the diagnostic and advisory service were gradual but persistent. The major impetus eventually came because our funders, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), changed. The customer, in this case DFID, knows best. The nearest equivalent to DFID in the United States is USAID. Both pursue similar aims. The change that ultimately shaped the GPC of today began with the election of the Labour party in 1997, led by Tony Blair. The new government announced an increased importance and seriousness about international development. Previous governments had been enthusiastic about international development but never, to my mind, very serious about it. Then DFID published a white paper with a stark title: Eliminating World Poverty. It announced a radical change of policy, one matched by increased funds to support a much wider range of activities. This created some unease amongst scientists who read the white paper and found little overt mention of science. Up until 1997 there had been a sizeable chunk of UK government money for agriculture research and hence plant pathology. This shrank as health and education, for example, took on greater importance. Further impetus for change came in 2000 when the millennium development goals were published and strongly supported by the UK government. The millennium development goals set targets for improvements to be met after 15 years. The diagnostic and advisory service continued its work at CABI while the policy debate about international development flourished, but already we were re-thinking what we should do next. The GPC identity started to emerge. A review in 2000 praised what we were doing, yet standing still was not a sensible option given the new thinking and importance of international development in the UK and elsewhere. I found the policy changes at DFID enlivening and it helped me rethink priorities. The most significant change was when we started to run plant health clinics. At first we weren’t quite sure what these should be, but six years of testing and observing different approaches has helped to mould a model for plant healthcare that is proving attractive to many people. Collaborations with colleagues Mick Blowfield, Paul Van Mele and, most importantly, Jeffery Bentley, an agricultural anthropologist, helped me learn more about farmers and agriculture, and to see the implications for the GPC. The truth was that I didn’t know much about either farmers and agriculture, despite having lived in Bangladesh and Indonesia for ten years. The resistance to making more use of social scientists in agriculture (usually by natural scientists) never made sense to me. The posturing and (unspoken) interchange of brickbats – “you don’t know anything about plant diseases” (pathologist to anthropologist) and “you ignore what farmers need” (vice versa) – is unhelpful, though thankfully has disappeared over time. A good medical doctor is someone with good social and clinical skills. The same applies to plant doctors. Fig. 6. Daniel Vasquez (front left) interviews a peach farmer in Sucre, Bolivia about the health of her trees. Jeff Bentley (right) takes notes. The main effect of learning more about farmers and agriculture was to work closer with extension agents, giving rise to a new extension method called Going Public [(6), Research 4 Development, and Agriculture 21]. Other innovations include a method for writing fact sheets on plant diseases (and other topics) which are peer-reviewed by farmers, and a new method for self-evaluation of technology projects. The GPC still does research on specific plant diseases, though it is limited to major problems supported by additional projects. Examples include Napier grass stunt at Rothamsted Research, and banana xanthomonas wilt at CABI and more recently CSL. The GPC works in developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. We now spend about 60% of our time collaborating, encouraging and training colleagues in key countries. Uganda, Bangladesh, and Bolivia were the first three countries where we set up “plant health services initiatives.” The centre of these initiatives is the plant health clinic (originally called mobile plant clinics, a phrase still in use), a new focal point for receiving farmer demands and meeting them. The GPC continues to provide an expert laboratory diagnostic service for all diseases on all crops, but access to the service is difficult for many in developing countries, even though plant health clinics have improved the sending of samples from growers, particularly poor ones. The cost of sending samples, plus getting permits and other bureaucratic barriers adds to persistent difficulties in collecting suitable material (paying for fuel is a frequent problem). We continue to work on improving access, particularly by making better use of national laboratories. But we have also taken a new approach to better diagnosis by training people in field diagnosis. This is where causes are deduced from symptoms and other information obtained from the growers and direct observations. Field diagnosis is the most common method for determining the cause of a plant health problem. It works surprisingly well in many cases though there is little if any formal training on how to do a “field diagnosis.” When the GPC began to support plant health clinics in Bolivia and Bangladesh, we saw that the agronomists who ran them were good at diagnosing common diseases and pests but they struggled when people brought crops they were unfamiliar with or presented vague symptoms. Plant doctors have to deal with all types of problems and it was this realisation that prompted the GPC to provide training in field diagnosis. The early emphasis on field diagnosis training was questioned by many plant doctors. They wanted more training in “control.” Later we saw the need to produce extension materials. A curriculum for training plant doctors has been steadily developed over the last decade and now consists of three modules (training courses), each lasting 2 to 3 days. The first module shows how to do a field diagnosis and run a plant health clinic. (The aim is to get clinics running as quickly as possible. Learn on the job.) The second module looks at plant “healthcare,” a term I deliberately use to make further analogies with human health, and which includes crop protection and IPM technologies. The third module is on preparing extension messages (mainly writing fact sheets) and how to deliver them to farmers. A key lesson from the first training courses in Uganda and Kenya, was to separate recognition of symptoms from their interpretation (the diagnosis). People were eager to label a rot as “fusarium” or a leaf spot as “anthracnose”, perhaps because it sounded more scientific and decisive. It suggested that distinct symptoms were present where on closer examination there was often room for doubt – and a lack of supporting evidence from laboratory analyses. Fig. 7. Edwin García of UNAG helps to run the Puesto para Plantas in San Juan del Río Coco in northwest Nicaragua. He's comparing possible anthracnose on coffee with similar symptoms on yam from the CABI Crop Protection Compendium. The two diseases are caused by the same fungus but there's no picture of coffee anthracnose available. Comparing symptoms with photographs is a common way of diagnosing problems. It's clumsy and prone to inaccuracy, but it may be the only way available to plant doctors in remote regions. The first training module in “how to become a plant doctor” uses group exercises to compare what people see on sick plants before offering an “expert” opinion on a sample. This is a standard teaching method we use: people first do a simple exercise, then compare results between themselves before the teacher offers “expert” advice. Courses are attended by extensionists, scientists and farmers and confidence is often shaky at first, hence the need to begin gently and avoid emphasising what people don’t know or get wrong. The interpretation (diagnosis) of symptoms begins with a simple distinction between biotic and abiotic before proceeding to particular causes. We include arthropod pests as well as all major pathogens and non-pest causes. One of the key messages is that a field diagnosis proceeds by elimination and that it is usually easier to say what is not causing symptoms before suggesting a likely cause. In the Beginning: Bolivia Jeffery Bentley and myself first started talking about plant health clinics in Bolivia in the late 1990s, when we were starting to explore local knowledge of plant health problems (9). The idea was to hold clinics in markets, where people could “walk-in” without prior appointment. In 2001 we began a short project to promote practical tests to help growers diagnose plant health problems. One of the tests was to detect potato nematode cysts in soil: curl a sheet of newspaper inside a drinking glass, add soil, then water, and swirl. Cysts adhere to the paper and are visible to the naked eye when the paper is withdrawn. We discussed the test with Juan Almanza, an expert técnico (extension agent) who works for PROINPA, and the possibility of doing a public demonstration. Jeff and I were staying at PROINPA’s experimental station in Toralapa and the next day (Friday) there was a weekly market at nearby Tiraque. In one of those inspired moments, Juan suggesting doing the demonstration in the back of the pickup in the market. The event is described in Bentley et al. (5) and has given rise to a new extension method called “Going Public.” Fig. 8. Juan Almanza of PROINPA is skilled at holding the attention of a shifting crowd in the weekly market at Tiraque in Bolivia. He demonstrates a quick test that shows if soil is infected with nematode cysts This was the first ever Going Public event and a precursor of plant health clinics everywhere. Tiraque market was my first experience of improvising an extension exercise on plant health. Juan began his demonstration and repeated it several times over three hours for new audiences as people moved on and others took their place. Jeff an I witnessed an “unfolding conversation” (4), with Juan patiently answering questions about the test and the cysts (he had a microscope to reveal the contents and got people to draw what they saw). Juan did this all with great skill and in a natural way that astounded me. Until then, I thought that extension had to be planned, with farmer meetings and fields days, training and demonstration events. Juan’s performance was an amazing demonstration of how good extension agents can be. It was very rewarding to observe, though perhaps not something everybody is willing or able to do. Outsiders are good at suggesting new things for others to do but often they need permission first. Around the same time as the Tiraque event, a community plant health clinic (LADIPLANTAS) was established by CIAT Santa Cruz in Comarapa, Bolivia (7). This arose from another project (MIP-PAPA) on integrated pest management of potato pests and diseases. LADIPLANTAS is located in offices in the town and is open most days of the week. Farmers can bring in samples or have them collected in the field by técnicos working for CIAT and other organisations. I then requested Jeff to hold a short workshop on behalf of the Global Plant Clinic with the aim of starting a plant health clinic in Tiraque (5). The first ever Posta para Plantas began in September 2003 and has been held regularly since, faithfully attended by Ing. René Pereira and staff from Toralapa. From the beginning we emphasised the similarity between clinics for plants and those for people (Posta de Salud): to offer advice on (plant) health problems. With support from the GPC and Javier Franco at PROINPA, the Tiraque clinic has continued. Over 400 people presented queries in the first year. The early publicity for the clinic concentrated on telling researchers and extension workers about their popularity and new ways of interacting with farmers. PROINPA now run clinics in El Puente, Colomí, Punata, and Tiraque, a good example of how a successful clinic well publicised encourages other clinics to start. Fig. 9. Ntozi works for ISAR, the Rwandan agricultural research organisation, and is asking about a problem that affects this lady’s crops during a pilot plant clinic run in the market place in Miheto, near Ruhengeri. A striking difference between running a clinic and doing plant pathology research is the variety of problems you have to deal with. I always imagined that clinics would be run by extensionists and agronomists, people familiar with local agriculture and already known to many farmers. Others have suggested that clinics should be staffed by plant pathologists with expert knowledge in all disease causes. Extensionists make good doctors, at ease with farmers. The best ones have the confidence to admit they don’t know something but they will find out more. Scientists also make good plant doctors, though attending a clinic each week is difficult. Others are uneasy about diagnosing from symptoms and giving advice on the spot. They are reminded that this is what medical doctors do all the time. When clinics start the plant doctors soon realise the challenge of giving advice. They are not used to a farmer who returns to say that ‘your advice did not work’ or to ask ‘what is the name of the resistant variety and where do I buy it’. Plant doctors are encourage to say when they don’t know – and that they will try to find an answer. The best advice is often not to do something. For example, a plant doctor can advise to not use an insecticide because she has diagnosed a fungus disease. Feedback from farmers and regular monitoring of clinics helps to improve diagnoses and the quality of advice. After Bolivia, we turned our attention to Bangladesh and Uganda, two countries where CABI and the GPC already had good contacts. As of October 2007 there are eight countries with over 60 clinics running regularly (Table 1). We have run pilot clinics in other countries, such as Colombia, Benin and Cuba though none have become regular. The biggest clinic scheme is Nicaragua, and that is what I will now discuss in more detail. Table 1. Plant health clinics around the world. RDA Bogra, AAS, and Shushilan early 2004 CIAT Santa Cruz, PROINPA, and UMSS DR Congo Université Catholique du Graben, Butembo GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology University of North Sumatera (USU) Farmer organisations, NGOs, INTA, and others. Supported by PASA II (danida) and other donors. Socadido, SG2000, Caritas and MAAIF Puestos para Plantas: Nicaragua In 2004 Dr. Solveig Danielsen took up a post in Nicaragua, as an advisor to FUNICA, an organisation created to manage technology projects and provide a missing link between government institutes and the private or informal sector, where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and farmer organisations operate. Soon after arriving, it became clear that a lack of reliable and regular services was hampering progress. Solveig knew about the plant health clinics in Bolivia and suggested that the GPC be invited to try them out in Nicaragua. In March 2005 I went with Dr. Jeffery Bentley to test clinics in Las Segovias. It was a tough assignment since none of us had a clear idea of who was going to run the clinics. We had useful leads and the strong support of PROMIPAC, a donor-funded project on integrated pest management which was run by Zamorano University. Julio López played a vital part in creating openings for the clinics and has been an invaluable colleague in supporting their expansion and growing influence. Our first two attempts to get clinics started were only partly successful. We ran one pilot but it was unclear whether it would continue. Then we met Yamileth Calderón of UNICAM, a “campesino university.” Yami is an agronomist and knows local farmers and agriculture well. She is out-going and enthusiastic. She liked the sound of clinics and agreed to run one at very short notice. On the 11 March 2005 the first ever Puesto para Plantas in Estelí took place, our second pilot clinic in Nicaragua. It was rudimentary — a table, some diseased plants, a microscope (which we didn’t use, and I’m not sure impressed any potential clients), a hand-written sign, and two enthusiastic plant doctors: Yamileth and María Rosa Herrera of ISNAYA. The stall (puesto) was placed at the end of a row of vendors who make up the weekly mercadito verde, an organic market for vegetables, fruits, and other products. We had 14 queries in under two hours, and we all felt pleased about the results. The users included people passing in the street and market traders that Yamileth knew. Fig. 10. Yamileth Calderón (right) is the plant doctor at the weekly Puesto in Estelí, Nicaragua. She was the first person to start a clinic and has been an inspiration to many others who have since started their own clinics. Jeff, Solveig, and myself were now much more optimistic that this Puesto would continue, and it has. The key to success, however, has been Yamileth. (I also want to mention the support of Edgar Castellón of UNICAM, who has allowed Yamileth to spend the time running the clinic. The employers of plant doctors make important contributions which need to be discussed and agreed from the outset.) Yamileth turns up each week at the same time, sometimes with colleagues or with students from UCATSE. Two years on from the successful Puesto in Estelí there are 14 operating in Nicaragua. The Estelí Puesto was soon joined by new Puestos in El Jícaro, Jalapa, and San Juan del Río Coco. The GPC helped to spread news about the first Puestos, so that others might be inspired by the efforts of fellow Nicaraguans. We produced photosheets of the clinics and made a logo. Monthly meetings organised by FUNICA staff helped create a group identity with a shared purpose from an early stage. Since 2005 Jeffery Bentley and I have jointly made seven visits with a final visit scheduled for late in 2007. During this time we have trained plant doctors and refined a curriculum on “how to become a plant doctor.” I want to stress, however, that the true expansion of the clinics and the emergence of a network of diagnostic laboratories (see later) and other initiatives have come from within Nicaragua. These events have been carefully nurtured by Solveig Danielsen, whose role in the successful development of the clinics has been vital (11). Plant pathologists rarely reflect on human behaviour, yet looking back over an intensive period of activity around the Puestos, it has been the interaction between extension agents and farmers, and extension agents and researchers that has helped the Nicaraguan scheme achieve its momentum and expand from the original three clinics in mid-2005 towards a planned 33 clinics in 2008. As the clinics gathered strength and became better known, Nicaraguan scientists saw the need for a network of diagnostic laboratories. Bringing together universities and official government bodies, the “red de diagnosticadores” is a Nicaraguan initiative, an encouraging sign of how the Puestos have prompted scientists to take action. Fig. 11. Liliam Lezana (right) with Solveig Danielsen. Liliam is the coordinator of the “red de diagnosticadores” and one of a dedicated group of Nicaraguans who have worked hard to make the Puestos effective. Access to diagnostic laboratories (clinics) in many countries is difficult and this is particularly true for poor farmers. Their contact with extension is weak and sending samples for analysis is impossible. The arrival of the Puestos and the creation of the diagnostic laboratory network meant that poor farmers in Nicaragua could send samples for the first time. First we needed to figure out who was going to pay for the samples. The cost of a diagnosis is around US$6, a lot of money to a poor farmer. Donors have made funds available for now but in the future all or some of this money will have to be paid by users of the diagnostic service. In 2007 we began training trainers and by the end of this year Nicaragua will begin its own programme for producing new plant doctors. Around 40 people have taken the three training modules that constitute the ‘how to become a plant doctor’ course. Module 2 explains how to select the plant part and how to package it correctly. The quality of samples has improved, though it requires constant attention and dialogue between plant doctors and scientists. The Puestos have strengthened links between groups of people who had few opportunities before to talk about shared interests in plant health problems: farmers who want answers, extension agents who want possible solutions, and scientists who can diagnose problems and develop new technologies. These three key groups – growers, extension staff, and researchers – have all benefited from Puestos, encouraging them to create a single vision of plant healthcare. A DVD has been produced on the Puestos para Plantas and copies of publications, factsheets, and more can be found on the FUNICA website. Pesticide use dominates discussions about plant health in many countries and Nicaragua is no exception. Yet while no one disputes the need to reduce pesticide use and ensure the safe application in the right circumstances, a focus on pesticides has distracted attention from a much simpler issue (Science and Development Network). How do you advise growers on the best method for managing their plant health problems? The Puestos are a new way of tackling this persistent question and providing a platform for promoting IPM technologies. The ultimate goal is to establish plant health services for farmers that are available year-round. We want plant clinics to operate in more areas and to do so each week. We want laboratories to respond quickly and decisively when they receive samples, helping plant doctors give advice that is “safe, sound, and suitable.” We want the government of Nicaragua to recognize that a new support system for farmers has emerged in response to local demand and local initiative. What began as a tentative pilot scheme in 2005 has become a de facto system of plant healthcare serving the needs of hundreds of poor farmers. For that system to continue it needs official recognition and incorporation into government policy. This is what we will be discussing in late 2007 when all major groups with an interest in plant health will be represented. The Future of Plant Health Clinics From 2005-2006 nine Puestos received 1175 queries from more than 700 users. Since over half of the Puestos were not in operation until late 2005, that is an impressive measure of the demand for services. As more Puestos start to operate, and existing ones improve their current operations, demand will increase. An essential part of running a Puesto is to maintain a register of users, their queries and the outcomes. This is essential information when explaining why national and local governments should invest in the Puestos. Donor funds will eventually end and we need to discuss other sources of financial support and how much growers should pay for the service. We argue that Puestos are a public service, and like hospitals and schools, have public benefits. The challenge is to convince elected officials and for them to commit funds that keep the Puestos going once donor funds are no longer available. We are optimistic this will happen, if only because the numbers who have used the clinics are clear evidence of their value. At the same time, we also need to strengthen ties between the weekly clinics and the regular work carried out by extension agents, so that we know more about how recommendations made by the plant doctors help growers. Nicaragua has provided inspiration to other countries that have plant clinics. With India planning to introduce clinics in all 40 states, the stage is set for providing poor farmers with better advice that helps them grow healthy crops with reduced risk and lower costs. The work I have described is the result of many peoples’ efforts, including colleagues in Bolivia, Bangladesh, and Uganda. I thank them all for their contributions. I particularly want to acknowledge ideas, inspirations, and stimulating discussions with Jeffery Bentley and Solveig Danielsen and fellow GPC staff at CABI, Rob Reeder and Paula Kelly, and the support of Julie Flood and John Lucas. Julian Smith, Rick Mumford, Val Harju, and Wendy Monger at CSL and Yaima Arocha at Rothamsted have provided excellent diagnostic services while Phil Jones, now retired, has been an invaluable colleague for many years. I’d also like to thank Jim Waller and Tom Preece, two mentors who have encouraged me for many years and gave me ideas that are now blossoming thanks to a growing band of people around the world. Healthy plants for healthy people! 1. Ainsworth, G. C. 1981. Introduction to the History of Plant Pathology. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK. 2. Aitchison, E. M., and Hawksworth, D. L. 1993. IMI: Retrospect and Prospect. A Celebration of the Achievements of the International Mycological Institute 1920-1992. CAB Int., Wallingford, UK. 3. Bennett, C. P. A., Hunt, P., and Asman, A. 1985. Association of a xylem-limited bacterium with Sumatra disease of cloves in Indonesia. Plant Pathol. 34:487-494 4. Bentley, J., Velasco, C., Rodríguez, F., Oros, R., Botello, R., Webb, M., Devaux, A., and Thiele, G. 2007. Unspoken demands for farm technology. Int. J. Agric. Sust. 5:70-84 5. Bentley, J. W. 2003. Starting a Plant Health Clinic in the Organized Chaos of a Bolivian Farm Fair. Global Plant Clinic, CABI. (Available from: [email protected]). 6. Bentley, J. W., Boa, E., Van Mele, P., Almanza, J., Vasquez, D., and Eguino, S. 2003. Going Public: A New Extension Method. Int. J. Agric. Sust. 1:108-123. 7. Bentley, J. W., and Boa, E. R. 2004. Community Plant Health Clinic: An Original Concept for Agriculture and Farm Families. Online. Global Plant Clinic, CABI, Wallingford, UK. 8. Bentley, J. W., Thiele, G., Oros, R., and Velasco, C. 2004. Cinderella's slipper: SONDEO surveys and technology fairs for gauging demand. Online. Network Paper No. 138, Agric. Res. & Ext. Network, Overseas Development Institute (ODI AgREN), London, UK. 9. Boa, E. R., Bentley, J. W., and Stonehouse, J. 2001. Standing on all three legs: The técnico as a cross-cultural occupational group. Econ. Bot. 55:363-369. 10. Brunt, A. A., and Kenten, R. H. 1971. Viruses infecting cacao. Rev. Plant Pathol. 50:591-602. 11. Danielsen, S., Boa, E., and Bentley, J. 2006. Puestos para Plantas in Nicaragua. Online. Global Plant Clinic, CABI, Wallingford, UK. 12. Harrison, N. A., and Jones, P. 2004. Lethal yellowing. Pages 39-41 in: Compendium of Ornamental Palm Diseases and Disorders. M. L. Elliott, T. K. Broschat, J. Y. Uchida, and G. W. Simone, eds. American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN. Available from Eric Boa's channel on YouTube. Plant health clinic Rwanda. The clinic has just started. It's late afternoon but around 90 people attend in less than two hours. 15 people present queries. Samples for clinics. Plant clinic in Berastagi, North Sumatra. Delima and Rob Harling help a confused user obtain the right sample. Remember to look inside plants. This impromptu video of internal staining is given by Fen Beed of IITA and is one way of explaining how to sample material for people who live a long way from clinics. The host is the fever tree or cinchona and the disease Phytophthora stripe canker. Location is near Butembo in North Kivu, DR Congo. Next time we'll use a proper knife (as recommended in the commentary). Training plant doctors. A short exercise, part of training course module 1, to develop interview techniques for plant doctors. Taken on a 2007 course at the Université Catholique du Graben in Butembo, North Kivu, DR Congo. Young plant doctors. Schoolchildren in Butembo describe symptoms on plants with the help of Ange, who has just completed module 1 of 'how to become a plant doctor'. The suggestion is that schools run mini-clinics once a week. Every family in Butmebo, N Kivu, DR Congo. has a garden and grows crops.

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A new way to make machinery Apr 19, 2017 Tobacco purchasing should be based on value, not price Apr 03, 2017 Some Georgia growers wanted to talk soybean weed control, most didn’t Apr 10, 2017 Caledonia: Where prisoners have grown their food for 125 years Apr 04, 2017 JART HUDSON, is the Farm Press Peanut Profitability Award winner for the Upper Southeast Region. Crops>Peanuts Jart Hudson: Peanut Profitability Award winner for Upper Southeast • Jart Hudson now grows more than 1,000 acres of peanuts, is co-owner of a peanut buying point at nearby Warsaw, N.C., and his farming operation includes large acreages of tobacco, corn, and wheat, plus a hog finishing operation. Roy Roberson 1 | Jul 08, 2013 Jart Hudson, a fourth generation peanut farmer at Turkey, N.C., says peanuts are as much a social and cultural part of his heritage as the crop is to the economic well-being of his large, diversified farming operation. He now grows more than 1,000 acres of peanuts, is co-owner of a peanut buying point at nearby Warsaw, N.C., and his farming operation includes large acreages of tobacco, corn, and wheat, plus a hog finishing operation. Because of his efficiency as a peanut grower, Hudson has been named the Farm Press Peanut Profitability Award winner for the Upper Southeast Region. But in the early days of his farming career, such an operation was far from reality, he says. “As a boy, one of my jobs on the farm was to ride on the back of a two-row applicator, stick in hand, charged with keeping the landplaster applicator from stopping up as it was applied to peanuts. At the end of the day, I looked like Casper the Friendly Ghost,” he laughs. Back then, peanuts were unique to his part of North Carolina. The government allotment program was in place and getting acreage was tough. “My uncle and my father grew peanuts together, but we’re talking only 15-20 acres back then,” Hudson recalls. “On Sunday afternoons, when I was just a kid, he would take us to a peanut field and my cousins and I would pull up peanut plants and fill the bed of a pickup truck. We’d then go back to my grandmother’s house to pick off the peanuts and boil them. “The grownups would sit on my grandmother’s front porch, eat boiled peanuts and argue politics. I learned a lot about politicians of the time, a lot about life, and a lot about family from those Sunday afternoons.” That early social and cultural event led to a modern day celebration on the Hudson farm. The third Saturday of August each year, they boil 55 gallons of peanuts and make 20 gallons of homemade ice cream. “We do a lot of the same things we used to do at my grandmother’s house,” he says. “The politics are different, and we have 300 to 350 people at the party, but peanuts are still at the epicenter of our social and cultural life.” 1980s were tough on the farm Growing up on the farm, Hudson almost lived in his father’s shadow, following him to tobacco sales and being with him through all the planting, tending and harvesting of crops. He left to attend North Carolina State University, where he earned a degree in business management and agricultural economics, then returned in 1983 to join the family farming operation. At that time, they farmed about 10-15 acres of peanuts, another 10-15 acres of tobacco, 25 acres or so of vegetable crops and a couple hundred acres of corn. In the early 1980s, times were “really tough” for farmers in Samson County, he says. The largest farmer in the area had less than 500 acres. “Just to stay in business from one bad year to another was a real challenge. With a lot of hard work, good employees, and a first class business partner, we’ve been able to increase the size of our farming operation and peanuts have been a big part of that growth,” Hudson says. After the peanut allotment program went away in the early 2000s, the door opened for him to increase acreage. “We had been growing peanuts on our farm for as long as I could remember, but on a very small acreage, and it wasn’t a major crop for us economically. Tobacco had always been our money crop. But when the tobacco buyout came, it offered us more incentives to move into more peanut production.” One thing that held back peanut production, he says, was that they had no drying facilities on the farm and had to truck their crop 45 miles one way to the nearest buying point. “Just about everything bad that could happen transporting a crop — from flat tires on up — happened to us during that time period,” Hudson says. In the late 1990s cotton looked like a good option, and getting into the cotton business would later turn out to be the catalyst he needed to increase peanut acreage. He explains: “I was a partner in a cotton gin, where I met my friend and now long-time business partner, Vic Swinson. Together, we figured out a better way to dry and transport our peanuts. Since then our peanut business has really taken off. Having a good friend to bounce ideas back and forth with is one of the best assets in life. “After looking at some commercial drying trailers, we decided we could buy used trailers and redesign them ourselves.” After reading an article about drying peanuts in remodeled semi-trailers, he and Swinson bought 30 well-used semi-trailers at Memphis, Tenn. “We ended up spending more on transportation expenses to get them back to our farms than we paid for the trailers,” he says. For several weekends, employees from Hudson’s farm made the long trip to Memphis to haul the trailers back for refitting to dry peanuts. “That solved some of our problems, but we still had to load peanuts on semi-trucks and send them 45 miles to the nearest buyer,” he says. Distance to buyer a major obstacle The major obstacle, they finally came to understand, was the distance to a buyer. They needed a closer buying point. In partnership with Swinson, Hudson built Four County Peanut Services at Warsaw, N.C. It is a buying point for Golden Peanut Company, offering farmer friendly buying, grading and storage for up to 10,000 tons of peanuts. Once the challenge of getting peanuts from the field to a buying point and getting paid for their crops was complete, Hudson says he could then concentrate on how to grow peanuts better. In his recently completed office facility, there is a shelf full of county peanut yield championships going back to 1969, when his father was growing the crop. A key component of growing high yielding, high quality peanuts is the experience of the people who plant and dig the crop, he says. “I’m fortunate to have an excellent work force, some of whom were growing peanuts on our farm before I was born.” “James ‘June Bug’ Faison and Thomas ‘Buck’ Morrisey have been working here for almost 50 years. Much of what I know about growing peanuts I learned from my father, my uncle Dewey Hudson, and from June Bug and Buck.” Every step in the peanut production process has to be done right and has to be timely — from fertilizing and planting the crop to protecting it through the growing season. But, Hudson says, “The single most important day in a peanut crop is the day you choose to dig it. “You can make or lose more yield and have the best or worst impact on quality, depending on whether you get the digging date right or whether you get it wrong. Just a few days too early or too late, and you won’t get optimum production from your crop. “June Bug says the key to digging peanuts is to not get ‘gas happy’ and go too fast when digging the crop. With some of our older digging machines, we still try to stay around 2.0-2.5 miles per hour. On our bigger, more modern diggers, we can go a good bit faster, but June Bug still likes to take it slow and careful when he’s digging peanuts.” An additional 6-row digger, equipped with a Trimble GPS guidance system, should speed up the process and make it more precise, Hudson says. The combination of new technology and new and improved varieties will likely make selecting the right time to dig and the actual digging more efficient in the future. “I read recently that this year’s North Carolina peanut yield champion grew 6,300 pounds per acre. My first thought was, how did he do that? My second thought was, he must have planted a lot of my favorite new variety — Bailey. Selecting the right variety is another critical part of peanut production, and Bailey is one of the best I’ve seen in my lifetime of growing peanuts.” Peanuts have always been a part of his life, Hudson says, “and we’ve been fortunate to extend some of those cultural and social aspects of the crop to my family. “Our operation is held together by my best friend and wife, Cece. Without her support, dedication, work, and love, the operation would be nowhere close to what it is today. Not only is she a big asset to the farm operation, she’s a great mother to our children — sons Pelmon,14, Paxton,13, and daughter, Phagan,12.” Transferring farm management responsibilities to the 'next generation' Kudzu bugs transforming insect control picture of soybeans Time to plan for cool-season forage RelatedMountain valley environment a blessing for North Carolina growerJun 05, 2013China Tobacco International to open North Carolina officeJun 27, 2013Lack of nematicides slows use of variable rate application in peanutsJul 01, 2013Peanut farmers asked if revenue crop insurance meeting their needsApr 24, 2017 Load More

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Follow @thecattlesite News & Analysis Features Markets & Reports Sustainability Knowledge Centre Directory Events Our Shop NewsGlobal Study Shows Varied Impacts of Farm Animals on Environment18 December 2013 GLOBAL - The resources required to raise livestock and the impacts of farm animals on environments vary dramatically depending on the animal, the type of food it provides, the kind of feed it consumes and where it lives, according to a new study that offers the most detailed portrait to date of "livestock ecosystems" in different parts of the world.The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the newest comprehensive assessment assembled of what cows, sheep, pigs, poultry and other farm animals are eating in different parts of the world; how efficiently they convert that feed into milk, eggs and meat; and the amount of greenhouse gases they produce. The study, produced by scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), shows that animals in many parts of the developing world require far more food to produce a kilo of protein than animals in wealthy countries. It also shows that pork and poultry are being produced far more efficiently than milk and beef, and greenhouse gas emissions vary widely depending on the animal involved and the quality of its diet. "There's been a lot of research focused on the challenges livestock present at the global level, but if the problems are global, the solutions are almost all local and very situation-specific," said Mario Herrero, lead author of the study who earlier this year left ILRI to take up the position of chief research scientist at CSIRO in Australia. "Our goal is to provide the data needed so that the debate over the role of livestock in our diets and our environments and the search for solutions to the challenges they present can be informed by the vastly different ways people around the world raise animals," said Herrero. "This very important research should provide a new foundation for addressing the sustainable development of livestock in a very resource-challenged and hungry world, where, in many areas, livestock can be crucial to food security," said Harvard University's William C. Clark, editorial board member of the Sustainability Science section at PNAS. For the last four years, Herrero has been working with scientists at ILRI and the lIASA in Austria to deconstruct livestock impacts beyond what they view as broad and incomplete representations of the livestock sector. Their findings—supplemented with 50 illustrative maps and more than 100 pages of additional data—anchor a special edition of PNAS devoted to exploring livestock-related issues and global change. Scientists say the new data fill a critical gap in research on the interactions between livestock and natural resources region by region. The initial work was funded by ILRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Livestock production and diets The study breaks down livestock production into nine global regions—the more developed regions of Europe and Russia (1), North America (2) and Oceania (3), along with the developing regions of Southeast Asia (4), Eastern Asia (5, including China), South Asia (6), Latin America and the Caribbean (7), sub-Saharan Africa (8) and the Middle East and North Africa (9). The data reveal sharp contrasts in overall livestock production and diets. For example: Of the 59 million tons of beef produced in the world in 2000, the vast majority came from cattle in Latin America, Europe and North America. All of sub-Saharan Africa produced only about 3 million tons of beef. Highly intensive industrial-scale production accounts for almost all of the poultry and pork produced in Europe, North America and China. In stark contrast, between 40 to 70 per cent of all poultry and pork production in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa is produced by small-scale farmers. Almost all of the 1.3 billion tons of grain consumed by livestock each year are fed to farm animals in Europe, North America, Eastern China and Latin America, with pork and poultry hogging the feed trough. All of the livestock in sub-Saharan Africa combined eat only about 50 million tons of grain each year, relying more on grasses and "stovers," the leaf and stalk residues of crops left in the field after harvest. Scientists also sought to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases livestock are releasing into the atmosphere and to examine emissions by region, animal type and animal product. They modelled only the emissions linked directly to animals—the gases released through their digestion and manure production. Some important findings include: South Asia, Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have the highest total regional emissions from livestock. Between the developed and developing worlds, the developing world accounts for the most emissions from livestock, including 75 per cent of emissions from cattle and other ruminants and 56 per cent from poultry and pigs. The study found that cattle (for beef or dairy) are the biggest source of greenhouse emissions from livestock globally, accounting for 77 per cent of the total. Pork and poultry account for only 10 per cent of emissions. Analyzing Efficiency and Intensity Scientists note that the most important insights and questions emerging from the new data relate to the amount of feed livestock consume to produce a kilo of protein, something known as "feed efficiency," and the amount of greenhouse gases released for every kilo of protein produced, something known as "emission intensity." Meat v. dairy, grazing animals v. poultry and pork The study shows that ruminant animals (cows, sheep, and goats) require up to five times more feed to produce a kilo of protein in the form of meat than a kilo of protein in the form of milk. "The large differences in efficiencies in the production of different livestock foods warrant considerable attention," the authors note. "Knowing these differences can help us define sustainable and culturally appropriate levels of consumption of milk, meat and eggs." The researchers also caution that livestock production in many parts of the developing world must be evaluated in the context of its "vital importance for nutritional security and incomes." The study confirmed that pigs and poultry (monogastrics) are more efficient at converting feed into protein than are cattle, sheep and goats (ruminants), and it further found that this is the case regardless of the product involved or where the animals are raised. Globally, pork produced 24 kilos of carbon per kilo of edible protein, and poultry produced only 3.7 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein—compared with anywhere from 58 to 1,000 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein from ruminant meat. The authors caution that the lower emission intensities in the pig and poultry sectors are driven largely by industrial systems, "which provide high-quality, balanced concentrate diets for animals of high genetic potential." But these systems also pose significant public health risks (with the transmission of zoonotic diseases from these animals to people) and environmental risks, notably greenhouse gases produced by the energy and transport services needed for industrial livestock production and the felling of forests to grow crops for animal feed. Feed quality in the developing world The study shows that the quality of an animal's diet makes a major difference in both feed efficiency and emission intensity. In arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, where the fodder available to grazing animals is of much lower quality than that in many other regions, a cow can consume up to ten times more feed—mainly in the form of rangeland grasses—to produce a kilo of protein than a cow kept in more favourable conditions. Similarly, cattle scrounging for food in the arid lands of Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan can, in the worst cases, release the equivalent of 1,000 kilos of carbon for every kilo of protein they produce. By comparison, in many parts of the US and Europe, the emission intensity is around 10 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein. Other areas with moderately high emission intensities include parts of the Amazon, Mongolia, the Andean region and South Asia. "Our data allow us to see more clearly where we can work with livestock keepers to improve animal diets so they can produce more protein with better feed while simultaneously reducing emissions," said Petr Havlik, a research scholar at IIASA and a co-author of the study. Not absolute indicators of sustainability While the new data will greatly help to assess the sustainability of different livestock production systems, the authors cautioned against using any single measurement as an absolute indicator of sustainability. For example, the low livestock feed efficiencies and high greenhouse gas emission intensities in sub-Saharan Africa are determined largely by the fact that most animals in this region continue to subsist largely on vegetation inedible by humans, especially by grazing on marginal lands unfit for crop production and the stovers and other residues of plants left on croplands after harvesting. "While our measurements may make a certain type of livestock production appear inefficient, that production system may be the most environmentally sustainable, as well as the most equitable way of using that particular land," said Philip Thornton, another co-author and an ILRI researcher at CCAFS. "That's why this research is so important. We're providing a set of detailed, highly location-specific analyses so we can get a fuller picture of how livestock in all these different regions interact with their ecosystems and what the real trade-offs are in changing these livestock production systems in future." TheCattleSite News Desk Environment and Waste, Sustainability, General Share This

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Pulled raisin vineyards led 2016 decline in California grape acreage Apr 20, 2017 GMOs, fertilizer spark good rural-urban discussion Apr 18, 2017 Napa County farm, wine grape values jump 33 percent Apr 19, 2017 Arizona tree nut plantings on the fast track Apr 18, 2017 Inspection station Construction is under way on a new agricultural inspection station along I-80 in Truckee that will help alleviate local traffic congestion during peak travel times and allow agricultural inspectors to more efficiently concentrate their efforts on vehicles presenting the greatest risk of transporting invasive pests and diseases. U.S. agricultural exports to China jumped to a record $5.5 billion in 2004 due to dramatic growth in U.S. exports of soybeans, cotton, and wheat. China was the fourth-largest overseas market for U.S. farmers during 2004, accounting for 9 percent of U.S. agricultural exports. China's agricultural exports continued to climb as well, but at a rate slower than its growth in imports. The outlook for Chinese imports is favorable due to strong economic growth and continued liberalization of the economy. Christine Casey, vice president for Business and Administration at Western New Mexico University has been named assistant vice president — administrative services for the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She will assume her new leadership post on July 1. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have joined forces to control the pink hibiscus mealybug, which, if unchecked, could cause an estimated $750 million in crop losses annually in the United States. No-till soil management can play an important role in keeping carbon in the soil, rather than allowing it to escape into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, according to a cooperative study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Brazilian scientists at Beltsville, Md. Beginning in April 2005, The American Phytopathological Society (APS) will offer free access to research articles after 24 months of publication in Phytopathology, Plant Disease, and Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI). For each journal, a two-year-old issue will gain free-access status when the current month's issue is published on APS's Web site at www.apsnet.org. Nursing facility residents who consumed 200 International Units (IUs) of vitamin E daily for one year were less likely to get the sniffles than those who took a placebo. Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that those who took the moderate supplements were 20 percent less likely to contract upper respiratory infections, such as colds. In 2003, an estimated 87.2 billion eggs were produced in the United States, with about 85 percent of them destined for human consumption, according to figures from USDA's Economic Research Service. Per capita consumption of eggs and egg products in 2003 was the equivalent of 254 eggs, an increase of 19 eggs per person from 1990, ERS estimated. Unmistakable cattle manure odors have become a bigger issue during the last several years as more and more people move from cities and suburbs to rural areas. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are researching various methods to reduce the unwanted odor, including the type of corn fed to animals. Women are about four times more likely than men to develop osteoporosis, or weak, porous bones. But a new study links vitamin B12 deficiency with low bone mineral density in men, and confirms similar, previously reported findings in women. Researchers funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) reported the findings in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists first compared high-meat protein diets with low-meat protein diets. Now, they've compared animal-protein diets with vegetable-protein diets. This “sequel” study rocks the foundation, again, of a commonly held belief that high-protein diets can be bad for bones. ARS scientists in the Grand Forks [N.D.] Human Nutrition Research Center conducted the study. The findings were published in January in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. How many kernels of wheat in a pound? Anywhere from 14,000 to 17,000. It is reported that more than 87 percent of America's farmers own cell phones. On average, agriculture uses about 43 percent of the state's available water. Alfalfa got its name from the Persian word for horsepower. Farmers make about a nickel or less from each loaf of bread. Want to keep unwanted grains from slipping into your box of organic cornflakes or canister of Basmati rice? The USDA says with more specialty grains flowing into the marketplace, there is a growing need for grain-handling programs that can effectively segregate grains so that there's no unwanted mixing. Zeroing in on the commingling that can occur during grain unloading and storage, a scientist with the Agricultural Research Service recently identified the parts of a grain elevator that may contribute to mixing and assessed how flushing with a quick burst of “cleansing” grain can lessen the problem. The 1.5 million Americans who are allergic to peanuts may someday have an allergen-free peanut they can enjoy. A form of vitamin D, discovered in laboratory studies by an ARS researcher, may help fight cancer. Nowadays, it will take more than a “huff and a puff” for the Big Bad Wolf to blow down a house made of California rice straw. To help air quality, rice farmers are no longer burning the straw left after harvest. Instead, they've found unique uses for it × new homes. The lightweight steel frame supports the structure and separates the straw bales from the interior and exterior cladding materials. The straw bales provide more than twice the insulation of a traditional 2 × 6 wood-frame wall. One apple tree can produce enough apples to fill 20 boxes every year. Rice grown on more than 500,000 California acres provides more than nourishment. Rice straw is used to create fine specialty papers, building materials such as medium density fiberboard, animal bedding, high-quality soil amendments, beds for growing mushrooms, and erosion control products. Imagine having 144 guests for dinner. And breakfast. And lunch. For one whole year! And you have to dress them, too. A tall order for anyone. Anyone, that is, except one of California's farmers. They're so productive that each one produces enough food and fiber to feed and clothe 144 people around the world for a year. Farmers have become increasingly more productive since 1940, when each American farmer produced enough food to feed and clothe 19 people. What's in your refrigerator? A lot of really good food, if you're an average Californian. Per capita, we consume about 126 pounds of fresh fruit, 197 pounds of fresh vegetables, 251 eggs, 22 gallons of milk, 29.8 pounds of cheese and 184 pounds of meat and poultry. Farmers grow that good food right here in California. Raisins retain all the nutrition of the original grape, but weigh less than a fourth as much. This makes raisins the perfect food to pack in school lunches. In fact, raisins are so nutritious and so easy to carry, that Hannibal fed them to his troops while they were crossing the Alps. Although people enjoyed raisins for centuries in other parts of the world, California raisins weren't produced until 1893 … and then it was by accident! In September of that year, a devastating heat wave hit the San Joaquin Valley just before the grape harvest. The grapes dried on the vine and the crop would have been a total loss if one enterprising grower hadn't taken his “accidental” raisins to San Francisco. The raisins became very popular and soon there was a large market for the wrinkly treats. The rest, as they say, is history. Next time you're inclined to complain about your grocery bill, remember this: The same bag of groceries that costs $18.79 in the U.S., costs $74.23 in Japan. That bag includes 1 gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, 5 pounds of cheese, a 2-pound sirloin steak and 2 pounds of apples. All of these commodities are produced right here in California. Imperial County is the largest alfalfa-growing region in the world. Some of the crop grown on its 173,000 alfalfa-producing acres is exported, but most of it is baled and shipped to California dairies. These fields also serve as pasture for more than 245,000 feeder lambs, the largest concentration of feeder lambs in the nation during the five-month winter feeding period. Feeder lambs are purchased after weaning, when they weigh from 35 to 60 pounds. They're marketed when they reach a weight of approximately 110 pounds. The lambs are valued at $7.5 million. Of every dollar spent on food, at home and away, farmers and ranchers earn only 19 cents, 12 cents less than in 1980. More than 140 varieties of fresh plums are shipped throughout the country from California orchards, but there are really just two general categories: Japanese and European. Japanese plums are large, juicy and bright red or yellow. European plums are blue or purple, somewhat oblong, a bit smaller and mildly sweet. California produces more than 17 million gallons of wine each year. Eight of the nation's top 10 farm counties … Fresno, Kern, Tulare, Monterey, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Riverside … are in California and are members of the “billion dollar club,” generating on-farm revenues of at least $1 billion a year. California produces 100 percent of the U.S. crop of raisins. A one-time tillage will not cause great soil carbon loss, even though major damage is caused to soil structure. That's the finding of Lloyd Owens, a soil scientist with the Agricultural Research Service in Coshocton, Ohio, after a study comparing soil carbon in the top foot of soil under a meadow with the carbon level in soil under cornfields with various levels of tillage. He found that it takes a few years of continual annual plowing before carbon losses become noticeable in fields previously unplowed for years.

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The Way I Do | Bishop Briggs Nation Vilsack says Farm Bill must improve disaster aid By Michael J. Crumb ANKENY, Iowa—Lawmakers working on the next Farm Bill need to find an effective way to provide aid to farmers affected by natural disasters, increase funding for agricultural research and continue important conservation programs, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday.The former Iowa governor spoke to about 100 workers who make farm equipment at a John Deere plant in Ankeny, telling them programs funded through the massive spending bill also must be streamlined and simpler to understand.The current $284 billion bill, approved in 2008, expires in September 2012. Roughly three-fourths of the money goes to food nutrition programs, such as food stamps and school lunches, but it also provides subsidies for commodity crops, like corn and wheat, and funding for agricultural research, rural development and energy, among other things.Perhaps the most controversial items funded by the bill are direct payments, which are subsidies paid to growers of certain crops regardless of crop prices and yields. Many lawmakers and some farmers support scrapping direct payments in favor of better crop insurance, which would kick in when prices drop or crops are damaged.Southern farmers, however, remain strong supporters of direct payments, saying existing crop insurance programs don't help much with the crops they grow.Vilsack said farm aid is crucial, but it must involve some kind of accountability."We have a responsibility to the American people to use their resources wisely and to provide assistance only when it's needed," he said.But, he also said aid needs to be provided more quickly when disasters happen and aid programs should be simple and easier to understand.This has been a major year for agricultural disasters. Texas has suffered a record $5.2 billion in livestock and crop losses since last fall because of drought. Meanwhile, Midwest farmers lost crops to river flooding, and those in the East were swamped by Tropical Storm Irene."A bad crop ruined by a natural disaster or an unpredictable price collapse can put a hard working farm family out of business quickly," Vilsack said. "These families rely on a strong safety net."And, aid has to be provided in a way that works for all farmers."It can't favor the planting of one crop over another," Vilsack said. "It needs to work for row crop farmers in Iowa and specialty crop farmers in upstate New York and cattle ranchers in Texas."The agriculture secretary also said the next Farm Bill must include more money for agricultural research because public funding has been stagnant since the 1990s."If we continue to flat-line our commitment to research, our productivity will likely suffer," Vilsack said. "This at a time when our productivity will have to increase to meet the global demand for food."The issue also is important to the U.S. economy. He said farm exports are expected to reach a record $137 billion this year for an export surplus of $42 billion, with 1 million jobs added.Vilsack, who spoke a week after a massive dust storm struck the Texas Panhandle, also said conservation should be another priority in the new Farm Bill. Dust storms happen when wind picks up dry, loose soil.Vilsack said farmers have voluntarily enrolled a record number of acres in conservation programs and "clearly, we cannot afford to let up" in that effort.There has been discussion about Congress scaling back the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays them not to plow up and farm land. Vilsack called on Congress to continue its commitment to improving conservation programs with more flexibility and a simpler, more streamlined application process."In the last 30 years, producers have reduced soil erosion by 40 percent and agriculture has become the leading cause of restoring wetlands," he said. © Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. More articles in Nation Profile FAQ Follow us on Facebook Boston.com top stories on Twitter Waiting for Twitter to feed in the latest...

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Global Environmental Law at a Crossroads > CONFERENCES > GELC > JULY3_5D July 3, 2012: Panel 5D - Sustainable Food Production and Food Security Recommendations on Mitigation and Adaptation in Agriculture and Food Security in Central America Rafael Gonzalez Ballar, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica 3-7-2012 2:40 PM Our paper will emphasis that the our ecological and carbon footprint in the region has had important setbacks in Central America. We need to understand that we have to give priority to risk analysis that will help identify our vulnerabilities and work with mitigation and adaptation. In the first part we will understand why the setbacks. The second will recommend on mitigation and adaptation in our public policies and legislation. Taking as a reference year of 2008 it is true that Central America (CA) has had setbacks on environmental, economic, social, political issues, and there have been gaps in socioeconomic and political domain specifically in Costa Rica and Panama. We have a number of risks that have not been solved and will cause problems: Institutional: it has generated a kind of state "hostile to democracy" (State of the Region 2011). They have small institutional structures, key executives, no real balances. Climate change: Accepting some regional differences problems already present will continue to worsen. Ex. the temperature increases, the intensity of all hydrometeorological problems are further aggravated by possible vulnerabilities without clarity on mitigation and adaptation. Aspects of environmental mismanagement is having and will have problems of infrastructure, production and balance of fragile ecosystems at risk for the people who live or are near them. Political impasse: There is a difficulty in the system to combat social exclusion. Taking as reference year 2000, the region showed a clear trend of unsustainable use of natural resources. Our ecological footprint began to be negative (ecological debt). The environment and development relationship by analyzing the priorities states have in all public policies, are not verifiable denoting contradictions in the political discourse and national and regional strategies with concrete and "substantial changes in the patterns of exploitation of nature" (State of the Region 2011). Specifics: The countries of the region have serious environmental vulnerability as they are in an area, compared with others, because of its location, is likely to suffer and worsen their situation if we do not reduce risk circumstances. Examples of Honduras and Nicaragua are of the utmost gravity. The availability of water (including for energy), loss of biodiversity and finally food security. In twenty years, from 1980 to 2005, the region lost 248,400 acres of wetlands, an annual average of 9936 hectares. The cumulative loss in that period represents 34.8% of the total that existed in 1980. The number of endangered species increased by 82% between 2002 and 2010. The fish, followed by amphibians, are the most impacted. 35% of Central American territory is within shared river basins. Between 2005 and 2008 the agricultural area in the region fell by 7.4%. From 2005 to 2010 the forest area decreased by 1,246,000 Isthmus hectares. The rate of this loss, however, has fallen, among 1990y 2000 the rate was -1.6%, and in 2000-2010 was -1.2%. (State of the Region 2011). There are two weaknesses that make the vulnerabilities of the region in an unsolved problem as is evident from the objective reality of each country: a view in which mitigation prevails (for increased access to financial resources) and other policies in which the region tend to define tasks but not responsibilities. We continue to have "uncontrolled energy use, inefficient and polluting, poorly planned and regulated, risk of new windows for natural integrity of the territory: an expansive urban growth, a limited control of water pollution sources and solid and liquid waste, the land affected by agricultural activities technologically backward, and the commitment to high environmental impact activities and great social unrest. " (State of the Region 2011). It is urgent that we can work with the adaptation, necessarily integrated to risk management. We need a good management of protected areas and forests that can play a role in helping climate change. Land use is a priority including land tools and citizen participation. This has to be accompanied by environmental indicators that allow us to have information for decision-making. We will make emphasis on mitigation and adaptation in agriculture and food security in Central America. Jul 3rd, 2:40 PM Select context to search: in this collection

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Change Food Donations to Change Food are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Challenge: Groundwater polluted with poultry and livestock waste. Fisheries damaged by fertilizer runoff. Health risks borne by rural communities exposed to pesticides and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Urban poverty and “food deserts” – entire communities with no access to fresh fruit and vegetables for their families. Children facing a 1 in 3 chance of developing diabetes in their lifetime. Skyrocketing obesity. Let’s face it. Industrial agriculture, factory farming, and our over-processed food system are harming our health and our environment. The Urgency: Even with immediate intervention, these harms are already spreading to our future generations. Our farming and food systems are at a crossroads—a critical inflection point—and must transform or we risk irreversible damage to public health and the environment. Better alternatives do exist, but implementing them requires a paradigm shift that includes public awareness and involvement, open dialogue that shares and fosters alternative and diverse perspectives on food and farming, and new technology and pilot programs that convert ideas into action. Picture a future where efficient and effective local and regional sustainable food and farming systems blanket the U.S. and provide and abundance of healthy, nutritious food to all people, regardless of who they are, how much money they make, or where they live. Our aim is to make that a reality. Our Mission: Change Food’s mission is to foster and promote sustainable food and farming systems so that all people have access to healthy, nutritious food. Our goals include: Changing the way we think about food and farming to achieve our vision. Increasing public awareness about the need for a sustainable food and farming movement. Creating opportunities for networking and collaboration around sustainable food and farming initiatives. Exposing key influencers and funders outside the movement to innovative food and farming ideas. Converting these thoughts and ideas into actionable outcomes. Our Leadership: Diane Hatz is the founder and executive director of Change Food, the former founder and director of The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming, and prior to that, founder and director of Sustainable Table. She was also Executive Producer of the award-winning, critically acclaimed, animated films The Meatrix, The Meatrix II: Revolting, and The Meatrix II ½ and the founder of the Eat Well Guide, an online consumer directory of sustainably-raised meat and dairy products in the United States and Canada. Our Work: The first project of Change Food is a series of annual events and activities that culminate in a one-day annual gathering at TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat.” Together these events and activities are designed to address all five of the above goals. In its fourth successful (and sold out) year, TEDxManhattan, “Changing the Way We Eat” will take place on March 1st, 2014, at the TimesCenter in New York City, featuring a dynamic and diverse group of sustainable food and farming movement change agents and entrepreneurs. This independently organized TEDx event leverages the popular TED conference style to engage a wider audience by highlighting bold sustainable food and farming initiatives from around the country. The event is complemented by a full menu of related networking and education events - some as Change Food; some as TEDxManhattan - including post event Adventures, videos of all talks, discussion guides/teaching materials to go with videos of the talks, Salons that address needs within the food movement, and educational DVDs of TEDxManhattan. See more projects sponsored by T4CI. Change Food website On Facebook On LinkedIn Follow us on Twitter Our YouTube channel Email this project Send us an email Project Categories foodfarmingeducation FAQ

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Soil health advocate pushes new approach Even as the process of writing a new farm bill begins, with the Senate Ag Committee holding its first public field hearing recently in Manhattan, Kansas, some innovative farmers are dropping out of the farm program entirely over requirements they say are too restrictive. By Candace Krebs Contributing Writer Even as the process of writing a new farm bill begins, with the Senate Ag Committee holding its first public field hearing recently in Manhattan, Kansas, some innovative farmers are dropping out of the farm program entirely over requirements they say are too restrictive.Ironically, many of these same farmers are the most ardent about serving the public good by rejuvenating soils, growing healthier food and improving the environment.Gail Fuller, of Emporia, Kansas, falls into that category. He attended the High Plains No Till Conference last month in Burlington, Colorado, to talk about multispecies rotational grazing and no-till practices on his diversified farm in south central Kansas.If there’s an argument to be made that Fuller deserves federal payback for his contributions to society, surprisingly he’s the first to bat it away.“Maybe they don’t subsidize us, maybe they just leave us alone,” he said. “I’d like to just get the government out of it.”Of course, one of the problems with that, which Fuller readily acknowledges, is that today’s farm economy has become heavily dependent on crop insurance and federal farm subsidies for survival.“That’s the only way we make a living,” he said. “It’s sure not off of what we get for the commodity.”At the same time, he considers the low cost of food deceiving, saying it comes with a price.“Compare the calcium in my eggs to how much is in regular grocery store eggs,” he said. “I get $5 a dozen for my eggs while they are a dollar a dozen at the grocery store. But when you consider the nutritional value, my eggs are actually cheaper.”It rubs him the wrong way that the government gives farmers a financial incentive to mass-produce low value commodities and then pushes the excess production on other countries through international trade policy.“How sustainable is that?” he asked. “Never mind how sustainable it is to ship our products overseas to begin with, but those other countries we trade with are not hauling our soil nutrients back to us to put back on our fields.” On his own farm, Fuller is experimenting with intensive crop rotation, cover crops and mixed grazing of cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens, all with the intent of building healthier soil. In the process, he has become so frustrated with the government “telling him how to farm” that he dropped out, including forfeiting crop insurance, which is paid for through a combination of federal subsidies coupled with individual premiums.Raising particular ire among farmers like him are termination guidelines that require cover crops to be killed off well in advance of planting an insured crop and restrictions on haying or grazing cover crops used in place of summer fallow.Fuller said he had given up on lobbying the government for greater leniency.While he admitted his stance is extreme compared to most farmers and he can sound like a broken record when it comes to insisting on having plant life covering the soil surface at all times, he emphasized his goal is for farmers everywhere to be successful at managing their land. The entire Great Plains climate is interconnected, with weather in Eastern Colorado ultimately affecting his conditions further east, he said.No conversation with him gets very far before it loops back around to the topic of soil health, his overriding concern.“My grandkids won’t have any soil left if we don’t change. We’re that close to losing it,” he said.Several years ago Fuller started hosting an annual field school at his farm.The next one is set for Aug. 17 and 18. Several guest speakers will participate, including Don Huber, a controversial scientist who questions the health and safety of widespread glyphosate use and herbicide resistant crops.Fuller said his field days attract all kinds of people, consumers as well as farmers, from around the world.His foreign guests, in particular, have given him a new perspective, he said.“I had a huge awakening a couple of years ago,” he explained. “I had a group of farmers visit from Iraq. I almost didn’t let them come, and I got some pushback from other landowners in the area. But what I learned from them is they don’t want my corn. They want to learn my techniques so they can feed their own people.”While eating at a local restaurant, one of the Iraqi men told Fuller the plate of food he received was more than he normally eats in an entire day.While food is clearly plentiful in the U.S., Fuller questioned whether it measures up nutritionally.“Typically we don’t even have enough protein on our plates to keep our brains functioning properly,” he said.Fuller pointed out that Iraq, a country now struggling to feed itself, is located in what was historically referred to as the Fertile Crescent, also known as the Garden of Eden in biblical texts.That to him is a cautionary tale.“Here in the U.S. we are degrading our soils at a rate faster than what they did,” he said. “And we think we are going to be able to continue to feed them? We should be worrying about whether we will be able to feed ourselves.”

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You are in: home > newsroom > focus [Newsroom] Focus on the issues FAO field projects FAO in action Audio online Forests, a life-giving resource Sustainable forest management can help agriculture and fight poverty Millions of people around the world depend on forests for medicine, building materials, fuel, income -- and food. FAO estimates that around 500 million people live in or near forests, and in some places, forests are the primary source of food. But almost everywhere, forests provide regular supplements to people's diets. In many developing countries, forest foods represent a much-needed safety net, helping people get by between harvest seasons, when crops fail or during times of drought, famine or social strife. In some areas, forests support livestock production by providing fodder, and in others -- for example, coastal mangrove swamps -- they support local fisheries. But beyond these direct contributions to food security, the environmental services provided by forests play a critical role in ensuring sustainable agricultural production: forests and woodlands help filter and maintain water supplies, protect against soil erosion and land degradation, moderate climate and slow global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forests are also rich deposits of biological diversity and provide large numbers of poor people with fuel for cooking food and heating their homes, while forest-based employment gives many others a source of cash income. "The survival of forests really constitutes a guarantee for the survival of mankind," says El-Hadji Sene, Director of FAO's Forestry Resources Division. "They provide so many different products and services, serve so many important functions." At the World Forestry Congress in Quebec City, Canada, 21-28 September, FAO will be stressing these multiple linkages -- and the essential role forests play in preserving other key resources, such as water and soils. A milestone meeting According to Sene, the meeting is an important step in what he describes as the ongoing journey towards sustainable forest management. "The Congress brings forest people from around the world together to find ways to harness the products, goods and services that forests provide, without harming forests -- in short, how to apply the idea of sustainable development to forests," he says. Since 1947, FAO has played a lead role in sponsoring and organizing the event, convened every six years to bring diverse forest stakeholders from around the world to the table to discuss a wide range of issues. As many as 3 000 people are expected to attend this year's meeting. Beyond its role as a conference sponsor, FAO also plays an active part in the discussions and learning that happen during the event. This year, experts from the Organization will be speaking on subjects such as measuring forest resources, sustainable management practices, climate change, deforestation, forest fire management, forest-based poverty reduction and trade opportunities for non-wood products. A shared journey FAO's involvement in the World Forestry Congress complements its involvement in other ongoing international discussions regarding forest policy. Based on FAO's track record in the forestry sector, in 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development asked the Organization to play the lead role in coordinating international action on combating deforestation. In this capacity, FAO has collaborated with partners both inside and outside the UN system to make the last ten years productive ones, including helping service and support additional multilateral mechanisms for addressing global forestry issues. These include the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests, the United Nations Forum on Forests and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, which coordinates inputs from international agencies and is chaired by FAO. "We're also very engaged in the implementation of other mechanisms and conventions that relate to forestry, especially the first Río Conventions," Sene notes. This emerging international framework for enhanced cooperation has already resulted in tangible results, notes FAO in State of the World's Forests 2003. - More than 100 countries have revised national forest policies and developed national forest programmes, taking into account the need for wide participation by different stakeholders. - 150 countries are involved in international efforts to establish criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. - Areas under official forest management plans have increased to 88 percent in developed countries and around 6 percent in developing countries. - 10 percent of the world's forests now fall within protected forest areas. - The involvement of local communities in forest planning and management is growing. Working for the future of forestry Forests and forestry have been a part of FAO's mandate since the creation of the Organization in 1945. Today, FAO's Forestry Department continues to work on a wide range of issues important to the sector, including community-based forestry and poverty alleviation, forest degradation and deforestation, sustainable forest management, conservation and biodiversity, management of forest fires and the relationship between forests and climate change. One important new area of work involves FAO's collaboration with countries and regional associations from around the world to develop a common set of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. "The idea," says Sene, "is that these indicators can be the basis for best practices, the basic elements that guide the practitioner towards sustainable forest management." For more information on work being conducted by FAO's Forestry Department and the messages FAO is taking to the World Forestry Congress, browse the links to the right of this article. September 2003 George Kourous Information Officer, FAO [email protected] +39 06 570 53168 Forests, a life-giving resource Forests and freshwater Forestry and poverty alleviation [email protected] +39 06 570 53168 Harvesting honey in Senegal: forests provide people with a wide range of foods, household goods and medicines. (FAO/15856/R. Faidutti) Related Links FAO Forestry Department World Forestry Congress 2003 State of the World's Forests 2003 FAO's work in forestry FAO Committee on Forestry UN Forum on Forests Future of forests rests on sustainable management Forests play a critical role in ensuring sustainable agricultural by maintaining water supplies, protecting against erosion and moderating climate. (FAO/19326/R. Faidutti) comments? please write to the webmaster ©FAO, 2003

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Keeping farm families alive and well IOWA CITY– According to the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), agriculture is one of the nation’s most hazardous occupations. On average, 550 farmers die in agriculture related incidents every year. One-hundred kids, on average, are also killed on the farm. In Iowa, approximately 30 deaths per year occur, with three to four of those being children. Obvious dangers include machinery, livestock and chemical exposure. However, death also comes from chronic conditions built up over time. Roger Stutsman of Hills knows the dangers all too well. Almost three years ago, his son Mike was killed while working on a piece of machinery. Today the memory and anguish are still so intense, Stutsman can barely talk about the incident. However, the tragedy of burying his son and would-be heir to the family farm, 150 years in the making, has spurred Stutsman on a crusade– and he’s found a willing band of agricultural health and safety warriors to join his cause. Working in conjunction with Iowa’s Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (I-CASH), the Johnson County Public Health Department, Iowa State University Extension, and various Iowa farm safety and health organizations, Stutsman and his board of directors plan to open the Johnson County Agricultural and Rural Health Service and Training Center. The facility housed in the new Johnson County Extension Office at the county fairground will serve as a “one-stop shop” for the safety and health needs of farmers, their families, and those they employ. Discussion of the new center began in March of last year. Working with the Johnson County Health Department, a recommendation was made to the County Board of Supervisors for appropriating start-up dollars for the project. With the supervisors solidly behind the endeavor, the plans quickly moved forward with an expectation from the Board that services would be expanded beyond Johnson County. The center, scheduled to open in early October, will have a half-time nurse trained specifically in the relatively new specialty of “agricultural medicine.” Shalome Tonelli, the nurse, will talk with clients about a total wellness package including injury/illness prevention on the farm, use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), screening for ag-related illnesses and treatment of occupational injuries. In addition, Tonelli will be able to test pulmonary function and help clients properly fit test respirators for working around grain dust or chemicals. A “mother box” filled with PPE and first aid supplies will be available for purchase as a centralized supply bin on the farm. Additionally, personal PPE/first aid kits will also be available in a size similar to a common fanny pack. The goal is that anybody working on a farm will have the proper equipment with them, regardless of the task to be performed. Expanding PPE use means convincing farmers to carry more than just a pair of work gloves. With skin cancer rates higher among farmers, the kits will include sun block. Constant exposure to loud machinery means higher rates of hearing loss, so a variety of ear protection will be included. Dust and mold are prevalent in grain handling, which leads to high rates of chronic lung conditions, so Tonelli will help farmers with respirators. Specialized equipment, such as fall-protection harnesses will be available for rent, thus reducing the out-of-pocket expense to a farmer for rarely needed items. The center will also heavily promote an I-CASH initiative known as Certified Safe Farm. By request, a health and safety audit can identify potential hazards and recommend a course of action. Stutsman and his board hope insurance companies will take notice and consider offering discounts to farmers who have earned the certification. “If you build a program reducing the risks, you should be able to get a discount,” said board member Andy Winborn, who said insurance companies are always looking for ways to cut costs. “The bottom line will drive this,” Stutsman said of the effort to get farmers– typically a fiercely independent group not keen on outsiders telling them what to do– to embrace changing how they operate. Looking at the death and injury rates, Donham said there has been about a 40 percent decrease over the past several years, but “our work isn’t done. “It’s getting better, and we’ve made some progress,” said Donham. The center plans to rely on a combination of donations, fundraising and membership sales to become a self-sustaining organization. Sales and rental of PPE as well as ala carte services are also in the plans. Membership would entitle a client and his family to the array of educational, health and on-farm services. The center will also actively pursue grants. “We want to build an income stream,” said Kelley Donham, Director of I-CASH. “We fully expect the agricultural community to pay for this,” he added, looking at an approximately $100,000 annual budget. At least half, Donham says, is expected to come through payment for services rendered. The Stutsman family knows investing in safety on the front end could ultimately spare someone else the dearest cost of all. “I know it’s what Mike wants,” Stutsman said of the effort. “If I can just save one person from what I’m going through.” For information, contact Roger Stutsman at 319-325-4675.

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'Gene-silencing' technique is a game-changer for crop protection Ground-breaking research based on nanotechnology promises to help conquer the greatest threat to global food crops - pests and diseases in plants. Scientists develop a non-toxic, degradable spray which is capable of disabling specific genes in plants. 'BioClay' spray protects plants from disease-causing pathogens without altering their DNA. Researchers at the University of Surrey and University of Queensland have developed a revolutionary new crop protection technique which offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to genetically-modified crops and chemical pesticides. The breakthrough research, published in Nature Plants, could have huge benefits for agriculture and positively impact communities around the world. Plant pests and pathogens are estimated to reduce global crop yields by 30 to 40 per cent a year, constraining global food security. At the same time, the need for higher production, regulatory demands, pesticide resistance, and concern about global warming driving the spread of disease all mean there is a growing need for new approaches to crop protection. The researchers have found that by combining clay nanoparticles with designer 'RNAs' (molecules with essential roles in gene biology), it is possible to silence certain genes within plants. The spray they have developed -- known as BioClay -- has been shown to give plants virus protection for at least 20 days following a single application. When sprayed with BioClay, the plant 'thinks' it is being attacked by a disease or pest insect and responds by protecting itself. The latest research overcomes the instability of 'naked' RNAs sprayed on plants, which has previously prevented them from being used effectively for virus protection. By loading the agents on to clay nanoparticles, they do not wash off, enabling them to be released over an extended period of time before degrading. The BioClay technology, which is based on nanoparticles used in the development of human drug treatments, has a number of advantages over existing chemical-based pesticides. Since BioClay is non-toxic and degradable, there is less risk to the environment and human health. It can also be used in a highly targeted way to protect crops against specific pathogens. Professor G.Q. Max Lu, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey and co-author of the research paper, said: "This is one of the best examples of nanoparticles being effective for biological molecular delivery with a controlled release rate for combating diseases in plants or animals. The same nanoparticle technology invented and patented in my laboratory at the University of Queensland was used for effective targeted drug delivery. It was licensed to an Oxford-based pharmaceutical company and is now being commercialised for drug development." "I am very pleased to see the exciting results of this project and the publication of our research in the prestigious Nature Plants journal." The research paper, 'Clay nanosheets for stable delivery of RNA interference as a topical application to protect plants against viruses' is published in Nature Plants on 10 January 2017. ### The research was led by researchers Professor Neena Mitter and Professor Gordon Xu at the University of Queensland in collaboration with Professor Lu of the University of Surrey. Natasha Meredith [email protected] @UniOfSurrey http://www.surrey.ac.uk More on this News Release Nature Plants FERTILIZERS/PEST MANAGEMENT Related Journal Article http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.207 More in Agriculture

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Global Food Security Posted by admin on Saturday, May 12, 2012 · Leave a Comment Summit Reporting Help Desk Need help with coverage? Contact site director Jonathan Eyler-Werve at [email protected] or call 1-312-369-6400 for assistance. Lisa Eakman, executive director, Global Agricultural and Food Policy Initiative, Chicago Council on Global Affairs. 312-821-7518. [email protected] (Image: haglundc CC by/nc) By Richard Longworth While the number of small organic farms is growing, they provide less than one percent of the United States food supply. The larger trend is for American farms to get bigger, and most food is grown on big, highly-specialized farms; these are the farms the feed the world. Addressing global food security issues requires helping these farms further improve their efficiency and productivity. But large-scale farming is not sustainable as long as it relies on chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers that damage the land and pollute the water. Main story: Urban Farming, Food Deserts Today high-tech farming in the U.S. is increasing yields and reducing soil damage, large cattle farms are experimenting with power generation from methane, and researchers are working with industry to develop fertilizers and herbicides that do less environmental damage. Such efforts must be part of any serious effort to address food security. Richard Longworth is a senior fellow at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former senior correspondent at the Chicago Tribune. [email protected] With over 900 million people chronically undernourished around the world, low agricultural productivity in the developing world is a key factor exacerbating food insecurity, and a recent white paper by a working group of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs calls on the United States to make global agricultural development and food security a priority agenda item at the G8 Summit in May. “America is one of the most innovative and productive agricultural countries in the world,” said working group co-chair Doug Bereuter, president emeritus of the Asia Foundation and a former congressman. “The U.S. is well-positioned to lead a new G8 commitment to increasing the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers and developing sustainable agriculture value chains in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” The Council’s Global Agricultural and Food Policy Initiative (GAPFI) examines the question of how U.S. policies can best respond to the growing global demand for food while harnessing agricultural development as a means to spur economic development and alleviate poverty. GAPFI projects explore how how agriculture and food issues intersect with a broader development agenda, including health and nutrition as well as the role of women and girls in rural economies. The Initiative’s domestic and global work, drawing from expertise in academic, policy, corporate, and civil society spheres, has influenced deliberations over the 2008 Farm Bill, the administration’s Feed The Future initiative, and UN meetings on health and gender issues.

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J.K. Ladha is a Principal Scientist and the IRRI representative for India and Nepal. He is also an adjunct associate in the Ag Station at the UC-Davis. He devoted more than 30 years to aspects of sustainable management of agriculture and natural resources for increasing food security and environmental quality. He provided leadership to the R-W Consortium (RWC, an Eco-regional Initiative of the CGIAR that aims to enhance the productivity of rice and wheat in South Asia). Dr. Ladha’s work, in collaboration with many national partners, takes a holistic, systems approach, covering various components of agronomic, soil and water management. Through his work, several integrated crop and resource management technologies have been adopted on a large scale helping resource-poor farmers. His leadership has been instrumental in bringing closer collaboration among several international centers and national agricultural research and extension systems in South Asia. Dr. Ladha has published widely on issues related to sustainable and conservation agriculture. He has (co)authored 190 research articles in international journals, (co)edited 13 books, and presented 80 invited papers in 28 countries. Dr Ladha enjoys exceptionally high h-index for citations (Google Scholar, 55; Web of Science, 40; Scopus, 37) and his top three rank in the whole CGIAR system. He served on the editorial boards of several international journals including the Regional Editor of Biology and Fertility of Soils. He has been involved with several international advisory/scientific review panels. He supervised 35 master’s and doctoral students from a dozen countries. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and the Soil Science Society of America (SSA), Indian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and an associate member of the Philippine Council of Agricultural Research (PARC). He is the recipient of several awards and honors most recently, the International Service in Agronomy Award 2011, International Soil Science Award 2010, International Plant Nutrition Institute Science Award 2009 and “Frosty” Hill Fellowship Award by Cornell University in 2007. In 2000 and 2004, the CGIAR awarded the Chairman’s Excellence Science Award for Outstanding Scientific Partnership and the prestigious King Baudoin Award for Outstanding Research to the Rice-Wheat Consortium in which J. K. Ladha was the key scientist and IRRI’s coordinator. « Ray Weil Peter Grace » About UsPeople At AgCenter

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Photo Credit: Laura Conaway, Certified Angus Beef LLC By Laura Conaway | Certified Angus Beef LLC Plans, no matter how intentional, can only take you so far. Throw cattle into the mix, and keeping them on track becomes more of a welcome surprise than an expected end point. Sally Donati knows this well. She’s had bags packed, even Thanksgiving turkeys in the oven, when the cows called. “Everybody took vacations,” she says with longing. Their November holiday, however, was in sync with husband Tom’s artificial insemination (AI) program for the herd. “That was always interesting! It got to the point where my dad was cooking the turkey down at my sister’s house and bringing it with him.” That was 25 years ago, and the AI schedule’s since shifted. Tom cooks the turkey now. “It all works,” Sally says, reflecting on four decades on Donati Ranch near Oroville, Calif., “and you just do what you have to do.” Or, in their case, a little extra. She may tease Tom about vacations skipped or dinners gone cold, but college sweethearts will do that sort of thing. Two years his junior, the pair met at California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo, where they studied agricultural business management before saying “I do” in 1975. “I think because Tom’s family had the cattle there, that’s why I got through college,” Sally says of escaping to the nearby hills on weekends to ride horseback. Finding a niche Farm kids, he from nearby Santa Maria, she from San Jose, each had grown up with cattle. In time, they’d raise sons Rocky and Chris the same. “It was all commercial cows at the time,” Tom says, even though they had used some AI since 1968, and he and his brother continued after their father’s early passing in 1972. “When we started out, we had Hereford-Durham-cross cows. We even used some Continental breeds, some Simmentals, too. They were just a little harder as far as getting the heifers to rebreed. Then the cows got too big, so we introduced Angus bulls.” At the same time, the prices got too small, so the brothers dispersed the herd and the partnership. Tom started another commercial herd in the late 1970s. “It was pretty meek in the ’80s,” he says, “so much operating in the red. In order to stay in, you had to make your cattle better; you had to find your niche, your premiums.” Carcass data paved the way. “For us to make the improvements we wanted to make, we had to know where we were. It was like a road map,” he says. That road map led down a road less traveled at the time, with grid marketing sparse and carcass premiums only beginning to see light. “The American Angus Association started this [Structured] Sire Evaluation Program,” Tom says. Similar to its function today, interested commercial producers viewed a list of Angus sires in need of genetic proving, along with proven “reference” sires randomly AIed to their cows. The Association would provide carcass data back on the calves. “That became our map,” Tom says. The first data revealed a Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand acceptance rate in the single digits. “You see those things and you think, ‘Well, we’re not going to get many premiums from that.’ ” So they changed directions and stopped “picking the biggest, fattest, prettiest replacement heifers to keep.” “Now we knew what we had,” Tom says. “We had to find out where we were to find out where we wanted — needed — to go.” It would be the boys’ local 4-H projects that would alter the course of the family business for good, but nobody saw it coming. It wasn’t in the plans. “In our county, you can only have a [4-H] market animal for two years, and then you have to expand it,” Sally says. “You either have to go to a breeding animal in the same species or switch to a new species.” The carcass data had them aiming for smarter breeding decisions in the commercial herd, and that was about to cross paths with the 4-H sideshow. “We were trying to improve the quality,” Tom says. “There’s a big difference in premiums between Choice and Select.” That differential was the catalyst; they bought Rocky and Chris their first registered Angus cows in 1991. “The criteria we used for breeding our commercial cows we applied to our small, registered herd,” he explains. “We’d raise our own bulls and put them on our commercial cows for cleanup, and as the registered herd grew, we began selling bulls. All of a sudden it had evolved into a seedstock operation.” The family replaced their last commercial Angus with a registered one last year. “We found opportunity in keeping registered heifers,” Tom says. For 17 years they’ve partnered with two like-minded ranches to market bulls in their Black Gold Bull Sale in early September. Yes, there’s recordkeeping, but the Donatis take it in stride. “I mean, we have computers. It’s not that hard,” Tom says. Plus, it helps to have Sally as “the chief bill payer.” Nestled hours inland from the coast along the Sacramento Valley, Oroville, meaning “Gold Town,” is an interesting place to raise beef cattle. “It’s tough because the pasture ground is suitable for other things,” Tom says. “A lot of the irrigated land has been taken out, put into orchards.” Oldest son Rocky oversees the family’s rice-farming operation, but the cattle will always be Tom’s love. “It’s been a fun game,” he says, “if I should call it a ‘game.’ There’s so much to play with as far as genetics, embryo work and genomic data to develop a better beef product.” The fall-calving herd (there are a few spring calvers to satisfy customers) was designed to fit the breeding programs of cattlemen in central and northern California. Breeding decisions revolve around light to moderate birth weights with emphasis still on growth, marbling and muscle. “They’re not just little ‘heifer bulls,’ ” Tom says of the majority of those sold as yearlings. “We select for enough growth that, after they’ve matured for a year or two on heifers, customers can utilize the mature bulls in their cow herds. They can follow them through.” Following through Tom and Sally follow them through in their own way — via retained ownership in the feedyard. “We’ve always gained by retaining ownership. Even if it’s not a financial gain every year, you’re learning. Feed efficiency and conversion (their cattle typically beat 3.6 pounds of daily gain), you’re gaining knowledge about where you are. You need to know which way to go,” Tom says. It also gives potential customers insight into what they’re buying. A recent pen went 89% CAB and Prime with 22% of the latter. That’s the payoff when marbling goes in from the start. “We were instilling better carcass characteristics into the herd and customers were benefiting from it,” Tom says. “They didn’t realize they were looking at the end product of the whole deal when we first started. As we evolved, through results, now customers see what they’ve been getting.” Like their keepers, Donati cattle are as transparent as the open books on them. All bulls sold in 2016 were analyzed with the Zoetis i50K test, designed to provide genetic predictions and parentage verification. Ultrasound data is offered, too. “We just want to put a good product out there,” Tom says. “They’re tested. They’ve gone through all the hoops and loops, so when you get a product from us, it’s real.” It is so real that Tom and Sally wouldn’t put a bull through the sale unless they’d be willing to use it to service their own herd. “Tom has, I would say, a reputation that people can feel confident,” Sally says. Buyers travel from within and out of state. “If somebody calls about a bull, asks about his mother, he’ll tell them the pros and cons of that cow.” Perhaps a lot of that comes from a commercial background where traits like fertility, disposition, legs and udders hold value. “The customer still wants something that looks nice,” Tom says. “It doesn’t matter how good the numbers are, if they don’t look the part, they won’t want to take him home.” Tom won’t admit it but those numbers aren’t too shabby anymore. In fact, Genex Cooperative Inc. noticed them and bought ownership into two Donati sires. “Sometimes, some bulls just come to the forefront,” he says. “This bull just happened to do everything, ever since he was a calf. He had the eye appeal, the weaning weight; his calves had growth in the feedlot. He passed all the genomic tests.” Those tests, along with their data, they’re what make all of this fascinating, Tom says. “To look back and see what we had and how far we’ve come, it’s nice now, but how much nicer can we make it? Where are we going?” Those are the things that still cause dinners to sometimes turn cold. “We’d like to think, at least, we’ve been paying attention the last 41 years,” Sally says with her signature glimmer and chuckle. “Yet there’s always so much to learn. There’s a lot that goes on in this industry.” So they’ll keep learning, keep pushing, keep improving. “It’s our legacy to leave,” Tom says. “We’re trying to make something better. Sure, there are tough times in the market but we’re caregivers to these animals. At the end of the day, if you step back and look at the whole picture, it’s something we enjoy and take pride in.” Planned or not. Editor’s Note: Laura Conaway is producer communications specialist at Certified Angus Beef LLC.

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Directorate Communication__________________________________ Beef cattle: weaning of calves It is important to decide when and by what means to wean beef calves, because it influences the weaning mass of calves as well as the condition of the cows, and indirectly their conception rates. The major priority in beef production is to produce as many calves as possible. The main objective of weaning is therefore to enable a cow to calve every year by allowing her to regain condition after weaning. Calves are ideally weaned when they are 7 to 8 months old. The right time to wean a calf depends on the condition of the cow and not the age of the calf. Calves should be weaned before the condition score of the cow falls below 2,5 if adequate winter feed is available and the cows maintain their condition. The calves should preferably be weaned before the cow's condition score falls below 3,0. During years of drought and poor feed supply, calves should be weaned early (about 6 months), to allow the cow to recover before the onset of winter. It is important that the cow should recover and that the secretory tissue be restored before the next calf is born. In the eastern parts of the country calves born during spring can be weaned early in May at the age of about 7 to 8 months. In the more western parts of the country calves can be weaned late in May or early June at the age of about 7 to 8 months as the breeding season tends to be later in these areas. Early weaning This practice should only be considered during times of severe drought or feed shortages. Calves weaned at a relatively young age (less than 5 months) experience severe setbacks. If the condition of the cow deteriorates considerably before the planned weaning time, the producer must decide whether to – wean early and supply concentrate feeding to the calf – provide a roughage supplement to the cows that are still suckling their calves. This decision will depend on the availability and cost of feed. Generally, the feed (mainly concentrates) costs to rear early-weaned calves are relatively high. Therefore, feeding concentrates to calves should only be considered during adverse conditions. Methods of weaning Circumstances on the farm determine the method of weaning. The following methods can be used: Keep the calves in a kraal or well-fenced camp and remove the cows to a distant camp, preferably out of earshot of the calves. Remove the cows temporarily from a camp and in their absence move the calves to another distant camp. Cows tend to look for their calves in the camp in which they were last seen and this method should prevent the cows from breaking out of the camp. Exchange calves from two different herds. The calves will then have the company of cows. Some cross-suckling is, however, likely to occur. Separate the cows and calves by a strong, close-strand wire fence. This method can reduce weaning stress. Nose plates, commercially available or home-made, can be fitted to calves for 7 to 14 days. These prevent suckling, even if cows and calves remain together throughout the weaning period. When the nose plates are removed the cows and calves are separated, but with relatively little stress. Perform castration, dehorning and branding when calves are 2 to 3 months old, not immediately before weaning. This will ensure that the stress associated with these operations does not add to that of weaning. A few dry cows can be kept with the weaners to calm them. Provide sufficient good-quality roughage, water and shade in the weaning camps. To prevent excessive walking and trampling the camps should not be too large. The weaning process could last 7 to 14 days, depending on the age at which the calves are weaned as well as the breed of the cow. For further information contact Directorate Technical Support Services, Potchefstroom Tel. (018) 299 6504 This publication is also available on the website of the National Department of Agriculture at: www.nda.agric.za/publications Compiled by Directorate Communication, National Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture North West Province Printed and published by the National Department of Agriculture Private Bag X144, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa

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Planting Seeds of Women's Empowerment in San Pablo Tacachico The last workshop from women in San Pablo Tacachico in the home vegetable garden part of the SHARE-UCRES Strengthening Women’s Committees and Advocacy for the Defense of the Rio Sucio project was held on the muggy morning of April 28th at CORDES, a technical organization that works alongside CRIPDES, to provide training and assistance for livestock, agriculture, construction, and many other things. Their compound in San Pablo Tacachico is stunningly beautiful—murals painted all over, flowers in full bloom. Women are given a handbook after the five workshops that encompasses all they have learned, including information specific to the fruits and vegetables they will be planting in their home gardens, and have the direct number of a CORDES expert for any questions or support they may need throughout the process. In this last workshop, where women from Rutilio Grande, La Joya, Huisisilapa, Ita Maura, Dimas Rodriguez, Amayo, San Jorge, Paso Hondo, William Fuentes and Las Arenas were present, we learn about papayas. In a climate as tropical as El Salvador, papaya thrives, and is both very nutritious and in high demand in the local market. We learn about different varieties of papaya, how to plant them, what kinds of fertilizers the plant needs, how long most will take to provide fruit, the importance of weeding and watering, and the different kinds of insects and diseases that will attack the papaya tree, as well as ways to fight these uninvited guests. “Fruits and vegetables,” we were told, “are like being pregnant—you have to give the plant the most vitamins when it is about to produce, while the fruit is growing, so what it gives will be healthy.” We talked about how water is crucial for the papaya, and lots of it, but to stay on guard for root rot: if the land turns into a swamp after heavy rains, we were advised, be sure to dig drainage canals. Marisol, from Rutilio Grande, whose little girl stole the show, shared her thoughts on pest and disease prevention—“it´s like vaccinating your children before they get sick.” The most popular and effective organic insecticide? Blend garlic and/or hot chili peppers with water and spray on the plant. Bugs hate the taste and smell, and stay away. Marisol, who shared a very difficult life story with me after the workshop had ended about violence and threats against her, which forced her and her family to flee from San Salvador back to Rutilio Grande, where she was born and raised, lives in a champita—a shack made out of corrugated tin and other collected, found materials—with her husband and four young children. She is incredibly bright and finds the confidence to participate. She is very excited about the vegetable garden initiative, as she and her husband scrape just enough together month to month for the basics—beans, rice and tortillas, but almost never vegetables and much less, fruit. She has already found a buyer for her tomatoes and cabbage—the pupusería in her community, who has also promised to buy mora and chipilin should she ever decide to grow them. This kind of initiative was applauded and we talked about the additional need to care for fruits and vegetables that will go to market. Silvia, the UCRES Women’s Promoter, also underlined the purpose of the project—food security for families in the region. In that way, she encouraged the women to be sure that their families ate the tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers and fruits they would be planting first, and then sell what was left over. As the workshop wound to a close, Marisol offered a thanks for UCRES, CORDES and SHARE for making this activity possible and shared her excited for the project and the commitment the women assumed. Carmen, a women’s promoter, motivated the women by encouraging everyone to do work that they could be proud of, that UCRES could be proud of, and that the people who make this project possible could be proud of, too, and work hard to allow this project to benefit other women in the future. We also took the opportunity to speak with Ana Ruth, the President of the community council in San Jorge, who spoke convincingly and clearly about the threat of GMO seeds and the importance of seeking out and saving semilla criolla, seeds native to El Salvador whose seeds can be saved and planted year after year. In learning and participating in these kinds of workshops, Ana Ruth shares that she makes a commitment to teach others in her community so that everyone can grow and participate in the community’s development. Please see a video interview friend of SHARE Doriana West made of Ana Ruth as she speaks about her work in her community and the importance of workshops such as these: http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAREFoundationES Organic Veggies and Powerful Women Tucked away in ... Press Release of the National Roundtable Against M... Planting Seeds of Women's Empowerment in San Pablo...

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Separate facts from fantasies in GMO debate By Hank KeetonFor the Capital Press Published on January 18, 2014 8:00PM Hank Keeton I believe it serves the best interests of our agricultural industry to present as many facts as possible, so readers can make informed choices about their farming practices. If we allow the discussion of genetically engineered, or genetically modified organisms, to be dominated by the agri-chem companies, we can be assured our own, our industry’s and our country’s interests will not be best served.The history of GE-GMO is thoroughly explored in the 2007 work by investigative reporter F. William Engdahl, “Seeds of Destruction.” There was nothing accidental about this development. It was driven by the availability of cheap oil, and the desire to accumulate profits as fast as possible. The desire to control the food supply was also a major factor. Henry Kissinger infamously proclaimed in the ’70s that “Control oil and you control nations. Control food, and you control the people.”After World War II, chemical companies (like Monsanto, Dow, DuPont and Syngenta) learned the fastest way to make money was to convert cheap oil into chemicals. During the 1960s the chemical of choice was the poison Agent Orange (dioxins), which destroyed the land and the people of Southeast Asia, as well as destroying the lives of our soldiers. During the 1990s, as food became a focus in the globalizing economy, these same chemical companies decided the way to sell more chemicals was to develop patentable seeds, which required use of their proprietary chemicals to poison other plants and insects. Selling chemicals was inextricably tied to the development of patentable seeds.The seeds and chemicals ensured that farmers and then consumers paid these agri-chem firms twice for the same crop. To mask the deception, the agri-chem companies claimed that the seeds were super-seeds, and would feed the hungry world. Facts show the only feeding these seeds and chemicals do is to increase the profits of the agri-chem companies.On 29 May 1992, at the behest of Monsanto through President George H. W. Bush, the Food and Drug Administration issued a policy statement with no scientific review or background. It was a purely political maneuver to assert “equivalence” between GE-GMO and natural seeds. This political policy set the stage for the next 20 years of worldwide proliferation of, and resistance to, the GE-GMO movement. The logical contradictions of this political policy have been the focus of major controversies. On the one hand, the agri-chem companies assert “equivalence” to natural seeds, yet on the other hand they assert patent rights for the “unique differences” from natural seeds.GE-GMO techniques are distinctly different from natural plant breeding. GE-GMO forces changes to the genetic structure of plants, while natural plant breeding allows the plants to determine which genetic crosses survive. The GE-GMO process is artificially forced upon nature through complex laboratory procedures, while natural plant breeding works with nature to establish the viability of new plants. Differences between the processes are the source of controversy. Long-term tests produced by independent labs around the world clearly show that GE-GMO changes also bio-accumulate, and result in radical disruptions of plant, animal and eco-biological processes downstream from the initial introduction. Agri-chem companies have tried to discredit these tests, but the public is gradually becoming aware that the impacts are real and growing. It is imperative for all of us in agriculture to separate facts from fantasies, for the betterment of our industry and the world.Hank Keeton farms 10 acres east of Silverton, Ore., manages three small businesses and is a partner in an ISO-certified testing laboratory for agricultural products.OnlineSee the following references for recent updates: http://www.ensser.org/increasing-public-information/no-scientific-consensus-on-gmo-safety/ http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/3347.htmhttp://www.navdanyainternational.it/images/doc/Full_Report_Rapporto_completo.pdf

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Sustainable Harvesters Brings Aquaponics to the Table Carla Soriano Monday, June 3, 2013 at 10 a.m. By Carla Soriano While at first glance, it looks like a raised garden, it's actually an aquaponic system, which raises produce and fish in a sustainable, closed-loop, re-circulating system. Photo courtesy of Sustainable Harvesters Increasingly, Houstonians -- from individuals to restaurateurs to activist groups -- are contributing their grain of salt toward the fight against unsustainable agricultural practices. But locals Andrew Alvis and Matthew Braud are tackling this same endeavor in a unique way. The pair created Sustainable Harvesters, a company that uses aquaponics to cultivate organic produce and fish in the "most advanced, safest, and environmentally sustainable way possible."While the term "aquaponics" sounds like the name of a glittery '80s dance-pop band, it's actually a simple, yet advanced, food production system that marries the practices of raising aquatic animals and growing plants in water. In the integrated system, which doesn't use any soil, water from a fish tank is drained into a gravel bed, where fish waste is filtered and broken down into substances that promote plant growth. This water is then pumped into fruit or vegetable growing beds. This render illustrates Sustainable Harvesters' aquaponic system, located in Hockley, Texas. Render courtesy of Sustainable Harvesters In Sustainable Harvester's case, fish, along with tomatoes, cucumber, herbs, baby arugula and kale mixtures, corn, and squash are produced on their farm in Hockley, Texas: Coastal Range Aquaponics.Sustainable Harvesters partners with local restaurants, schools, and communities to bring the food produced by aquaponics, (free of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, GMO's, or growth hormones), to Houstonians' tables. Currently, the organic fare is served to members of the Houston Oaks Country Club, and a partnership with the tried and true Triniti is in the works.

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RUTA GRAVEOLENS, L. Common Rue Rutaceae Perennial Rue is one of the bitter herbs, and comes from southern Europe. It is a pretty plant with its grayish-green, much cut leaves and yellow-green flowers, and is in the garden because of sentiment, not for any present-day use. The whole plant has a dry, acrid, strong scent, as of a stinging thing. When I get only a faint whiff of it, it reminds me of old ladies in the nineties of my childhood or of old druggists' shops, but if I get too much of it, it nauseates me, but that is probably entirely and peculiarly personal, for many like it exceedingly. Root. There is a thick main root from which fibers grow out. Stem. Several stems grow out from where the root rises from the ground. They grow up to two feet and are round and covered with a bloom which comes off as one touches them. Leaf. The leaves are covered with a bloom, not hairy, and give off the characteristic scent when touched. They are compounded into about nine leaflets, each of which is again divided into deeply cut segments rounded at the tips. The longest are five inches long and they grow shorter as they ascend the stem. Some of them are shaped like a druggist's spatula. Their taste is very bitter. Flower. The flowers are in short, few-flowered, flat-topped, terminal clusters and open early in June for me and continue for a long time. Four light yellow green pointed sepals subtend the greenish-yellow corolla about half an inch across, having four petals which curl up all around the edges, so much so as to form a hood at the tips. The stamens stand out stiffly and are dark green. The conical ovary is made up of four united sections from the center of which rises the tiny green pistil. Seed. The seeds are black, crescent-shaped, and keep their germinating power for two years. Variety. There is a variegated form in which the leaves are splashed with white. HISTORY AND LEGEND The Greeks and Romans thought if rue were stolen from a neighbor's garden it would thrive better than if raised at home. Rue is said to have been the antidote Mercury gave to Ulysses to preserve him from the effects of Circe's enchanted beverage, and Parkinson says that King Mithridates of Pontus, to offset the effects of possible poisoning, began every day by eating a concoction made up of twenty leaves of rue, a little salt, a couple of walnuts, and a couple of figs beaten together in a mass. My comment to this is that the king must have loved life very much. Rue is mentioned in the Bible. Because of its penetrating odor it was considered a prophylactic, and it was the custom to place a bunch of rue upon the bar of the central Criminal Court in England to preserve the judges from being infected with gaol fever from the prisoners brought before them from Newgate Prison. Shakespeare says : Reverend Sirs : For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep Seeming and savour, all winter long. Grace and remembrance be to you both. Ibn Baithar, amongst other virtues attributed to rue, says if it is rubbed on bald spots it will restore the hair. Josselyn mentioned rue, and it is in Bartram's catalogue of 1807, and in Stearns' "The American Herbal" of 1801. It was grown in peasant gardens to be used as a preservative against the plague, and was an ingredient in the vinegar of the four thieves. Perfume. Rue oil is obtained by distilling the leafy portions, and enters into sweet-pea attars to which it gives a characteristic aroma, and in the manufacture of aromatic, toilet, hygienic, and cosmetic vinegars. Food. Boulestin and Hill say the chopped leaves with brown bread make good sandwiches, and that rue is a powerful stimulant for a failing appetite, but that the leaves should be used sparingly, for they are biting, which only goes to show how differently people respond to tastes and smells. Bois says if too many leaves are eaten they are poisonous. The Italians and Greeks, however, season their food with it and eat it in salads. Plants of rue can be bought in nurseries in the United States. It comes readily from seed, which, when sown out-of-doors, germinated fairly quickly for me, but the plants did not flower the first summer. I read it can be propagated from cuttings. Rue is a husky, hardy plant and although it dies down considerably in the winter, it comes up quite perkily again in the spring. It seems to like a well-drained, rather moist situation, but will grow in any good garden soil.

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Africa Agroforestry Offers Solutions to World Hunger Last Updated: February 07, 2013 10:08 AM Using Evergreen Agriculture, Rhoda Mang’yana grows maize near Faidherbia trees to improve crop yields and soil fertility on her farm. (Credit: Jim Richardson) Agroforestry Offers Solutions to World Hunger The Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, recently released new guidelines to promote agroforestry. It says this often neglected sector of agriculture, that combines forestry with agriculture, is crucial to the livelihoods and food security of millions of people. The FAO says agroforestry is a significant source of local commodities, such as timber and fruit, and fodder for livestock. With proper development, it says, agroforestry could help solve poverty, hunger and land degradation. Gerard Buttoud, professor of forest policy and governance at Tuscia University in Viterbo, Italy, and a key consultant to the FAO on developing the guidelines, explained how agroforestry is a good system for improving production at the local level. “Because it looks to optimizing the agricultural production and the environmental benefits through the combination of annual crops and perennial plants," he said. "It maximizes the production on the long run because it produces food under the trees. The trees are used as a means to sustain the land and thus to sustain the production on the long run. Also, agroforestry is a very good system to both mitigate and adapt to climate change because as a complex system it minimizes the risk.” Buttoud said it is important to have a framework in which to promote agroforestry properly. “There are many barriers to the development of agroforestry. Such as for instance, the fact that there is a general emphasis on industrial agriculture," he said. "Basically when we speak about agricultural policy, we think about mono-specific policy, market oriented, using a lot of fertilizers and so on. This is not the way that agroforestry may be defined. Then there is an ignorance of the advantages of agroforestry because over the last although some had fought during the last 30 years, the success stories are not well known. Then there is an unclear status of land and tree resources, because sometimes, especially in developing countries, the status of the land is not clarified.” Buttoud explained these success stories take different forms and the benefits of agroforestry depend on the land of a particular area. “You have two big categories of agroforestry systems," he explained. "The first is a natural one. It is what we call the parklands. For instance, all of the area in the southern part of the Sahara, in Africa, from west to east, is conserved by this agroforestry system we call parklands. It’s a natural forest that’s been cleared progressively but used for agriculture also. So there is a selection of the tree spaces, and a selection of the crops which are carried out, also in association with grazing, and these parklands are remarkably stable, even in the process of desertification, for instance. It is one of the barriers of desertification.” Buttoud also provided insight into another use of agroforestry. “Opposite to this you have artificial plantations. Introduction of trees into farms, which were developed especially in the regions which were more close to the tropics, I would say, where the water is available. It consists of plantations on lines so that the trees may be able to maintain the soil and also produce food and other services. So you have many different categories of agroforestry and the success stories are all over the world, I would say,” he explained. Buttoud gave an example of a success story in Africa. “For instance, the Arabic gum in Sudan for the first category of parklands was developed through strong demand from the market to have this kind of product," he said. "This resulted into a development of agroforestry which was really productive even in terms of money in this part of Africa. Then if you look at the situation in some countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, there are a lot of agroforestry systems which were developed recently which introduced trees into the farm.” For the farmer, Buttoud said the benefit comes from maintaining the soil so it can continuously produce crops for a long period of time. Kim Lewis interview with Gerard Buttoud Forest Conservation is Key to Food Security Agriculture, Forestry Key to Mitigating Climate Change Report: Environment and Food Needs Can be Met

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USDA ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL SUPPORT TO BOOST COMMUNITIES' LOCAL FOOD ECONOMIESJun. 10, 2014Source: USDA news release Today, on behalf of the White House Rural Council, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Local Food, Local Places, a federal initiative that will provide direct technical support to rural communities to help them build strong local food systems as part of their community's economic action plans. Under this effort, a team of agricultural, transportation, environmental, and regional economic experts will work directly with local communities to develop comprehensive strategies that use local food systems to meet a variety of needs. The announcement, made during the White House Rural Council's first live-streamed meeting, included Vilsack, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, Appalachian Regional Commission Federal Co-Chairman Earl Gohl; and Delta Regional Authority Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill. "Buying locally is one of the best things a community can do to grow its economy. Partnerships like Local Food, Local Places help rural leaders develop strategies for promoting farm products grown by people right in their own communities," said Secretary Vilsack. "The demand for local food is growing rapidly nationwide, creating more opportunities for American farmers and ranchers and growing the entire country's rural economy." "The Department of Transportation recognizes that freight is a concern for rural regions, which is why though our Partnership for Sustainable Communities and TIGER grant program we support freight movement in farm communities," said Secretary Foxx. "DOT is proud to take part in the Local Food, Local Places initiative and to support community food enterprises and make it easier for people to access those amenities with affordable, multimodal transportation options." "EPA is excited to work with USDA, the Department of Transportation, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Delta Regional Authority on the new Local Foods Local Places program, which will help communities-especially rural ones-focus development on main streets to boost local economies, preserve rural lands, and give residents better access to healthy food," said EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe. "Across Appalachia, communities are discovering the valuable role that vibrant local food systems can play in diversifying their economies," stated ARC Federal Co-Chairman Earl F. Gohl. "Investments in local food systems can pay big dividends in creating a stronger economy and a healthier population, and the Local Food, Local Places initiative will help rural Appalachian communities devise the strategies that energize local economic development and create the jobs that go with it." "As a region with a rich economic and cultural history centered on agriculture, we recognize nutrition, local food systems, and value chains as a critical driver towards our goals of creating a healthier workforce, strengthening our local economies, and building sustainable communities. We are proud to be a partner in this effort to grow capacity for food systems in the Delta region and across the country," Chairman Masingill said. During the White House Rural Council event, Secretary Vilsack also announced updated results from the USDA Farm to School Census, illustrating the indicating continued economic impact of local food procurement around the country. According to the updated Farm to School Census, U.S. school districts around the country purchased more than $386 million from local farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food processors and manufacturers during the 2011-2012 school year. More than half of participating school districts report that they will buy even more local foods in future school years, and an additional 13% have plans to implement local food purchasing in the future. Results from the Farm to School Census are available at the national, state, and school district level data and in a visually rich and easy to navigate format. In keeping with the Administration's emphasis on transparency and access to data, all farm to school data is available on www.data.gov and on the Farm to School Census website. These efforts are part of USDA's commitment to support local and regional food systems. USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative coordinates the Department's policy, resources, and outreach efforts related to local and regional food systems. The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass maps nearly 3,000 local and regional food projects supported by USDA and eleven other federal agencies. Secretary Vilsack has identified strengthening local food systems as one of the four pillars of USDA's commitment to rural economic development, along with production agriculture (including expanding export markets and improving research), promoting conservation and outdoor recreation opportunities, and growing the biobased economy. About the White House Rural Council To address challenges in Rural America, build on the Administration's rural economic strategy, and improve the implementation of that strategy, the President signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Rural Council. The Council coordinates the Administration's efforts in rural America by streamlining and improving the effectiveness of federal programs serving rural America; engage stakeholders, including farmers, ranchers, and local citizens, on issues and solutions in rural communities; and promoting and coordinating private-sector partnerships. The work of the White House Rural Council and USDA to bring investment to rural America is an example of how the Administration is creating smart partnerships with the private sector to better support Americans in all parts of the country.Tweet

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Pronunciation: [vee-oh-NYAY] An esteemed white-wine grape that was once very rare because of the limited acreage planted throughout the world. Its low yield and susceptibility to vineyard diseases made Viognier wines extremely difficult to find. This has all changed in the last decade as Viognier has became very popular and growers around the world have been adding it to their vineyards. California has gone from less than 100 acres in the early 1990s to several thousand acres. Similar interest in this variety has taken place in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France and in parts of Australia, Italy, Spain, South Africa and South America. Viognier wines are known for their vibrant floral qualities and an intriguing bouquet reminiscent of apricots, peaches and pears. From The Food Lover's Companion, Fourth edition by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst. Copyright © 2007, 2001, 1995, 1990 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. Keep Reading

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Accountant Turned Dairy Farmer It's no secret that it's hard to start a dairy farm from scratch these days. With significant cash outlay needed for equipment and animals, ever-rising farmland prices and a cyclical high/low market in which to sell milk, if you're not a farm kid who inherits or has the chance to buy into your parents' farm, odds are you're going to choose a different profession in life.Such as writing a cheese blog, or becoming an accountant.Richland Center dairy farmer Jeff Jump is an accountant. He's also a dairy farmer. And he's the type of guy Wisconsin is going to have to start recruiting if we want our small-scale, traditional dairy farms to continue to exist in America's Dairyland.Jeff, 44, his wife Connie, and their two children, Cody, 14 and Molly, 13, moved from Chicago to Richland Center in 2003. Today, they run an 80-acre dairy farm, which when they purchased it, consisted of an old dairy barn that had seen better days, an amazing crop of weeds and thistles, and an old farm house in need of repair. Today, the house has been remodeled, the old dairy barn has been cleaned up and is being used as a calf care facility, and the Jumps have added on a Swing-8 New Zealand style milking parlor and a composting barn/loafing shed, where their 53 Jersey cows look like they're pretty much having the time of their lives."We call it the beach," is how Jeff describes his composting barn, which features a clay base and two feet of sawdust mixed with ground corn fodder. Unlike a freestall barn, the shed has a completely open floor plan, with feeding bunks facing the outside, where the Jumps' cows enjoy fresh air while eating breakfast, lunch and dinner."When you get up in the morning, go out to the barn and 90 percent of your cows are laying down, sleeping or chewing their cud, then you've got some pretty happy cows," Jeff says. And he's right -- these girls have got it pretty good. They live on a tidy farm with owners who treat them right. Pick any of the Jumps' cows or calves, and you can literally walk right up to the animal, stretch out your hand and pet it. I'm living proof, as I nearly lost my scarf to a group of calves who decided I was a mid-afternoon snack. I had to yank half of my scarf out of the throat of a 6-month Jersey calf to reclaim it. So how does a big-city accountant come to be a Wisconsin dairy farmer? A native of South Bend, Indiana, Jeff is a graduate of Indiana University and is a Gulf War veteran. He was working for a food company in Chicago as their chief accountant, when he had the opportunity to invest and do the finances for Hilltop Valley Dairy, a small yogurt company in Richland Center. He had always been interested in the dairy industry, and knew the opportunity would allow his family to get out of the city.So, for the next several years, he and his family became the stereotypical "city slickers move to the country and get adopted by their neighbors." During the day, Jeff worked for Hilltop Valley. In the evenings and weekends, he played farmer."I really wanted to understand the whole circle of the dairy industry, and our kids were at the right age to join 4-H. So we started reading books, talking to the neighboring farmers, and bought a couple of Jersey calves," he said.But, lo and behold, it turns out that calves grow up. So the Jumps studied the breeding process, got their heifers bred (in fact Jeff learned so much about the artificial insemination process, that he's now an Area Board Rep for Accelerated Genetics -- funny how life works), and then his pregnant heifers had calves."Then, we were like - oh my gosh, what do we do with the milk?" So Jeff purchased a portable milking machine - the kind you find at small county fairs - and milked five cows twice a day, dumping the milk, as he couldn't get a milk hauler interested in picking up milk from five cows.At some point, Jeff says he woke up one morning and realized: "I've got a herd." So he "went off the deep end," built a milking parlor, started milking 10 cows and by now was big enough for the local milk hauler to stop every other day and pick up the milk from his tiny bulk tank. "The people in this community are amazing," Jeff says. "We are surrounded by neighbors and friends who helped us get to the point where we are now."That point is a 53-cow Jersey milking herd, with the intent to grow to 100 cows. Jeff's hired some help with the milking and farm chores, as last year, after Hilltop Valley was sold to Schreiber Foods, he began working for Meister Cheese in Muscoda as their finance director and field rep.With his unique skill sets of being able to run numbers, as well as knowing first-hand how dairy farms work, Jump holds a unique position at Meister Cheese - so unique that President Scott Meister can't figure out a title for him."We have to come up with a creative combination of Chief Financial Officer and Head Field Representative," Meister says. "Jeff's got it all - and he's got an amazing repertoire with our dairy farm patrons. We're very lucky to have found him."I'd say Wisconsin is pretty lucky to have Jeff Jump and his family. As good stewards of the land, conscientious dairy farmers and active community members, perhaps the answer to growing America's Dairyland is to start luring the accountants out of Chicago, one prospective dairy farmer at a time. Nice Story Jeanne. It certainly takes a lot of skills to be a farmer in this day and age. One thing that has been pointed out often about the new "American cheese renaissance" is that most of the people coming into it are not "natives" of the region in which they farm, and are often not from agricultural backgrounds. This is particularly true in Vermont, with all the new Artisan and Farmstead cheesemaking going on there, but is also evident in Wisconsin. Tiago Ferreira Great story, thanks for sharing it, i am very interested in rural accounting and in research related to dairy industry management, and i know that your state has lots of things for me to explore.Can we keep in touch???I am Tiago from Brazil. worldtravel very nice story. Well written. thanks for sharing it. All the best from Accountant Toronto Hello, this story was amazing! it was a great story. I know them personally. they are cool folks. heart touching

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WELCOME AND INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Dr He Changchui * Your Excellency Mr Theerachai Saenkaew, Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Excellencies and distinguished members of the diplomatic corps, Honourable guests, Distinguished participants, On behalf of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Dr Jacques Diouf, and personally, I take great pleasure in welcoming you all to the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific to commemorate the International Year of the Potato (IYP). This event is organized by the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in cooperation with the Government of Peru through its Embassy in Thailand, and is one of a series of activities worldwide to commemorate IYP. As you may be aware, the United Nations General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session in December 2005 declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato (IYP). The resolution, submitted by the Government of Peru and co-sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Group of Countries, invited FAO to facilitate the implementation of the IYP in collaboration with governments, the International Potato Center (CIP) and its associated research networks, centres of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), other organizations of the United Nations system, as well as non-governmental organizations and private sector stakeholders. The UN Declaration of the IYP reflects the importance of the potato in the diet of the world’s population. It affirms the need to focus world attention on the role that the potato can play in providing food security and alleviating poverty in support of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The IYP provides another opportunity to raise awareness about food security, agriculture and rural development among policy-makers, donors and the general public. The potato contributes to many aspects of society. The crop should not be looked at in isolation, but within the framework of the complexities of sustainable agriculture and food systems. The potato is the world’s most important tuber vegetable, with a vital but often underappreciated role in the global food system. It is a staple food that contributes to the energy and nutritional needs of more than a billion people worldwide. Potato cultivation and post-harvest activities constitute an important source of employment and income in rural areas, especially for women in developing countries. Potatoes can be used as a staple food, as a cash crop, as animal feed, and as a source of starch for many industrial uses. Excellencies, The world’s population is expected to grow on average by some 100 million people a year over the next two decades. More than 95 percent of the increase will be in developing countries where pressure on land and water is already intense. A key challenge facing the international community is, therefore, to ensure food security for present and future generations, while protecting the natural resource base. The potato will play an important part in our efforts to meet this challenge. The potato is grown worldwide. In most of the developing countries today, the potato is considered to be the fourth most important food crop after rice, wheat and maize. Therefore, the potato should be a major component in strategies aimed at providing nutritious food to the poor and hungry. Potatoes are rich in protein, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C, and have an especially good amino acid balance. The crop is ideally suited to places where land is limited and labour is abundant, conditions that characterize much of the developing world. Moreover, the potato is a highly productive crop. It produces more food per unit area and per unit time than wheat, rice and maize. It is a nourishing food crop which has sustained civilizations for centuries in South America and Europe It is becoming increasingly important in Asian diets and economies. China is the leading producer of potatoes in the world and India ranks third. In fact, of the 350 million tons of potatoes produced annually in the world, China and India alone produce a third of this. Although potato production declined in developed countries by around 1 percent over the last 20 years, it increased by about 5 percent in developing countries over the same period. The major source of growth has been in Asia, primarily in China and India. One of the crop’s assets is its adaptability. Farmers in the tropics can harvest potatoes within 50 days of planting — almost a third of the time it takes in colder climates. In highland areas of southern China and Viet Nam, the potato is emerging as an off-season crop; planted in rotation with rice and maize, it brings relatively high prices in the market. Similarly, in the lowlands of Bangladesh and eastern India, the potato’s importance as a winter cash crop is rising rapidly. In the Philippines and parts of Indonesia, potato production helps to satisfy the demands of exploding domestic and regional snack food industries. There is no doubt that in recent times the potato has become significantly more important for Asia and the Pacific region, which, like many other parts of the world, is facing enormous challenges today as a result of soaring food prices. Moreover, at the mid-point of the target year of the MDG, 2015, we are convinced that the region needs much stronger efforts to produce more food by substantially improving agricultural productivity in order to make greater contributions to food security and poverty reduction. There are still many technical problems and development-related issues that directly affect potato production and potato-based food systems. Allow me to elaborate on some of the challenges. Biodiversity: To combat pests and diseases, increase yields, and sustain production on marginal lands, today’s potato-based agricultural systems need a continuous supply of new varieties. This requires access to the entire potato gene pool. But potato biodiversity is under threat: ancient varieties cultivated by Andean peoples for millennia have been lost to diseases, climate change and social upheaval. Indeed, the history of the potato provides a grim warning of the need to maintain the genetic diversity of our staple food crops. Economy: Despite its importance as a staple food and in combating hunger and poverty, the potato has been neglected in agricultural development policies for food crops. Subsistence potato growing in developing countries is declining as producers reorient toward domestic and international markets. These markets continue to expand, and in 2005, for the first time, the developing world’s potato production exceeded that of the developed world. Biotechnology: The potato industry has benefited from major recent discoveries about plant’s genetics, physiology and pathology. Use of molecular markers helps identify desirable traits in potato collections, thus simplifying the development of improved varieties. Sequencing of the complete potato genome, now under way, will significantly increase knowledge and understanding of genetic interactions and functional traits. Genetically modified varieties have the potential to produce more stable yields, improve nutritional value and facilitate non-food industrial uses, but they must be carefully assessed before release. Pests and diseases: Intensive potato cultivation tends to increase pest and disease pressure, which often leads to intensive use of harmful pesticides. Resistant potato varieties and improved cultural practices can reduce or eliminate many common pests and diseases. Integrated pest management has helped farmers drastically reduce the need for chemical controls while increasing production. Responding to these challenges is essential to the development of the potato sector and to sustainable potato production as well as food systems, for long-term food security, human nutrition, and poverty alleviation. The potato has great potential for development. However, we have to recognize that the crop, despite its merits, has not received the attention it deserves from governments. Inadequate institutional support and infrastructure, lack of established marketing channels, insufficient fund and credit support, and restrictive trade policies are but a few impediments to scaling up production and commercialization of the sector, which needs special promotion at national, regional and international levels. In this connection, and taking into consideration the importance of this crop in the region, this one-day workshop aims to: raise awareness of the merits of the potato; review the situation regarding the potato sector in Asia and the Pacific region; and elaborate on key issues and propose further actions needed to promote sustainable potato crop production and development in the I trust the workshop will produce tangible outputs. I look forward to your recommendations for follow-up action. *Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Maliwan Mansion, 39 Phra Atit Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand.

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No End Seen to Cartel's Destruction of Food Capacity Friday, August 29, 2008 by: Barbara L. MintonTags: food supply, health news, Natural News http://www.naturalnews.com/024023_food_cattle_beef.html (NewsTarget) Farmers are blasting the role of the food cartels in destroying farm output capacity, creating food shortages and producing monopolistic conditions. In a recent interview for Executive Intelligence Review, Frank Endres, board member of the National Farmers Organization, focused on newly announced acquisitions by JBS Swift & Co. of the 4th and 5th largest beef packing companies in the U.S. He sees the acquisitions as symbolizing the refusal of our government to enforce anti-trust laws. This failure allows tremendous amounts of consolidation in the food industry, resulting in huge multi-national corporate control of commodities and food production.The Sao Paulo, Brazil based JBS-S.A., parent company of JBS Swift & Co., is Latin America's biggest beef producer. It bought U.S. based Swift Foods in July, 2007 for $1.4 billion, making it the world's largest processor of beef and pork. In addition to the acquisitions of National Beef Co. of Kansas City, and Smithfield Beef Group and Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, a joint venture of Smithfield Foods and ContiGroup based in Loveland, Co., JBS' current buying binge includes the Tasman Group, the second largest meat processor in Australia.Some cattle producers have raised concern that the merger would reduce the number of cattle buyers from five to three, leading to depressed prices for cattle producers and higher retail prices for consumers. Many independent producers may be put out of business, with the hardest hit being taken by those with fewer than 80,000 beef cattle operations that have herd sizes over 100 head.Many onlookers are astounded at the pace, size and bundling of these acquisitions. According to Endres, this cartel will now control 35% of the U.S. beef supply and over 35% of the livestock slaughter in the U.S. He notes that farmers in general and especially those involved in the raising of livestock are very concerned because the parent company has been investigated and fined for its cornering of the meat processing market in Brazil, and there is fear that these tactics will soon be seen in the U.S.After the acquisitions are completed, JSB Swift will have a capacity of over 875,000 head of cattle in their feeding operations. Endres sees that as way too much centralization of control in too few hands, and as leading to the further bankrupting of family-owned farming operations, ranching and livestock operations that produce the feeder cattle. When buyers for feeder cattle are very few, setting low prices and enforcing them will be much easier than it would be under a free market system, and a small number of buyers can often lead to price fixing.Right now there is a shortage of calves in the U.S. The consumption of beef in the country outstrips the production of beef cattle. But despite these shortages, the downward pressure on prices for calves has remained consistent, bringing about 40 percent of parity, what the producers need to pay their bills. This shortage has led to the need to import beef to keep up with demand.Onlookers expect the U.S. Justice Department to look the other way on the merger, even though it means that JBS Swift will have the capacity to slaughter 42,500 head of cattle per day in the U.S., a number that is far ahead of the next two largest processors, Cargill, at 29,000 head per day, and Tyson Foods at 28,300 per day. And the acquisition of Five Rivers will allow JBS Swift to become the largest cattle feeder in the world, with a one time capacity of 81,000 head of cattle.The timing of the acquisitions is perfect. Strengthening of the Brazilian currency compared to the sinking U.S. dollar will make the buying power of JBS-S.A. go a lot farther. And there has been downward pricing for beef processors in the U.S. since 2004, further setting the stage for JBS-S.A.Seen as counterpoint to these huge corporate monopolistic trends is the recent call from the Schiller Institute founder, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who advocates that "Instead of wars of starvation, let us double food production". She calls for emergency action to increase agricultural production and stop the "free trade policies that have led to starvation and food riots in 40 nations over the past year." She also advocates the dissolving of the World Trade Organization and its free trade policies, which she sees as having enriched the few at the expense of the many.Zepp-LaRouche wants the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to immediately institute programs for increasing food production, and medium-term measures to build infrastructure, develop water management systems, and create food processing industries in developing countries. She is also advocating a new financial system that would bring a "New Deal for the entire world", in the tradition of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This New Deal would be a "new and just world economic order."While this is going on, Endres is preoccupied with the current chaos among dairy farmers in California where he see another food industry falling into the hands of the big cartels. Lack of regulation for perishable products such as milk has opened the door for Nestle and other giant corporate processors such as Unilever, Suiza, and Kraft, leaving farmers uncertain of whether they can market their output or not.Dairy farmers in California have increased production and don't have the processing facilities to handle it. Farmers have had to dump their milk when their tanks get full so they can keep on milking their cows on schedule. Farmers will have to transport their milk out of state, or they will have to sell to what are known as calf ranches, which will pay them next to nothing for it. If they can't get their milk picked up by a trucking company before their milk tanks are full and its time for the next milking, they will literally have to dump it into the sewer.Endres has seen 128 loads of milk dumped at a time, loads from large 7,000 gallon tank trucks. When the trucks go to deliver milk out of state to get rid of it, the turn-around time is doubled. If the trucks can't get back in time to pick up the next load of milk at the dairies, the milk will no longer be in a condition to sell.In a competitive business market where niches are always filled, one has to wonder why the shortage of trucks and processing facilities remain.Sources:Executive Intelligence Review, 'Shiller Institute Founder Calls for Doubling World Food Production - Now!', June 6, 2008.Bill Jackson, The Tribune, "JBS-Swift preps to buy nos. 4 and 5 in beef packing industry", March 5, 2008.Bill Jackson, , "JBS Swift CEO at Senate subcommittee hearing", May 8, 2008.Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee, May 23, 2008.About the authorBarbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural. Search on GoodGopher.com Follow real-time breaking news headlines on Food supply at FETCH.news

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Agweb HomeFarm Journal HomeNewsUSDA Announces $20 Million Effort to Reduce Damage Caused by Feral Swine USDA Announces $20 Million Effort to Reduce Damage Caused by Feral Swine © Flickr: USDAgov Undersecretary for USDA’s Marketing and Regulatory Programs Edward Avalos announced last week that USDA is kicking off a national effort to reduce the devastating damage caused by feral, or free ranging, swine. The $20 million program aims to help states deal with a rapidly expanding population of invasive wild swine that causes $1.5 billion in annual damage and control costs. "Feral swine are one of the most destructive invaders a state can have," said Undersecretary Avalos. "They have expanded their range from 17 to 39 states in the last 30 years and cause damage to crops, kill young livestock, destroy property, harm natural resources, and carry diseases that threaten other animals as well as people and water supplies. It’s critical that we act now to begin appropriate management of this costly problem." The Wildlife Services (WS) program of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will lead the effort, tailoring activities to each state’s circumstance and working closely with other Federal, State, Tribal, and local entities. WS will work directly with states to control populations, test animals for diseases, and research better methods of managing feral swine damage. A key part of the national program will include surveillance and disease monitoring to protect the health of our domestic swine. Feral swine have become a serious problem in 78% of all states in the country, carrying diseases that can affect people, domestic animals, livestock and wildlife, as well as local water supplies. They also cause damage to field and high-value crops of all kinds from Midwestern corn and soybeans to sugar cane, peanuts, spinach and pumpkins. They kill young animals and their characteristic rooting and wallowing damages natural resources, including resources used by native waterfowl, as well as archeological and recreational lands. Feral swine compete for food with native wildlife, such as deer, and consume the eggs of ground-nesting birds and endangered species, such as sea turtles. "In addition to the costly damage to agricultural and natural resources, the diseases these animals carry present a real threat to our swine populations," said Avalos. "Feral swine are able to carry and transmit up to 30 diseases and 37 different parasites to livestock, people, pets and wildlife, so surveillance and disease monitoring is another keystone to this program." As part of the national program, APHIS will test feral swine for diseases of concern for U.S. pork producers, such as classical swine fever, which does not exist in the United States, as well as swine brucellosis, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, swine influenza, and pseudorabies. Ensuring that domestic swine are not threatened by disease from feral swine helps ensure that U.S. export markets remain open. APHIS aims to have the program operating within 6 months and funding for the comprehensive project includes, among other things: • $9.5 million for state projects • $1.4 million for establishing procedures for disease monitoring, including the development of new surveillance and vaccination methods • $1.5 million for WS’ National Wildlife Research Center to conduct research and economic analyses to improve control practices • $1.6 million for the centralization of control operations, and for making them safer and more cost-effective Initial state funding levels will be based on current feral swine populations and associated damage to resources. Because feral swine populations, like most wildlife, cross international borders, APHIS will also coordinate with Canada and Mexico on feral swine damage management. "We’ve already begun this type of work through a pilot program in New Mexico," said Avalos. "Through this pilot program, we have successfully removed feral swine from 5.3 million acres of land. By applying the techniques such as trap monitors and surveillance cameras we have developed through this pilot project, we aim to eliminate feral swine from two States every three to five years and stabilize feral swine damage within 10 years." Source: United States Department of Agriculture

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200-year Experiment Changes Face Of Forest Management A 200-year study of rotting logs in the Oregon Cascade Range is only 10 percent complete, but findings from this research have already helped save hundreds of millions of dollars, improved forest health and shattered conventional wisdom about the decay of woody debris. CORVALLIS - A 200-year study of rotting logs in the Oregon Cascade Range is only 10 percent complete, but findings from this research have already helped save hundreds of millions of dollars, improved forest health and shattered conventional wisdom about the decay of woody debris. It also has attracted the interest of forest managers from around the world. This work was begun 20 years ago by scientists from the College of Forestry at Oregon State University with 530 logs at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest near Blue River, Ore. The research was seen as a way to more rigorously document the process of wood decay and the value it provides in nutrient release, soil enhancement and other issues. Even though the study is far from complete, it has already achieved many of these goals and raised other important questions that will continue to affect modern silviculture and the understanding of forest ecology, said Mark E. Harmon, the Richardson Chair and Professor of Forest Science at OSU. The work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service. "Much of what we've found has run contrary to the conventional wisdom and is not what we expected," Harmon said. "And this long-term, intensive study of the decay of forest debris and logs has raised considerable awareness of this issue among forest managers." Two decades ago, forest harvest operations usually "cleaned up" a site after logging, removing most of the debris at considerable cost and effort. As this and other studies showed the compelling ecological value of that material, the debris is now largely left where it is, making the forest healthier in the long run and saving hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary work. "When this study began, we still assumed that most debris and logs decayed in more or less the same way, only releasing their stored-up nutrients after decades or centuries of decay," Harmon said. "It's now understood that there are large differences between the decay rate caused by different decomposers of different tree species, and that some nutrients from dead wood begin to enrich the forest almost immediately. "That's a huge change in our thinking, and there are still a lot more changes to come," he said. Among the other findings of the first 20 years of this work: # As much as one-third of the nitrogen in Pacific Northwest forests, one of the key nutrients that limit vegetation growth, appears to come from nitrogen fixation processes within rotting logs, in addition to that being slowly released from the wood itself. # Nutrient release begins far more quickly than ever anticipated, from both decaying fungi and the leaching effects of persistent rains. # The "brown rot" fungi that cannot break down lignin in trees leaves structural material behind to help form the next generations of forest floor and ultimately soil. White rot fungi, by contrast, degrade all parts of the wood, leaving almost nothing behind and decaying far more rapidly but only on some tree species. # Although some wood (such as Douglas-fir) resists decay, mechanisms such as mushroom growth on downed logs work to drain nitrogen from these logs, much more than had been understood. # There is a 10-fold difference in wood decay rates among dead trees. True firs such as silver fir will decay far more rapidly than other species, as much as 5-6 percent a year and may be gone in 60 years or less. Other species such as western red cedar or Douglas-fir may persist for hundreds of years. # Some parts of a log will decay and release nutrients much more quickly than other parts, leading to complex patterns that cannot be predicted by considering just the "average" condition of the wood. # Decay processes are dynamic and constantly changing, and they affect everything from nutrient release to soil changes, stream sedimentation, and plant, animal and fish habitat. "In the past we just didn't pay much attention to what was decaying, and how, and what the ecological implications of that were," Harmon said. "We now know there are huge differences between tree species, that some fungi decay some species and not others, and that all of these factors will play a role in sustainable forestry and overall forest health." In the future, Harmon said, trees increasingly will be planted that are never meant to be harvested - by design, they will be left to decay and play certain roles in forest ecology, for the health of plants, trees, microbes and wildlife. With large trees that have commercial value, it's still not certain exactly how many must be left for the complete range of forest benefits, he said, and findings on that issue will continue to emerge from studies such as this. Oddly enough, some of today's evolving forest management systems may seem more similar to those in the early days of the Pacific Northwest forest products industry - when large amounts of less-valuable wood was left behind in practices that were later deemed "wasteful" and changed dramatically after the 1940s, in order to harvest more of the wood and leave a clean site behind. The findings of these studies and their temporal scope have been so compelling, Harmon said, that they have attracted not only forest scientists but artists. "We originally began this work assuming it would be of interest only to forest researchers and ecologists," Harmon said. "Now people from all over the world are watching these studies, and many experts think of nutrient release as one of the last frontiers in understanding the role of dead trees in forest ecology. "Writers have done features on the work in national publications. Even artists and sculptors have worked with us to portray the fascinating, natural processes of forest growth and long-term changes." Materials provided by Oregon State University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Oregon State University. "200-year Experiment Changes Face Of Forest Management." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 August 2005. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050819123757.htm>. Oregon State University. (2005, August 21). 200-year Experiment Changes Face Of Forest Management. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 27, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050819123757.htm Oregon State University. "200-year Experiment Changes Face Of Forest Management." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050819123757.htm (accessed April 27, 2017). Ecology Research Old growth forest Carbon Emissions from Logging Debris in Africa May Be Vastly Underestimated Oct. 3, 2016 — Logged forests in Central Africa may contain more than three times as much carbon-emitting woody debris left on the forest floor after logging than previous estimates have suggested, a new study ... read more New Test Can Detect Plant Viruses Faster, Cheaper June 21, 2016 — A new test could save time and money diagnosing plant viruses, some of which can destroy millions of dollars in crops each year in Florida, says a ... read more Dead Wood Alive With Management Information in Old-Growth Iranian Forest Apr. 14, 2014 — Dead wood, such as old stumps and logs, is often overlooked when examining forest’s vitality; however, new research from old-growth forests in Iran point out the importance of this often-overlooked ... read more Strengthening a Billion-Dollar Gene in Soybeans Oct. 15, 2012 — Soybean cyst nematode does hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of damage each year. Crop sciences researchers think they may have found a way to strengthen plant ... read more Strange & Offbeat

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Farm Journal Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History magazine company million 1500 Market Street, Centre Sq. WestPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania 19102U.S.A. The rich heritage of Farm Journal is the same heritage as that earned by American agriculture's farm and ranch families for the past six generations. We became good friends through the years. Wilmer Atkinson said it best 120 years ago: "We shall use our best endeavor to make the Farm Journal a newspaper that shall possess real value to the class for whom it is published—the cultivators of the soil—and an entertaining monthly visitor to rural firesides. The future will determine the measure of our success." History of Farm Journal Corporation Farm Journal Corporation is the holding company for a number of media interests that have grown out of Farm Journal, the influential Philadelphia-based magazine that was established in 1877. Throughout its history, its owners have embraced new technologies and publishing concepts. Creating a brand out of the Farm Journal name is in many ways a continuation of that forward thinking, in large part borne out of necessity because of the ever-shrinking numbers of U.S. farmers. In addition to its flagship magazine, Farm Journal also publishes Top Producer, Beef Today, and Dairy Today, as well as several newsletters. The company also holds broadcast interests: the Farm Journal Radio Network and two nationally syndicated television programs, AgDay and WeekEnd MarketPlace. Involved in the Internet since 1995, Farm Journal has merged its operations with other partners to launch AgWeb.com, for which it provides much of the content. Farm Journal is controlled by a limited partnership, which includes top management of the company. Influence of Farming Publications in the 19th Century Agricultural journalism has a deep, although somewhat overlooked, history in the United States. Not only did early farm publications connect and entertain isolated farm families and help disseminate information on new machinery, techniques, and business practices, their editorial pages championed causes that were important to their readers. Although almanacs, such as those published by Benjamin Franklin, included agricultural content, the beginning of the farm press is generally traced to the 1819 foundation of the American Farmer, published in Baltimore by John Stuart Skinner. According to its title page, the publication contained "Original Essays and Selections on Rural Economy and Internal Improvements With Illustrative Engravings and the Prices Current of Country Produce." Skinner would join forces with the legendary Horace Greeley in the mid-1840s to publish the Monthly Journal of Agriculture. William Dempster Hoard, future governor of Wisconsin, was also a pioneer of farm journalism, and was especially influenced by Greeley's use of editorials. Hoard's papers became known for their strong editorial pages that weighed in on a range of issues in addition to agriculture. Emerging from this tradition was the founder of Farm Journal, Wilmer Atkinson. Atkinson was born in 1840 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the son of Quaker parents. After spending a year in a seminary he taught school while helping his father on the family farm. His first experience running a publication came in 1862 when he and a partner purchased the Norristown Republican. Two years later he sold his interest in the paper and moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he established the state's first daily newspaper, the Wilmington Daily Commercial, which he sold in 1876. He then moved to Philadelphia to start a monthly agricultural paper, the Farm Journal, which he said was intended for farmers within a day's ride of Philadelphia and dedicated to "practical, not fancy farming." The first issue, priced at 25 cents, was published in March 1877 with an initial press run of 25,000 copies. Atkinson also established a sense of integrity by announcing in the first issue that Farm Journal would refuse to print "quack medical advertisements." At the time, patent medicines and medical devices of dubious value were a mainstay of the popular press. In 1880 Atkinson was the first publisher to issue a personal guarantee, the "Fair Play" code, against the claims made by his magazine's advertisers, anticipating "the Good Housekeeping seal of approval." In 1913 Farm Journal became the first magazine to issued a money-back guarantee that allowed its subscribers to cancel "at any time, for any reason or for no reason." Like Hoard, Atkinson used the power of his magazine to champion causes: rural free delivery of mail, postal savings banks, and the preservation of birds. Atkinson wrote in one of the early issues: "We do not publish the Farm Journal for the money there is in it, but for the good we can do." This belief became an enduring legacy, as succeeding editors were encouraged to have a cause and to use Farm Journal to promote it. One example, of many, was the campaign to abolish the "Widow's Tax," which had forced many farms to be put on the block to pay off the taxes incurred when the husband had died. Laws were changed to recognize the full partnership of women in running family farms. In his day, Atkinson also championed women's rights, heading the Pennsylvania Men's League for Women's Suffrage that operated out of the Farm Journal offices in 1915. Atkinson even led a march through the streets of Philadelphia that began at the front steps of Farm Journal. Reaching a Million Subscribers with Farm Journal: 1915 During the 40 years that Atkinson ran Farm Journal, the magazine extended its reach well beyond a day's ride of Philadelphia. By 1915 it boasted a national circulation of one million. Although there was a major migration from the country to the cities in the early 20th century, the overall increase in population meant that the number of rural Americans grew from 44 million in 1900 to almost 50 million in 1910, when for the first time, according to the census, the number of farms surpassed six million. The need for farm publications was greater than ever. With the Depression of the 1930s, however, the farm economy suffered greatly. In 1935 Farm Journal was sold to the Pew family, owners of Sun Oil Co. (ownership was later transferred to The Pew Charitable Trusts). Subsequently, publisher Graham Patterson sold the magazine's printing press, electing to have R.R. Donnelley & Son do the printing. It was the start of a relationship that would eventually lead to publishing breakthroughs. The magazine also broadened its content in the 1930s. In 1939 it purchased The Farmer's Wife, a national women's magazine, which was then included as a magazine within Farm Journal. As wives became more instrumental in running farms, the magazine changed with the times. The women's section was eventually replaced by Farm Family Living, which catered to all members of the family. Although circulation of Farm Journal continued to rise, reaching a peak of almost 3.7 million in 1953, the dynamics of publishing were changing. Farm magazines simply could not compete with mass market consumer magazines, not to mention television, for consumer product advertising. National farm magazines, which also faced stiff competition from regional farm publications, had to find a way to help farm product advertisers to target specific audiences. A company selling corn seed, for instance, did not want to pay to reach a hog farmer or a wheat farmer. In an effort to address this concern, Farm Journal became the first national magazine to publish regional editions. It set up satellite offices to provide content that would appeal to different groups of readers: the wheat farmers in the Midwest, the cotton farmers in the South, and so on. The parent company of the magazine, Farm Journal, Inc., also tried to expand beyond agriculture with the introduction of Town Journal, a general interest family monthly, which grew out of a news weekly named Pathfinder that had been acquired ten years earlier. Although Town Journal built its circulation to more than two million and gross ad revenues surpassed $3 million, the publication was too expensive to produce and was discontinued in December 1956. Farm Journal, with $13.6 million in gross ad revenues, was doing well, but faced an uncertain future. Early in 1958 Farm Journal announced that it would voluntarily reduce circulation and advertising rates. Because the magazine had no newsstand sales, it could reduce circulation by removing subscribers, targeting people with non-rural addresses, who were offered their money back or subscriptions to other magazines. Intentionally cutting circulation seemed counterintuitive, but to management the move would "purify" the magazine. According to the president of the company, Richard J. Babcock, "The non-farm readers don't appeal to our advertisers and since it costs more to send a subscription than we make on subscription rates, we save money dropping them. ... Why not give the advertiser what he wants and make a better profit?" The immediate goal was to drop from a circulation of 3.4 million to 3.1 million. The next step for Farm Journal was to determined who among the rural readers were actually active farmers. In 1962 it began creating a database on its readers, which it soon took advantage of in a rudimentary way. It inserted a "Hog Extra" in the magazines that were mailed to the five leading hog-producing counties in the country. The subscriber received the insert whether he raised hogs or not, but this early effort at targeted publishing led to other inserts in 1964, "Beef Extra" and "Dairy Extra," followed later by a "Cotton Extra." The magazine then began to employ computers in 1965 and gathered specific livestock and crop production information from its subscribers. Purchase of Company by Management Team: 1973 After a group of seven employees led by Dale E. Smith bought Farm Journal Inc. from The Pew Charitable Trusts in 1973, the magazine became even more aggressive in gathering information, by the use of phone interviews, to further purge its subscription lists. Subscribers had to be preapproved in order to receive the magazine. It was estimated that 95 percent of the people contacted cooperated with the surveys. Although expensive to create and maintain, Farm Journal's database would prove to be a valuable asset. It formed the basis for Rockwood Research, a company that would generate information and lists for commercial clients. In addition to lowering its subscription base to around 800,000, the magazine was then able to take targeted publishing to an unprecedented level when Donnelley achieved a breakthrough in printing technology. What Donnelley called selectronic binding was the ability to incorporate the computerized information that Farm Journal had gathered on its readers to select specific sections that would be of interest to a particular subscriber. No longer would an insert like "Hog Extra" be sent to every subscriber in a particular county. The method, which came into use in 1982, required that Farm Journal supply more content to satisfy both regional and demographic needs, resulting in the hiring of a large number of freelance writers around the country. Selectronic binding gained a great deal of notice with the May 1984 edition of Farm Journal, which was printed in more than 8,000 different versions. Because the database also made it feasible to launch magazines that were targeted for specific readers, some of the inserts were then spun off, creating Hog Extra, Dairy Extra, and Beef Extra. Another insert, devoted to farmers with more than 250 acres, would later be launched as Top Producer. The upscale magazine was modeled after Fortune. Although no other magazine could rival Farm Journal in technical innovations, the magazine was far from thriving financially. More than half of Farm Journal subscribers received the magazine for free, the result of the early 1980s when increasing postal rates made it more costly to mail renewal notices than to send free copies. Management began talking to Chicago media giant Tribune Company in 1993 about a possible sale. After reviewing the books, Tribune management urged Farm Journal to cut costs before further discussions could take place. Farm Journal then trimmed its staff by about 10 percent, and in June 1994 Tribune purchased the company for a reported $20 million. The Farm Journal magazines and database were expected to create synergy with Tribune's nationally syndicated television program, "U.S. Farm Report," but the combination was short-lived. In 1997 a group of investors, including some employees of the magazine, bought back Farm Journal Inc. from Tribune for $17 million. It then created the holding company Farm Journal Corporation. New management initiated efforts to make Farm Journal into a multimedia company, following the lead of other publishing companies that extended the brand name of a magazine in any number of directions. While still under Tribune ownership, an Internet site, Farmjournal.com, was created. To provide more content for it, Pro Farmer, the largest circulation agricultural newsletter in the United States, was acquired. In 1997 Farm Journal began organizing policy conferences in Washington, D.C. More than just admission fees, the events added to the company's prestige. In January 1998 Farm Journal purchased AgDay, the longest running nationally syndicated agribusiness news television program. In 1999 Farm Journal purchased a syndicated radio program to augment its broadcast interests. It also acquired Globalink and the AgCast Network to provide agricultural news and market data to farmers via satellite and the internet. Farm Journal filed with the SEC in June 1998 in preparation for going public. The hope was to raise some $30 million to fuel acquisitions as well as to pay off long-term debt, which stood at $19.6 million. The offering was shelved, however, when the IPO market soured. By November 1999, management decided to scrap the plan altogether, after concluding that an offering would fail to sufficiently excite investors. Nevertheless, the company continued its efforts at becoming a multimedia company. In January 2000 it teamed with Internet holding company Safeguard Scientifics Inc. and private equity fund Madison Dearborn Partners to start a new Internet business, AgWeb.com. Again it was the database, with information on 90 percent of the nation's farmers and ranchers, that was a major selling point, along with its existing Farmjournal.com operation and the AgCast and Globalink data services. Madison Dearborn, which reviewed hundreds of Internet-based e-commerce companies, decided to invest in AgWeb.com because of Farm Journal's information and editorial content, as well as the ability to promote the site in Farm Journal publications. Furthermore, the numbers of farmers and ranchers gaining access to the Internet were reaching critical mass. The goal of AgWeb.com was to become a portal where clients could set up online storefronts so that commodities as well as farm-related products could be sold. The site would then collect a commission on each sale. The company also hoped to sell banner ads and provide information technology services for farming-related companies. The president and CEO of Farm Journal, Roger D. Randall, stepped down in order to run AgWeb.com, which set up offices outside of Philadelphia in King of Prussia. He was replaced by Andy Weber in May 2000. Weber was previously an executive at Cahners Business Information, where he was involved in the running of 41 magazine titles in the United States and Europe. He also worked at Chilton, where he was not only responsible for magazines but also five trade shows and 13 web sites. As the number of farmers continued to decline, while competition over revenues increased, Weber faced formidable challenges in leading Farm Journal into its third century. Maintaining the data that the company had so assiduously gathered over the previous 40 years would remain key. According to Weber, "That database and our field presence tells us what shifts are taking place and allows us to understand farming trends first. It allows us to reflect those trends in our magazines, television, radio, over the Internet and everywhere else." Given the historic willingness of Farm Journal to change with the times, there was no reason to doubt that the company, like the practical farmers it served, would find a way to successfully adapt. Principal Operating Units: Broadcasting; Internet (33% of AgWeb.com); Magazines; Newsletters. Principal Competitors: Dairylea; Meredith Corporation; Primedia Inc.; Vance Publishing; eMerge Interactive. Related information about Farm :For other meanings, see Farm A farm is the basic unit in agriculture. The stable is used for operations principally involved in the production of horses and other animals and livestock. A farm that is primarily used for the production of milk and dairy is a dairy A market garden or truck farm is a farm that raises vegetables, but little or no grain. Over time, this taxation was translated into a form of rental tax. The development of farming and farms was an important component in establishing towns. With the exception of plantations and colonial farms, farm sizes tend to be small in newly-settled lands and to extend as transportation and markets become sophisticated. British Isles and Europe In the UK, farm as an agricultural unit, always denotes the area of pasture and other fields together with its farmhouse and farmyard, barns, cowsheds, stables, etc. In England there is a vague point when a large farm ceases to be referred to as a farm and becomes an estate; A farm is an area of land used for primary production which will include buildings. Where most of the income is from some other employment, and the farm is really an expanded residence, the term hobby farm is common. Hobby farms are commonly around 5 acres but may be much larger depending upon land prices (which vary regionally). Often very small farms used for intensive primary production are referred to by the specialisation they are being used for, such as a dairy rather than a dairy farm, a piggery, a market garden, etc. This also applies to feedlots, which are specifically developed to a single purpose and are often not able to be used for more general purpose (mixed) farming practices. In remote areas farms can become quite large. As with estates in England, there is no defined size or method of operation at which a large farm becomes a station. Regardless of size, the term station is only used for farms where the main activity is grazing. Vehicles and implements used for farming Image:Bales of hay.jpg|Bales of straw on a farm near Ames, Iowa Image:Dairycattle2173.JPG|Cattle on an Amish dairy farm near Dundee, New York Image:Sheep eating grass edit02.jpg|Sheep eating grass on an Australian farm Image:88725503 c90d939110.jpg|Farming in North Carolina Image:Cows in green field - nullamunjie olive grove03.jpg|Herd of Hereford cows in a field used for farming Image:Sifton (Manitoba).jpg|A typical farm yard on the Canadian prairies. 1877: Wilmer Atkinson founds Farm Journal. 1915: Circulation reaches one million. 1935: Pew Family purchases company. 1952: Farm Family begins printing regional editions. 1973: Management group buys company. 1984: Farm Family becomes first magazine to use selectronic binding, a method of micro-targeting its readership. 1994: Tribune Company buys Farm Journal Corporation. 1997: Investors and management buy back the company. Filenet Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History [next] [back] Essence Communications, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History Cancel or This web site and associated pages are not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Farm Journal Corporation and has no official or unofficial affiliation with Farm Journal Corporation.

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FARMING MATTERS: Business is booming with Yokel yoghurts Tom Ley and his Yokel yoghurts Heather Jan Brunt A couple of years ago I wrote a news story about Tom Ley, a farmer’s grandson who wanted to add value to British cow’s milk and so decided to create his own yoghurt. Yokel was born and created in Buckinghamshire but since that time it has grown from strength to strength, so that it is now stocked in over 150 independently owned stores across several counties. And last year Tom even had a visit to 10 Downing Street where he showed off his yoghurts to the prime minister. Now, Tom is proud to announce the addition of two new flavours to his range - raspberry and black cherry. Yokel yoghurts are made with no added sugar. Grapes are used to lend a gentle sweetness to the fruit, which is then blended with cows milk yoghurt to give a rasp and sharp taste experience.There is a tiny list of only four ingredients on the side of the pots, you will never find any flavourings, colourings or sugar on the list.Tom came up with the name Yokel for his yoghurt because he wanted something related to farming, something simple and ended up with Yokel, which also happens to be an anagram of his surname (OK Ley). For a full list of stockists and to view images of the newly packaged yoghurts go to www.yokelyogurt.co.uk The image used on this page shows the original packaging of the yoghurts. More from the The Bucks Herald

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Drought dominates agriculture’s outlook By Dan Voorhis Greg Bunyan planted his wheat last November in the dusty soil of his non-irrigated farm near Fowler in western Kansas and hoped for the best. It was a pretty dry winter until some decent rain and snow in early February. That’s encouraging, but he needs a lot more moisture to produce wheat crop in June. “I need about 10 inches to produce a crop,” he said. “We’ve been below average for 13 of the last 15 years. We’re in a real drought.” The drought has become the dominant story in agriculture in southern Kansas and states across the southern tier of the United States, casting a pall over the good news story of continued high demand and high prices worldwide. The drought cut last year’s corn yields in Kansas to the lowest level since 1983 and sliced the corn harvest by nearly a quarter from 2010. The wheat harvest was also down by nearly a quarter, although that was partly due to some farmers switching to corn. The impact on the state’s cattle industry has been just as powerful. Ranchers who have seen their pastures shrivel, their farm ponds dry up and the price of alfalfa double, have been culling their herds. As of January, the state’s calf inventory was the smallest since 1938, according to the USDA. The weather forecast through April for southwest and south-central Kansas isn’t encouraging. A forecast released in early February by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls for a continuation or deepening of the extreme drought conditions in the southwestern quarter of Kansas. Lesser drought conditions extend farther north and east. Drought conditions in the southeast portion of the state are forecast to improve. The top half of Kansas is officially unaffected by the drought.. Nationwide, the forecast calls for the continuation of extreme drought in most or all of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Kansas is with a group of states on the edge of the drought that are feeling a significant impact. For those who lost their much or all of their harvest, there was crop insurance. Farmers say that will carry them for a year, or maybe two, if they lose this one as well, but they are edging closer to financial trouble. Fortunately, the prices for livestock and crops have been high enough to insulate some farmers with below-average harvests from taking a major hit. Prices have been at very high levels since mid-2010 as investors and speculators bet on high world demand and shunned low investment returns elsewhere. But while prices have generally stayed high, as always they are subject to the whims of weather, economics and the price of alternative investments around the world. Corn stocks generally remain tight in the U.S. and the world, while wheat supplies are more plentiful. For producers, the cost of inputs has risen as fast or faster than the value of their products. That may not matter too much if 2012 is a good year economically in the developing world and demand stays high, say forecasters. However, some see Europe’s continued troubles and a slowing of the Chinese economy as a threat to prices. The world economy has become incredibly important to American farmers and ranchers who now export massive amounts of food overseas. One study reported that having export markets has added $200 to $250 to the price of a head of cattle, said Frank Harper, a rancher and farmer in Sedgwick and president of the Kansas Livestock Association. In fact, high prices are contributing to the troubles in the beef industry by persuading farmers now facing parched ranches and high costs in cattle-heavy Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas to sell off all or part of their herds, Harper said. But longer term, the prognosis is pretty bright, say forecasters. Both farmers and ranchers are only just beginning to really experience the hunger of the world market, although prices and demand will fluctuate with weather and the success of alternative sources of food. But for at least the next decade, and possibly longer, the American farmer will dominate world markets, some experts say, because of the powerful combination of quality and cost, the product of high-tech American production and distribution practices and technology. It’s a message that Harper, the Sedgwick farmer and rancher, embraces. He keeps about 750 head of cattle on land north of El Dorado. He’s been through the drought. He’s paying high prices for inputs. America’s appetite for beef is flat or declining. Yet he’s still an optimist. Prices remain up and the long-term outlook remains bright. Despite the problems, he’s still making money. “How do you pay the highest price for inputs ever and still have profits? It’s crazy,” Harper said. Curious Wichita: How loud is Intrust Bank Arena compared to the rest of Wichita? Curious Wichita: Elevator man ain't messing around Curious Wichita: What's being done about vehicle tax cheaters? The comprehensive timeline for Wichita’s Joyland Will there ever be another Joyland? Koch-backed network pledges millions to stop Republican health care bill Newman play based on Emil Kapaun, Kansas’ saint-to-be Former Wichita cop, BTK investigator dies in Oklahoma crash

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365 by Whole Foods set to enter stage ‘2.0’ Apr 25, 2017 The book on Heinen’s Apr 21, 2017 Could Kroger have interest in Whole Foods? Apr 20, 2017 Strack & Van Til to sell 22 stores, close remaining 9 Apr 19, 2017 Refresh brought to you by Industrial Park of Dreams Robert Vosburgh 1 | Aug 19, 2008 Dayton is a rural community in Washington State's Columbia County, tucked into the southeast corner, near the shared border of Oregon and Idaho. Unemployment hovers around 7%, which is higher than the national average. The region's population has been making a difficult transition diversifying from from its agricultural roots. It's here that officials plan to open what they're billing as "the world's first organic food processing eco-industrial park." It's an interesting idea. The complex is to be sited within the Port of Columbia, and called Blue Mountain Station. Port officials have teamed up with specialists in food production to develop an integrated, certified organic food facility connecting the many links that stretch from farmer to retailer. Working as a small, artisinal company under the Blue Mountain Station umbrella brings certification expertise as well. Companies seeking to go USDA-certified organic will be able to tap professional assistance during the transition, according to Port of Columbia officials. They noted that Washington is a leader in the organic food industry. Washington State University, in nearby Pullman, created the first organic farming degree in the United States. The Organic Trade Association estimates the organic market will grow by 18% a year though 2010. Current economic issues aside, there's still plenty of demand out there for interesting, high-quality new products crafted by small manufacturers. There are enough people out there, even among traditional shoppers, to fuel development of the organic category and help get worthy initiatives like this off the ground.

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AtLAS | The Voice of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Winter 2011 LAS home AtLAS home Winter 2011-12 Edition Partnering for Twenty-first-Century Food Technology by Micki Leventhal A partial overview of the 312 Aquaponics operation. It may seem like something out of a science-fiction movie, but the start-up venture on the third floor of The Plant, a reclaimed food-processing facility in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, just may herald the future of urban agriculture. Aquaponics technology is an alternate way of growing food that combines aquaculture, or fish farming, with hydroponics, which is raising plant life in water as opposed to having soil as your medium. The hybrid technology has been around for some time—the Aquaponics Journal began publishing in 1997. Now, with growing concern over global food supply and policy issues, this futuristic approach to farming has been experiencing increased international advocacy and media attention. “Our company, 312 Aquaponics, began as an impetus to change the food system,” said Arash Amini (physics 2010), who—with fellow LAS alumnus Andrew Fernitz (biological sciences 2010), UIC alumnus Brian Watkins (accounting 2010) and Mario Spatafora (DePaul, accounting 2009)—founded the venture as a Limited Liability Company while still students. The 312 Aquaponics partners (left to right): Andrew Fernitz, Arash Amini, Mario Spatafora, Brian Watkins The quartet of scientific innovators and business entrepreneurs all hail from the northern suburbs. Amini and Watkins attended Glenbrook South High School; Fernitz and Spatafora are alumni of Glenbrook North. Their personal and professional relationships developed during college through mutual friends and a shared interest in using science and technology to solve social issues. “I would go to the Re-Thinking Soup programs at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum and meet all these people who were involved in the local food movement,” explained Amini. “That program helped catapult us from an idea to a business.” In spring 2010 the friends attended the UIC Family Farmed Expo and met Myles Harston, who was designing an aquaponics system for the biology department at Chicago State University. They signed on to help build the system. It was an experience that helped them build their own expertise—and further connect with the urban agriculture movement. “They were enthusiastic learners and a great help as I was working to construct the facility,” said Harston, founder of AquaRanch and an active player with the Aquaponics Association and City Micro Farms. “The 312 team clearly has energy and a willingness to learn—qualities that will help them succeed as entrepreneurs in this new, responsible farming technology.” Amini and Fernitz examine tilapia for growth, and to project harvest dates. Amini checks out the roots growing in on a bed of Marshall lettuce plants. “With our sustainable 312 Aquaponics technique, you have a re-circulating system where the fish waste goes into a filtration and converting system that turns the waste into fertilizer. This fertilizer is used to feed the plants, which live on hydroponic rafts,” explained Watkins. “The plant roots absorb the fertilizer and clean the water that then re-circulates back to the fish tanks in a closed ecological loop.” The ecological loop—or “aquapods,” designed by 312—consist of tanks of tilapia, and tray after tray of leafy greens, including lettuce and several varieties of basil, floating in a deep-water flow system under grow lights. The facility also boasts research and development units where bigger plants including tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are taking hold in beds of gravel, fed by the same fish-fertilized water as the deep-water system. “People hassle us about growing inside, but, in Chicago, if you want consistent, locally-grown produce throughout the year, you’ve got to look at alternative farming methods,” said Fernitz. “The scalable prototype system we’ve designed at 312 is able to grow all year round with consistent conditions because we’ve created an environment that monitors water quality and light quality. We’ll also be monitoring air quality. All the parameters for growing a plant are nailed down. Aquaponics is a natural system in a controlled environment. You don’t need chemical herbicides or fertilizers or pesticides because you don’t have issues with soil or water quality, weather conditions, insects and other predators.” Fernitz checks nitrate levels (water quality) in the system mixing tank. “We are in the process of becoming a Certified Naturally Grown producer,” noted Amini. “CNG is a grassroots effort to provide the same thing for consumers as an organic certification, but it’s not insanely expensive and filled with bureaucratic loopholes. It’s a movement that is sweeping small-scale organic farms and local food producers who want to commit to organic standards but don’t have the infrastructure to meet the requirements of the USDA’s National Organic Program.” The partners stress that what they offer is a demonstration site and a future aquaponics farming training center. They explained that the 312 system is scalable to each farmer/customer’s needs. “An individual homeowner could set up a system in their basement to produce food—fish and leafy greens—to feed the family,” said Fernitz. “A mom and pop enterprise could set up a system adequate to supply these foodstuffs to several local grocery stores. The system could be scaled up so that, hypothetically, Kraft Foods could launch an aquaponics division for producing fresh-farmed fish and vegetables. What 312 is selling is the system for aquaponics farming that will meet producers’ business goals—design, build, setup and train. There’s an analogy here to setting up a computer system in the old days.” Watkins adjusts settings on the biofiltration unit, part of the system that converts the fish waste into fertilizer. “You can think of this as the first biological computer,” added Amini. “We have the hardware, the software and the interface. It’s huge and cumbersome right now, but in 20 years it will be something we can’t even imagine.” Advocates for aquaponics credit the technology with the ability to solve problems ranging from soil erosion to global hunger and food security issues. The 312 partners cite the benefits of raising crops without chemicals and the environmental and economic benefits of local production. “On average, produce sold in Chicago travels 1,500 miles to get here,” said Fernitz, noting the carbon footprint such a trip engenders. “We only use 3% of the water that a conventional farming method would use to grow the same volume of plants and we’ve created the perfect conditions for the plants. This results in a 30-40% increased maturation speed and yields of three to 18 times what they would be if grown under conventional outdoor conditions. Because we don’t use chemicals like conventional hydroponics technology does, we get indoor yields with an outdoor taste.” 312 Aquaponics is located at The Plant, a building being reclaimed for food business incubation in an economically depressed area of the city. “Because of the fast growth and increased yields, aquaponics can produce food at affordable prices while maintaining profitability for the farmers,” noted Watkins. “Everyone talks about food deserts, but an underlying cause of this social problem is tax deserts,” said Amini. “There’s a cycle when an area is economically depressed—no one has the money to buy fresh food even if it were available in the area. We can solve the problem by reclaiming unused and abandoned industrial buildings for indoor farming, creating local food and local jobs in the green industry.” On September 8, the City Council and Mayor Rahm Emanuel approved an amendment to the Urban Agriculture Zoning Code that will allow for the expansion of community gardening and urban farming within city limits. The new provisions specifically allow for aquaponics. “Our vision over the next three to five years is for there to be a thriving urban-agriculture technology park right here in Back of the Yards,” said Watkins. Photos by Matthew Kaplan This Issue Message from the Dean Preparing Students for the Global Future Studying Bee Pollinators to Aid Urban Agriculture Finding Multidisciplinary Solutions to Internet Crime Teaching Financial Literacy Partnering for 21st Century Food Technology Biodiesel a Win-Win for Environment and Economy Founding a Legacy for Women in Academe Traveling the Globe in Pursuit of Knowledge Amazing Alumni/Class Notes Voices of the College LAS Library: Recent Publications by LAS Faculty Celebrating LAS: Events Past and Present LAS Calendar

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A Farmer’s Almanac for the Young, DIY Set By Amber Turpin | Young Farmers Unite If you’re up on sustainable farming, chances are good that you’ve heard of The Greenhorns. But, if by some chance you have not, let me fill you in. The non-profit organization was founded in 2007 by Severine von Tscharner Fleming with the primary goal of promoting and supporting the young farmer movement in America. Their first project, the eponymous documentary The Greenhorns brought attention to the plight of young farmers and introduced viewers to a myriad of grassroots endeavors. Through new media production, events, publications, workshops, and actual farming, The Greenhorns aim to organize, build, and bring attention to a network of budding agrarians. I’m happy to report that the latest Greenhorns project has arrived and it’s an impressive body of work that deserves some attention. The 2013 New Farmer’s Almanac is an adventure. It may draw you in with its whimsical illustrations, its DIY production quality, or the old-fashioned font, but from the get go, it is obvious that it offers a unique read. And then comes the introduction, written by Fleming, who also served as the book’s editor in chief and publisher. It is lengthy, in four parts, with a strong dose of history and lots of footnotes–but don’t let this deter you. Fleming has obvious skill with the written word and leaves readers with a heartfelt sense that she has fully immersed herself into this project. She writes: …this read of history considers my own practice of sustainable agriculture and community organizing–and how it relates to the great issues of our time; how it has always related to the great issues of all other times. Big dreamy minds have latched on to these themes of soil, of startup, open source, direct action, local politics, economic transformation, and indeed these may well be the shapes and themes most suited to shifting the systems we inhabit. The challenge therefore is to use history as a tool, to sharpen our wits, to steel our resolve–and to foresee big changes of our own making. I’ve been anticipating this Almanac since first hearing about it. Although I didn’t get a copy until mid July, I can say that this book would be thoroughly enjoyable anytime. The year matters not, as the content spans history and weaves in and out, season to season. That being said, as I sat in my blazing, fertile July garden and read through the winter chapters, studying February’s lunar chart and an excerpt about forcing bulbs in the winter, my brain felt a little bit tilted. When I arrived at the summer chapters, there was more relevance, a syncing of my reality within the pages, and the whole notion of a yearly almanac hit home. They were traditionally used as a primary source of information, entertainment and inspiration. In a time when households did not have television, the Internet, or telephones and books were rare, the almanac was relished as a whole year of literary sustenance. I can imagine that the reader, back in Ben Franklin’s time, would carefully follow the Almanac month by month, slowly working through it to lengthen its effect. As Rick Prelinger, founder of Prelinger Library in San Francisco explains, almanacs linked farmers with the work of the earth and sky and the world of ideas. They thrived in an age of isolation that is almost unimaginable today, a time when there was no radio and newspapers moved slowly by mail. They were often the only books in their households besides Bibles and they were meant to supply families with a whole year of reading. He says: Today … we need almanacs to provide what we can’t get online: carefully edited collections of smaller notions, hints, hacks and hard information that might appear simple, but when taken with a tall glass of water expand into mind-changing, load-lightening, actionable ideas. An almanac is a little book hiding an encyclopedia within its covers. Its job is to offer proverbs that turn into projects, household hints that help harvests flourish, facts that keep animals healthy and plants straight on their stems. I love the puzzles in old almanacs, but I love even more how they conclude: ‘Solution is next year’s Almanac.’ Patience is civil disobedience in our era of speed. Some things take their own time. And patience is what came to reward my experience with this modern day almanac as well. Although it didn’t take long to charm me, my first impressions felt a little bit chaotic. There are grammar inconsistencies and the tidbits written in multiple fonts jumped from page to page. But then, when I stopped trying to find order, I was able to dive in completely. I now want to savor it, loving each unexpected little treat, and trying not to look ahead to spoil the surprise of turning the next page. In fact, I stopped reading after I finished the chapter marked for August, so that I can dole out each remaining chapter until the year’s end. I’m not going to disclose too much about the 336 pages of diverse, poetic, creative, archival, often hilarious, and sometimes very serious content in the New Farmer’s Almanac. I will say that while it was vastly entertaining (farm games!), I did learn quite a bit of new information–about everything from field tiling, to the the Vermont Sail Freight Project, to urban agriculture in Detroit. It was also amazing to read articles written long ago that hold true today. The Almanac is peppered with proof of historic relevancy, such as: an excerpt from the Farm Encyclopedia in 1889 entitled “How Farmers Can Cooperate”; the work of the Friends of the Land organization founded in 1941; and Rodale’s 1986 piece about the internal resource value of land. And then there was this quote from the 1927 North American Almanac, which fortold our current energy crisis: “It is probable that within the next hundred years our methods of generating a power supply will have to undergo a radical change. Both oil and coal exist in limited quantities, figst of nature which we are consuming without regard to our future needs.” I’m excited about next year’s Greenhorn Almanac and I’ve already put some pressure on my local feed store to stock it so that the public can get a taste. (And I haven’t even checked out the accompanying audio almanac yet!) If this debut version is any indication of the wonderfully curated, highly talented and varied submissions to come in years ahead, then we are all in for some fun. As I balance a baby on one hip and bushels of tomatoes and green beans in the other, The real magic of this collection is that it makes me feel connected to an American legacy of homesteading, farming and environmentalism. The threads of contemporary writings mixed side by side with the historical ones gives the reader a non-linear sense of time, growth and our purpose as humans on this planet. As my family harvests and puts up our own food, I’m reflecting on all the women before me–the families, the husbands, and the one-year-olds eating corn for the very first time–and how this way of living with the earth can influence generations to come. Enjoy stories like this one? Got $25? Help keep Civil Eats alive by supporting our Kickstarter Campaign before October 18.

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Home » Blogs » karanjad's blog Cities Eating into World's Farmlands NEW DELHI - By 2030, the world could lose millions of fertile agricultural lands to expanding cities with Asia and Africa accounting for 80 per cent of the total farm losses, a study finds. Analysing satellite data on croplands and their productivity using year 2000 as the reference point and comparing it with urban area projections for 2030, international researchers found that 30 million hectares of crop lands will be lost to growing cities – an area equivalent to the Philippines. Of this, Asia and Africa will lose 24 million hectares of prime agricultural land. “Whether we have food security issues in cities depends on how dependent the city is on locally produced versus imported foods.” Navin Ramankutty, University of British Columbia,Canada With cities becoming hubs of economic activity, large-scale changes are expected. However, the authors say this is the first study to quantify the effect of urbanisation on crop lands at global, continental, and country levels. The study was carried out by researchers from Austria, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, and United States. The croplands that are going to disappear by 2030 have productivity that is almost twice the global average and accounted for about 3—4 per cent of global crop production in 2000. China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the US top countries set to lose cropland to urbanisation. The productivity of rice, wheat, maize, and soybean are most likely to be affected, though there are significant variations at regional levels. Among the continents, Asia will experience the maximum cropland loss with China alone accounting for a quarter of the global crop land loss. India, another rapidly developing economy, is not expected to lose as much, though the scenario might change when urbanisation picks up. Pakistan, Vietnam, and Indonesia are also major potential losers. While these changes threaten the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and retailers, more serious consequences could be seen on forests. “One the one hand, there is agricultural land consumed by urbanisation, and on the other, new land for agriculture will possibly replace forests or other valuable ecosystems at relevant scales,” says Felix Creutzig, head of the Land Use, Infrastructure and Transport Group at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin, Germany, who participated in the study. The resulting loss of forests can influence the local climate too. In India, there is enough evidence to believe that forests cleared for agriculture have weakened the summer monsoon rainfall. Interestingly, such cropland losses are not expected to have strong implications for global food security. Navin Ramankutty, professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada, believes it is a bit tricky to predict how the urban food systems will be affected. “I think this is going to be context dependent. Whether we have food security issues in cities depends on how dependent the city is on locally produced versus imported foods, and also the biogeography that the city is located in,” Ramankutty says. He emphasises that loss in global crop production can be easily overcome by “small shifts in diets or reductions of food waste and losses”. This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s South-East Asia & Pacific desk. karanjad's blog

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Ethanol plant may squeeze farmers again Farmer shareholders who lost thousands of dollars in a bankrupt ethanol plant outside Canton are getting letters this week telling them they'll have to pay more. Brenda Rothert Farmer shareholders who lost thousands of dollars in a bankrupt ethanol plant outside Canton are getting letters this week telling them they'll have to pay more.HWS Energy Partners, the Champaign company that built a water treatment plant at the ethanol plant site, wants members of the defunct Central Illinois Energy Cooperative to make good on a lease agreement - to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars."It's like a slap in the face," Fulton County Farm Bureau Director Elaine Stone said Thursday. "It's not realistic to ask these stockholders to put up any more money after they've lost everything."Central Illinois Energy LLC was first proposed in 2001. It took several years to get financing, and ground was broken in October 2006. There were 400 shareholders then, and 365 were farmers, who committed both money and corn to the project by purchasing stocks for $5,000 per share and signing corn supply agreements.In December 2007, construction on the nearly complete plant stopped when contractors left the job site because they weren't getting paid. Millions of dollars in mechanic's liens were filed, and the plant's board of directors declared bankruptcy within a few days.Shareholders lost all their money with the bankruptcy filing. The plant's assets were bought earlier this year by a consortium of banks that originally financed the project, which was proposed at $94 million when construction started. At the time of the bankruptcy filing, $130 million had been spent.HWS Energy Partners built a water treatment plant at the site, intending to lease it to the ethanol plant.In letters sent to CIE Cooperative shareholders this week, HWS attorney Douglas Slayton said HWS was supposed to enter into an agreement with Central Illinois Energy LLC, the now-bankrupt entity. But one of the lenders for CIE LLC objected to the agreement, which called for a monthly payment of $24,166.67 to HWS from CIE LLC for at least 11 years. The payments would have repaid HWS for its costs of construction on the water treatment plant.Instead, CIE Cooperative, the group of 365 farmer shareholders, agreed to assume responsibility for the payments, promising to pay up to $72,500 per quarter.HWS filed a civil lawsuit Sept. 11 in Fulton County Circuit Court, seeking $435,000, the amount of payments now due.Robert Vohland of Farmington, the former secretary of the CIE Cooperative board of directors, sent a response to the suit that said all the board members have resigned, and there is no money to pay the debt. The CIE Cooperative's bank accounts total $2,319, according to court records filed Tuesday.On Oct. 21, Judge John Clerkin awarded a default judgment to HWS for $435,000. No one from CIE Cooperative came to the hearing.Now HWS is asking each farmer shareholder to pay the company $1,500 per share purchased in Central Illinois Energy LLC by Dec. 1. After that, the company will seek $2,000 per share."I don't plan on paying it," said one farmer who asked that his name not be used. He said he didn't get any notice of the recent hearing but probably wouldn't have been able to attend even if he had."Not too many farmers are going to take the time to go to court in the middle of the harvest," he said.In his letter to shareholders, attorney Slayton said the company may seek another $290,000 per year from the farmer shareholders for the next 9 1/2 years. Slayton pledged the company will "remain resolute" in efforts to make the farmers pay."If necessary, these efforts will continue for several years," he said.Brenda Rothert can be reached at (309) 686-3041 or [email protected].

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Spreading a Bad Seed - The Greed of Agri-business We picked this dispatch as today's "Best." Click here to have future picks e-mailed to you! A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Turmoil engulfed the Galactic Republic. Use of potentially deadly engineered organisms in outlying star systems was in dispute. The sinister Trade Federation threatens to block trade of smaller planets that attempt to stand in its way. Well, sometimes truth is even more unbelievable than the movies. What we're talking about here didn't happen so long ago or so far away either. It's happening now on our very own planet! Turmoil is engulfing our world as nations debate over the use of genetically modified seeds and crops on their lands. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) pose a potential serious threat to ecological systems and health. That's why countries all over the world from the United Kingdom to India to New Zealand to Zimbabwe are banning the planting of GM seeds until further testing can be done. Big and powerful multi-billion dollar companies like Monsanto have invested a lot of money into GMOs and they intend to see them used all over the world. Unfortunately, our planet's equivalent of the Trade Federation, the World Trade Organization (WTO), protects the rights of companies like Monsanto. Under the WTO's Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIP) Rights Agreement which took effect in January 1995, all signatories to the WTO are obliged to recognize any patent on plant varieties, which includes GMOs, or risk sanctions for obstructing trade. This is a huge problem here in developing countries like Zimbabwe, because as powerful European countries still debate over the issue, Monsanto is turning to the powerless third world nations to spread their GMOs. "As a developing country we must be especially careful (about the new push for genetically engineered seeds and life)," points out Charlene Hewat, Secretary General of E2000, a large Zimbabwean Environmental group. "Developed countries see us as a dumping ground for their pesticides and hazardous wastes, and a testing ground for new experiments." This is exactly what happened here in Zimbabwe over the past few years, as Monsanto sunk to low levels and spread their product around the world. Zimbabwe officials and citizens have recently learned that in 1996, Monsanto illegally smuggled genetically modified cotton seed in for trials in Zimbabwe. They did this with the help of the Commercial Cotton Growers Association (CCGA), who has been pushing for local use of the technology for a number of years. Neither Monsanto nor the CCGA declared the seed as a GMO when seeking the import license from the Department of Agriculture. This is in clear violation of Zimbabwe's Plant, Pests, and Diseases Act, which calls for all foreign material brought into the country to be labeled clearly and monitored by the government. When the government discovered Monsanto's genetically engineered BT Cotton in the fields, the crop was almost ready for harvesting. After harvesting, entire fields were destroyed, reminiscent of the hundreds of acres of cotton fields that were burnt in Karnataka in Southern India when Monsanto tried similar sneaky tactics to bring BT Cotton into India. A U.S. company illegally smuggling genetically engineered seeds in to test them on other people's land?! As Andrew Mushita from Community Technology Development Trust put it, "It was a cruel move on Monsanto's part." What penalties do you think Monsanto received for such a blatant violation of the law? NONE. Unfortunately, developing countries like Zimbabwe depend on foreign investment and can't afford to offend powerful Western corporations like Monsanto. Meanwhile, on the other hand, if the arguments that surround Genetically Modified Organisms go Monsanto's way, the WTO could in fact punish Zimbabwe for blocking the crop, claiming it as an obstruction to free trade. Poor, developing countries merely trying to protect their biodiversity and their local farmers could be blocked from all necessary imported goods and medicines, and from foreign investment. As we saw happen on the planet Naboo in Episode I, economic sanctions can bring much hardship to a country. In response to an alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched a band of Jedi knights, the guardians of truth and justice in the Universe, the youth of the world, to spread awareness on the matter and make a difference. As young Anakin Skywalker's mom said, "The biggest problem in this universe is that nobody helps each other." I pray that you will bring sanity and compassion back to our planet. Share your concerns on the final agreements of the World Trade Organization in this week's Making a Difference Section. Let's change this universe. The force is with you. Why are countries all over the world so hesitant to allow GMOs to be planted on their soil? Monsanto's genetically modified cotton is made by directly inserting the Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) gene into the cotton seed which is a natural pesticide that wards off cotton growers' most hated insect, the bollworm. Critics warn that planting seeds with the Bt gene on a large scale is producing a bollworm that will gradually become resistant to the toxin. Agriculturists have already noticed poorer soil conditions on lands where Bt seeds have been planted. In Zimbabwe's case, a big worry is "biopiracy". Zimbabwe's cotton varieties are known to be among the finest in the world. Under WTO's protection, Monsanto could take advantage of Zimbabwe's rich varieties that are the result of hundreds of years of local work and knowledge. Monsanto could inject the seed with the Bt gene and then patent the cotton as its own, even though local farmers in Zimbabwe were responsible for most of the innovation. The Bt cotton that was tested in Zimbabwe yielded much poorer quality cotton than the traditional strains. Another worry is that the pollen from fields planting the GM cotton could infect neighboring fields, and soon Zimbabwe's rich biodiversity of cotton would be in threat. Though the government has yet to take any severe action to punish Monsanto or other companies like it, some action has been taken by the government and local non-profit organizations to vocalize concern over the company's role in the Bt Cotton growing in Zimbabwe. At a conference on agricultural biotechnology in September of 1998, 350 governmental and non-governmental delegates pointed a collective finger of disapproval at Monsanto. Monsanto Lambasted in Zimbabwe by Government and Non-governmental Delegates http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/news/9998.htm Check out April's Making a Difference section for more details on the possible threat posed by this new science. Making a Difference - Eating Pesticide Potato Chips http://www.worldtrek.org/odyssey/latinamerica/042499/making.html Case Study - How Global Policy Debates like the WTO Can Affect Even the Smallest Rural Villages Just this week I've had the chance to work with a wonderful organization called IT Zimbabwe (check out my dispatch in the next update!). They are helping the rural community of Chivi deal with issues of food security. "The rural communities like Chivi don't live in a vaccuum," explains Blessing Butaumocho from IT Zimbabwe. Though they are currently concerned with regional issues of food security, the effects of WTO's agriculture agreements can have huge consequences for them as well. "These communities unfortunately have an uninformed view of the current global debate on genetically modified foods... we're kept in the dark even though it is our very own biodiversity at stake." Cargill International, which was recently taken over by Monsanto, has a huge office in Masvingo in Central Zimbabwe. Blessing explained to me what kinds of consequences these huge multi-national companies can have on the local village level. "These fertilizer companies have been going out to the rural communities and spreading their words. Unfortunately, all the work we've done in mobilizing and increasing awareness and communication within the communities is now being abused by these companies. They come to the seed fairs that communities organize and start marketing their products. They begin by giving the seeds for free like presents, modified maize seeds, cotton, it really could be anything. Who knows, maybe it's a product they're still testing, maybe it will harm the fields, or the pollen will harm the traditional surrounding crops. The next year, when their traditional crops have failed and they need to replant the modified crops, the companies are no longer offering the seeds for free. Now the farmers are forced to pay the little money they have just to buy the seeds they have become dependent on-it's a trap. Another way the companies take advantage of the seed fairs is by coming in to the community to see what the community has. They take the rich diversity of seeds the farmers have been traditionally saving for centuries. It's possible now they could modify those seeds in their laboratories and patent it, then go back to the very communities they originally received them from for free to sell the seeds that they now own!" Kevin - Constitutional Comparisons Monica - Frustration Fuels Motivation - Education in Zimbabwe Through the Eyes of a Student Activist Monica - An Interview With Ian Douglas Smith, It's All a Matter of Perspective Monica- Teen Pen Pals Dream of Hollywood and Big Changes for Zimbabwe Kavitha - Developing Countries, Big Daddy Corporations and the World Trade Organization Meet Kavitha | Kavitha's Base Camp | Trek ConnectTime Machine | Multimedia and Teacher Zone | Odyssey Info

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Successful peanut weed control requires ‘all-in-effort’ Apr 25, 2017 COTTON SPIN: Will the boom in U.S. cotton exports continue? Apr 21, 2017 Landmark environmental book influences scientists 55 years after its release Apr 26, 2017 Senate confirms Perdue for agriculture secretary, farm groups respond Apr 24, 2017 Trader advises against holding grains Doreen Muzzi Farm Press Editorial Staff | Jan 10, 2002 If you are still holding on to old-crop soybeans or corn, you may be wise to line up some trucks, crank-up the augers, and begin unloading your grain bins, according to Brian Doherty, a commodity trader with Stewart Peterson. Doherty, who provided his market outlook on corn, soybeans and wheat to growers across the Sunbelt Dec. 13 at the monthly meeting of the Ag Marketing Network conference call, says that holding grain in the bin is probably the most speculative position a farmer can take in the grain market. “I think farmers do themselves a favor by being at least 50 percent sold in the harvest, and then trying to get that last 50 percent sold within the first three months of the year,” he says. Doherty says he would be particularly aggressive in moving soybean inventories right now, before storage costs further eat into any potential profits. One strategy he recommends is establishing a fixed risk position by buying a March futures contract at the money, and then purchasing a $4.40 put against that futures contract. “You've fixed your risk yet still have flexibility if the market moves up or we see South America stub its toe on weather, and all of a sudden we put on 50 or 75 cents real quick,” he says. “If the market heads south, the cost of that strategy probably isn't going to cost you a whole lot more than the cost of holding your beans in the bin, but you've taken away the market risk.” For those soybean producers who want a more conservative, long-term marketing strategy, Doherty recommends buying July call spreads. “In that case, I'm going to buy an at-the-money call, and sell either four or five strike price out-of-the-money calls against that.” Doherty also recommends moving any old-crop corn inventory. More specifically, he advises growers holding corn in the bin to buy a July $2.30 at-the-money call option. “You've got six months to work with that, and you no longer are subject to market risk, storage risk or some market rally basis risk.” In some areas of the country where the basis isn't tight, he says, you may want to examine the carry charge in the market, and possibly forward contract for sometime shortly after the first of the year. “If you're going to pick up a few cents, forward contract and buy it back with a $2.30 call,” Doherty says. “That $2.30 call is roughly the cost of storage and grain. So you are fixing your risk, and participating in the market if it moves up.” Corn Doherty isn't forecasting any immediate upswing in the corn market. “We're going no where fast in corn,” he says. “There's just not a perception right now, either domestically or on the global front, that we're going to all of a sudden run out of corn. There's also not the perception that we're going to shock the supply side of things. “The kind of shock that moves the market generally occurs because of an unexpected weather or news development. We're entering a window of time right now, where we're not likely to see that,” he says. On a more positive note, Doherty says the corn market is trying to build a base, which means the corn market should perform more “normally” in 2002. “We have some fundamental numbers that are supportive for corn,” he says. “I think people will be disappointed that the market is not going to rally very quickly. But, I do think we're going to climb 10 to 15 cents over the next few months, and maybe by as much as a quarter into the spring.” Doherty is also betting that China will remain a factor in the corn market. “China has been cleaning out their bins for the last year and moving all of the poor-quality corn they can move.” However, he doesn't recommend that corn growers make any marketing decisions based on whether or not China will be in the market for corn. “I think they have a need and will be in the market for corn, but I'm not going to put all my eggs in one basket, especially if I'm a producer with a lot of inventory.” Soybeans The soybean market has potentially the most explosive outlook of the grain commodities, according to Doherty. “Beans are kind of on the teeter totter right now, and we're on the verge of looking ugly on the charts.” Despite the fact that the most recent USDA report confirmed a change in ending stocks, the market trended negatively. “The ending stocks trend to me is the most critical pattern when it comes to price outlook. We put the skids on increasing ending stocks with this last USDA report and yet the market moved down on the news,” Doherty says. He compares the current soybeans market situation to a game of tug of war. “We've got outstanding demand right now and we've got outstanding weather in South America, but the market has failed to rally on potentially positive news or on actual news. That's disconcerting. We're sitting sort on the edge right here, and if South American weather continues to run as good as it has, we could move down another 40 or 50 cents into the South American harvest.” “If I'm a producer, I don't want to get stuck with a lot of inventory if the South American weather continues to roll along because the perception is we're going to have beans coming out of our ears. In pricing, perception is everything,” he says. However, a couple of weeks of adverse weather in South America, Doherty says, could quickly add 50 to 75 cents to the soybean market. Due to the uncertainty in the soybean market, Doherty encourages growers to market defensively by selling any on-hand inventories on the cash market and then utilizing options to “buy back” the crop. Wheat Like soybeans and corn, perception is playing an important role in the wheat market. The market, he says, is “languishing” despite a run of positive news that in a more normal market environment would generate buying interest. “The world just is not stepping up to the plate and buying inventory,” Doherty says. “We're not seeing any of this long-term buying despite what appears to be good value. You've had a market that dropped 20 cents when winter wheat crop ratings went down four out of five weeks. This market doesn't even care apparently about crop ratings in the fall.” And, like the corn and soybean markets, Doherty says, there isn't any real perception that we're going to run out of wheat. Because we haven't seen any significant crop loss in any part of the world, the speculative interest hasn't been there to drive the market upward. What's going to change the environment and allow the wheat market to rally? According to Doherty, it's going to take increased exports, weather-related production problems, a weakening of the U.S. dollar from its current levels, and the perception that we're going to get tight on supply. “Rallies, time and time again, of 10, 15, or 20 cents have proven to be selling opportunities in this market. Again, I'm going to be smart and try to sell in the cash market during these rallies given the current environments that we're in,” he says. [email protected].

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Agweb HomeFarm Journal HomeNewsVermont Dairy Farmers Create Program for Farmers Vermont Dairy Farmers Create Program for Farmers By: LISA RATHKE, Associated Press Dairy farmers frustrated by what they saw as a lack of access to experts have helped to create a new Vermont program aimed at growing the state's milk supply by helping farmers better manage their operations. DairyVision VT offers dairy farmers a management team to help make them more profitable. "It stemmed from some frustration and what I thought would be an opportunity for other dairy farmers in this state," said Reg Chaput, a North Troy dairy farmer. The idea behind it was to grow the production of commercial milk in Vermont by teaching farmers better, more efficient ways to farm, said Mark Rodgers, a West Glover dairy farmer who is vice chairman of DairyVision's executive committee. The focus is on increasing the milk supply in an environmentally and fiscally sound manner. It's aimed at farms that might be moving from one generation to the next, or farms that might decide to merge, or farmers who want to shift crops or have labor issues. "This was individual farmers who were frustrated with what they saw as access to the very best technical assistance in the Northeast," said program coordinator Louise Calderwood. The first four enrollees in the new program, including Chaput, were picked this month. Farmers pay half the cost of an assessment — $3,000 — and DairyVision pays the other half, from a combination of public and private funding, Calderwood said. Once the assessment is done by a team of experts, farmers would pay for any future work. The team includes two veterinarians and experts in farm business, crops and human resources. Vermont has an array of technical support for farmers, Calderwood. The difference with DairyVision is that it's focused on the farmers who produce milk that they sell to processors — commodity milk — rather than farmers who produce milk and turn it into value-added products, although the program could be used by those types of producers, as well, she said. Chaput thinks it's a better tool for farmers to use when they seek financing from banks. "With this the way we've got it said up now the banker is going to be faced with four consultants who have been working together to bring this together to present it to the dairy operation and supports the financial investment," he said.

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Archived: Caribbean Looks to Aquaculture Food Security to Combat Climate Change iCrowdNewswire - Dec 11, 2015 Caribbean Looks to Aquaculture Food Security to Combat Climate Change By Zadie Neufville Jimmi Jones selects tilapia fish to prepare fillet for a customer. Credit: Zadie Neufville/IPS KINGSTON, Jamaica, Dec 10 2015 (IPS) – Jimmi Jones and wife Sandra Lee’s fish farm in Belize City is unique. His fish tanks supply water and nutrients for his vegetable garden needs and the plants filter the water that is recycled back to the tanks. Jones has been showing off the “JimSan Aquaponics” style of organic farming in meetings across the Caribbean to support efforts by the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) in promoting aquaculture as a food security option in combatting global climate change. As global warming increases sea temperatures, wild catch fishery could decline by as much as 50 per cent, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned. Warming seas are expected to devastate regional fisheries by shifting the travel routes of pelagic fish and the distribution of high-value species while causing die offs of many other popular marine species. A Sept 2015 study from the University of British Columbia noted that warmer seas could alter the distribution of many marine species and worsen the effects of pollution, over-fishing and degraded habitats, resulting in economic fallouts worldwide. To ensure food security, the CRFM, the regional body responsible for the responsible use of regional resources, is promoting aquaculture as part of a range of initiatives to build climate-resilient fisheries. A five-year plan has been drafted by the Secretariat and a working group established to guide the process. The CRFM strategy is among activities the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) proposed to lessen the impacts of climate change on small-scale producers. Jones’ aquaponics operation illustrates how aquaculture can help farmers, particularly small subsistence fish and food farmers, to boost their family income while providing adequate food and protein for the table. With modifications, this method of aquaculture can be applied on large or small operations; it reduces water use by 90 per cent while allowing farmers to produce up to 10 times more vegetables than terrestrial plots within the same footprint, while eliminating the need for pesticides and other chemicals. The addition of renewable energy systems could further reduce production costs. “In essence you feed the fish, they produce waste, the waste goes through a bacterial process that breaks it down from ammonia to nitrate, which is basically plant food, along with other processes that happen. You’re growing fish and vegetables using the same infrastructure; the water goes through a filtration system and you grow the plants without using soil,” Jones explained. Despite what seems to be an easy enough undertaking, aquaculture has been on the decline in the Caribbean. In 2012, production plummeted from between 5,000 and 6,000 tonnes to 500 tonnes when the Jamaican fish-farming industry collapsed under pressure from cheap imports. Aquaculture production in Jamaica, at one time the largest producer in the region, fell from around 11,000 tonnes in 2010, to just over 7,700 in 2011, falling even further in recent years. Jamaican fish farmer Vincent Wright pointed to government policies that have made it difficult for them to compete. “The global economic downturn, high cost of energy, theft and a lack of adequate and suitable water supplies have made things even harder,” he said. Executive Director of CRFM Milton Haughton has challenged regional governments to implement systems and regulations that will help investors to “overcome the impediments” aquaculture farmers face. “We do need to provide the necessary legislative and regulatory framework, the policy support and the incentives to our fish farmers and private sector investors, so that they can grow the sector and increase production, not only for local consumption but also for exports,” he said. In the last year or so, the CTA and the CRFM partnered to review the development aquaculture in region and in bid to identify the challenges, find solutions and guide the re-development of the industry, Haughton said. Among the improvements, policies regarding the development and distribution of land and water, as well as the production of brood stock and food. Wright, who is also a scientist, said most Jamaican fish farms are built on marginal lands that are prone to flooding and with limited access to water. Given the locations and the existing conditions of local farms, climate changes will likely cause increased flooding, and disease, while reducing the availability of water for farms during periods of drought, he said. The admission of Martinique and Guadeloupe to the CRFM family in 2014 is making up for the lack of research in the industry through Martinique-based French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) , an organisation with decades of research and development experience in tropical fish culture, nutrition, disease and mortality in farmed species. The Centre also draws on the expertise of the national research capabilities of the French Republic. Before now, the 18-member states of the CRFM were short on aquaculture research. Now Ifremer is committed to helping the region develop its research capabilities. Useful as climate change is predicted to have serious economic effects on world wild catch fisheries. But while scientists predict heavy losses for the Caribbean, they also suggest there is sufficient information for governments to begin to develop policies to help the industry adapt to the expected changes. Jones sees aquaculture as a way of adaptation to climate change. This year he expanded the 111.5 square metre (1,200 square feet) green house to 557 sq metres (6,000 square feet), to double production in the short term with the possibility of a five-fold increase at peak agricultural production periods. Jamaica and across the Caribbean were affected by extended droughts in the last two years and forced Wright and his counterparts to cut back production, but Jones’ green house and fish tanks were not affected. The system lost roughly one per cent, between 379 litres and 750 litres (100 and 200 gallons), from roughly 53,000 litres (14,000 gallons) of water running through the system at any one time, he said. “Aquaculture is the way to go if we are to provide adequate protein for our people,” he said. In fact, the position is supported by the findings of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in its 2014 State of Fisheries and Aquaculture report. “Based on its dynamic performance over the last 30 years, with the fairly stable catches from capture fisheries, it is likely that the future growth of the fisheries sector will come mainly from aquaculture,” the report said. According to the FAO, between 1990 and 2000, global production of food fish production grew 9.5 per cent per year from 32.2 million to 66.6 million tonnes at an average of 6.2 per cent per year between 2000 and 2012. Regional growth has, however, remained static. Regardless of the methods used, aquaculture “offers the region the best opportunities to provide a healthy, safe, guaranteed supply of food for our people,” Jones said. Pictures for this story This story includes downloadable print-quality images — Copyright IPS, to be used exclusively with this story. Contact Information: Zadie Neufville/IPS Tags: IPS News Agency, English, Inter Press Service, Civil Society, Wire, Global Regions, Language View Related News >

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Farmer-Owned Ethanol Plants Contribute More To Local Economies Local ethanol plant ownership generates significantly more economic activity for the communities in which the plants are located than plants owned by absentee investors, according to a study released by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). The study, "Economic Impacts on the Farm Community of Cooperative Ownership of Ethanol Production," concludes that, "Since a farmer-owned cooperative ethanol plant is literally a member of the community, the full contribution to the local economy is likely to be as much as 56% larger than the impact of an absentee-owned corporate plant." John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC, conducted the analysis. In many ways the economic impact of farmer-owned and absentee-owned ethanol plants on the local community is similar, the study points out. Yet there are two important differences that significantly increase the impact of a farmer-owned plant: 1) The share of expenditures for operations of a farmer-owned plant derived in the local community is likely to be larger than that of an absentee-owned plant. For example, virtually all accounting, administrative and marketing functions will be provided locally, while these functions may be centralized off site for an absentee-owned plant. 2) Farmer-owners of a cooperative or limited liability corporation (LLC) ethanol plant will participate in the profits through dividends. Dividends paid to farmer-owners represent additional income that is spent and invested largely in the local community, according to the study. The economic impact is directly linked to plant size and depends on the relationship between the ethanol plant and the local economy, specifically whether the plant is locally owned. The analysis compared a 50-million-gallon/year, farmer-owned dry mill ethanol plant with a similar-sized, absentee-owned plant. Most absentee-owned facilities are owned by centralized agribusiness corporations. "By putting money directly into the pockets of local residents, farmer-owned ethanol plants have spurred economic growth in rural communities across the country," says Bruce Noel, chairman of the NCGA Ethanol Committee. "When farmers and other local investors are given the opportunity to participate in the ownership of ethanol plants, the economic benefits to the community are magnified enormously." Nearly half of all ethanol plants are owned and operated by farmer cooperatives or LLCs and account for 38% of total ethanol production. However, during the last two years there has been a substantial influx of non-farmer capital into the ethanol market. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, only two of the 43 ethanol plants under construction are majority farmer owned. "It's unfortunate that there currently aren't more opportunities for farmers and other locals to invest in the plants being constructed in their communities," Noel says. "With locally owned plants, the profits stay in the community and that discretionary income is what truly facilitates rural development." Though its members favor the local ownership model, NCGA recognizes many ethanol ownership models are necessary for the continued growth and success of the domestic biofuels industry. "We are not opposed in any way to the continued development of absentee-owned ethanol plants; we understand the ethanol industry needs a variety of business models and equity sources to succeed," Noel says. "However, for the sake of the community, if an ethanol project's developers have the opportunity to allow local investors to participate, we certainly would encourage them to consider doing so. "Any ethanol plant – regardless of who owns it – is good for corn farmers and good for the U.S. economy," Noel adds. "But if you're talking about the effects on the local economy and farm income, ownership matters. Those plants that are farmer owned undoubtedly have a more pronounced impact on the local economy." For a full copy of the study, visit www.ncga.com.

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2017-17/1828/en_head.json.gz/19115

Tense Future: Turning Point in the Battle Against Glyphosate-Resistant Weeds Monday, April 30, 2012Tense Future: Turning Point in the Battle Against Glyphosate-Resistant WeedsAgWeek: This year could be a significant turning point in the battle against glyphosate-resistant weeds in the Red River Valley, Jeff Stachler says.FARGO, N.D. — This year could be a significant turning point in the battle against glyphosate-resistant weeds in the Red River Valley, Jeff Stachler says. “It needs to be a turning point for the valley and should be for the rest of the state,” says Stachler, extension service sugar beet weed specialist for North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota. Stachler is one of the region’s prophets on glyphosate resistance. He’s been trying to get farmers to think beyond their current situations and guard against resistance that their farms don’t yet have. The issue is important for everybody, but more money is at stake for growers of higher-value sugar beets. Beet growers have been planting Roundup Ready seed under conditional approval protocols and are still in a legal struggle to gain permanent approval. Stachler and others are tracking the incidence of glyphosate-resistant waterhemp, which has moved farther north in the Red River Valley — as far north as southern Traill County in North Dakota, and across the river in southern Polk County in Minnesota. Stachler says farmers may be awakening to the fact that glyphosate resistance isn’t just down south somewhere — in Richland County, N.D., or west-central Minnesota. Dozens of consultants and others have visited his greenhouse in recent weeks to see the results of his latest research. “Glyphosate-resistant waterhemp is present in all of southern Minnesota, and the Red River Valley up to Nielsville (Minn.). It’s for sure in Ransom, Richland, Cass, Traill counties in North Dakota,” Stachler says. “And the kochia resistance out west is something we’re not ready for.” Stachler and a colleague, Kirk Howatt, who is working on kochia, have been accumulating evidence of the increase in frequency of resistance in their NDSU greenhouses. In some cases, Stachler has happened upon resistant waterhemp infestations in his travels and crop consultants and others have alerted him to locales. The researchers collect plants in late September and October, and then cleaned them of seeds that are used for later grow-outs and testing in a greenhouse. Last fall, Stachler collected waterhemp weeds from Holloway, Minn., (east of Milbank, S.D., in Swift County, Minn.) north to Nielsville, Minn., and Galesburg, N.D. Holloway is a known “hotspot” of glyphosate-resistant waterhemp, starting back in 2008. His greenhouse weed specimen container sets start with untreated “check populations,” with white tags. Then there are yellow tags, regular rate glyphosate (0.75 pounds of acid equivalent of glyphosate: 22 ounces of Roundup PowerMax, or 32 ounces of a 3-pound acid equivalent per gallon in a generic product). Finally, there are 3X — three times normal — treatments, with pink tags. One sample set is from Renville County, Minn., where resistant waterhemp was detected in 2007. Today, collections from the Holloway area in 2010 and 2011 show at least 90 percent of the fields in a five- to 10-square-mile radius likely have “some frequency” of glyphosate-resistant waterhemp, Stachler says. Some 20 percent of the acreage in that area would lose some crop yield if the farmers only sprayed glyphosate. “That’s not much, but the frequency is so great in that geography, and we’re starting to use other herbicides with glyphosate and if we don’t do it right, we’re starting to select for multiple resistance,” he says, adding, “It’s almost to the point of, ‘Who cares if it’s glyphosate resistance’ versus some other kind of resistance. The question is, is it multiple resistance, and how am I going to manage it?” In a second case from Holloway, the landowner didn’t use a pre-emergence herbicide and planted Roundup Ready soybeans in 2011 and used glyphosate. “He realized they weren’t going to die, so these plants survived when Cobra was used,” Stachler says. “We have confirmed this to have multiple resistance. This is the greatest resistance to the protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) inhibiting herbicide in Minnesota we’re aware of at this time.” Today there are resistant waterhemp populations in Clay, Traverse and Wilkin counties of Minnesota (see map on page 28). Suspecting, knowing Stachler confirmed glyphosate-resistant waterhemp in Richland County in 2010 for the first time. A population in the Barney, N.D., area has the highest level of resistance seen to date. Farther north, samples collected in 2010 in southern Cass County couldn’t be proven to have glyphosate resistance in 2010, but did in 2011. Plants exposed to 3X didn’t survive as well as they did in Richland County, but with 1X treatments, the plants survived better than the nontreated check plants. “We know that if we put really low doses of certain herbicides on plants it can actually stimulate growth,” Stachler says. “Our assumption is that the level of resistance is so high that the dosage stimulated the plant growth.” Before 2011, there was almost no waterhemp west of Kindred, N.D., — either resistant or susceptible to glyphosate. That changed after the 2011 flood, when the Sheyenne River spilled over its banks. “We all as an agricultural community need to communicate to the scientists what we’re seeing,” Stachler says. “If something is happening on a single grower’s field it’s not likely to stay there, especially if we have significant water movement.” Stachler says he found out at the end of 2011 that a chemical dealer had trouble controlling waterhemp in soybeans for a farmer in the McLeod area in 2010. That would have been good to know earlier. A long-term consultant has told Stachler he never saw, or was concerned about managing waterhemp in fields along Interstate 94 in the Mapleton, N.D., area until 2011. “Worse yet, he had plants survive glyphosate,” Stachler says. Farther north in the Galesburg, N.D., area, resistance is peculiar because it is on the western edge of the Red River Valley, outside of where flood waters reached. “Yet, this is the first time I’ve seen a waterhemp population respond (be resistant) so uniformly in an area where we didn’t know we had resistance to glyphosate,” Stachler says. “Unfortunately, the field also had a boatload of common ragweed surviving in it. We know water can move giant ragweed, but I don’t know how well it moves common ragweed.” Stachler was surprised that weed collections from Minnesota in the Halstad and Nielsville areas, which he expected to be resistant because of floodwater movement, were not as resistant as anticipated from the 2011 crop. “We’re not seeing the same level and frequency of resistance in that area, where water moved the seeds, compared to what we have in Traill County,” he says. Stachler encourages sugar beet growers to use Liberty Link soybeans because Liberty is an alternative mode of chemistry that, so far, displays no resistance to broadleaf weed species. Stachler doesn’t have hard numbers, but based on conversations, estimates from Fargo, N.D., and south, a significant percentage — perhaps maybe 30 to 50 percent — of sugar beet growers have shifted to Liberty Link beans. Meanwhile, NDSU’s Howatt has found greater-than-expected glyphosate resistance in kochia in the region. One sample collection from Stutsman County, N.D., northeast of Jamestown will survive a normal use rate of 0.75 pounds of glyphosate, acid equivalent, or a Roundup branded product at 22 fluid ounces per acre. “When we get higher than that we’re getting significant mortality, but we can get (some) plants to survive 3 pounds of glyphosate, which is actually a whole gallon of the old formulation of Roundup,” Stachler says. Another kochia population from Pierce County, N.D., south of Rugby, shows an even higher resistance. The majority of weeds survived a 1.5 pound per acre glyphosate rate, which is “the highest legal single rate we can use in soybeans and twice the normal rate of 0.75 pounds. Most of the plants are surviving, but severely injured. “Worse yet, we have several plants — about 20 percent — that are surviving 6 pounds of glyphosate, or 2 gallons of the old Roundup” Stachler says. Two years ago, there were reports of problems in Dickey County, N.D., but NDSU couldn’t confirm it in greenhouse testing. The kochia seeds were sent first to South Dakota State University Extension Service weed scientist Mike Moechnig, then to NDSU, and finally to Colorado State University for genetic testing. “The mechanism for resistance in kochia appears to be multiple copies of an EPSPS (5-enolpyruvyl-shikimate synthase) enzyme, which is where glyphosate inhibits plant growth,” Stachler says. “You have an overproduction of that so you can’t get enough glyphosate in there. There’s so much EPSPS enzyme there’s not enough glyphosate to bind to it to stop plant growth and so they survive.” There are reports of possible kochia resistance in McIntosh, LaMoure and Ramsey counties in North Dakota. Stachler says North Dakota doesn’t want to end up like Kansas, where every farmer in the western part of the state has to deal with it. “We’re the last place with the least resistance in kochia, with the exception of Montana and farther north. We can make a difference if we want to make a difference, but if we ignore this, Mother Nature is going to spread the problem.” “This coming year, if North Dakota farmers haven’t switched their herbicide programs we need to get growers to actively scout fields and if necessary remove plants when there’s just a few in the field,” he says. “Glyphosate is so effective, we should have no (weed) plants in the field unless we’ve totally messed up due to application or weather. If we see any plants in the field — regardless of the species, but especially common ragweed, waterhemp, kochia, giant ragweed — we need to pull those plants when there’s one or two or a small patch. I can almost guarantee you’ll be completely rid of the resistance problem by doing that.” Is it practical for a farmer to cover large acreages that way? Stachler thinks so, but that depends on the size of the operation and how many fields have the problem. Because there is “low-level resistance” to glyphosate, the herbicide is bound to have some activity even on resistant plants. If farmers have a poor kill, and don’t know why (maybe it’s weather they think) they might use leftover glyphosate to kill weeds that have grown too large for other chemical rescue treatments. But if they don’t physically remove stragglers that have survived they can worsen their resistance problems. Stachler says farmers and their advisers can’t expect science to come up with a silver bullet to solve the problem, or maybe they can go backward. The trouble with that is older-class chemicals had been starting to fail before Roundup came on the scene in the 1990s. “If it wasn’t for the introduction of Roundup Ready crops, we likely would not have harvested the amount of crops that we have in the United States in the past 10 years. We were headed to disaster then already, with the old chemicals.” Stachler worries that if farmers are forced to return to the “old chemistry” — before glyphosate — they’ll have become complacent about how to apply it correctly. “If there’s still resistance in those populations to the old herbicides, and we don’t use them correctly, we’re going to select for resistance even faster.” He says some farmers today will not touch Liberty Link seed because they were disappointed when they used it in corn several years ago. “Liberty should be treated as a contact herbicide,” Stachler says. “We have to have high water volume, small droplets, lower travel speeds and good coverage. We have to spray small plants (1 to 2 inches), use the highest rate possible you can use for the conditions. If we don’t do those things, we’re not maximizing activity. Therefore, we’re selecting for the opportunity for weed survival. If you leave the weed plants to produce seed, that’s a problem. We’ve recommended Liberty Link soybeans to a lot of people now. It makes solid, sound science, but if we go out and use Liberty like we did Liberty Link corn in the late 1990s and early 2000s, we’re going to be sadly disappointed.” Important tool Glyphosate is too important for farmers to lose, Stachler says. He says a survey showed nearly 90 percent of sugar beet growers in American Crystal Sugar Co.’s growing area reported “excellent” weed control in 2009, compared with less than half that satisfaction with earlier herbicides. Stachler isn’t aware of any “silver bullet,” waiting in the wings of the crop protection industry. “Do you know how we find herbicides?” he asks. “Simple analogy, it’s a needle in a haystack. We take a chemical, spray it on a plant and see if it has any activity. We spray millions of compounds on an annual basis, to see if there’s anything that will kill weeds.” The number of companies looking for chemistry solutions has declined from more than 15 to less than half that today. “There isn’t a single part of the game that’s the same as it was 20 years ago,” Stachler says. It costs three to four times more to bring new chemistry products to the market than it did 20 years ago. Companies want more profit than they did before because they have to spend more. “There are products on the shelf that aren’t coming because either they’re too environmentally damaging and the EPA won’t approve them or they cost too much to make and won’t be profitable for the company.” Stachler doesn’t think herbicides will be the final answer. “It might be nanotechnology, or some kind of mechanical solution, not yet thought of,” he says. “Maybe we’ll just spray the fields, and we’ll just send a robot out to get rid of those few stragglers, instead of farmers doing the hand labor. It’s going to be something like that. One thing’s for sure — herbicides-only is not sustainable — exclamation point.” » Innovation Plus ProgramLast updated:April 18, 2016» Bayer Global» Bayer CropScience Global» Backed by Bayer

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2017-17/1828/en_head.json.gz/19514

Showing results for: Inequality 15 March 2017 Environmental Justice and Farm Labor Utilizing a model derived from literature on environmental justice overlaid with multiple scales of agriculture, Environmental Justice and Farm Labor provides key insights about laborers in agriculture in the United States. It addresses three main topics: (1) justice-related issues facing farmers and laborers on farms; (2) how history and policy have impacted them; and (3) the opportunities and leverage points for change in improving justice outcomes. Keywords: Farm labour, Food and agriculture policy, Hunger, Inequality, Wellbeing 20 April 2016 International inequality of environmental pressures: Decomposition and comparative analysis In this paper, researchers from a number of European and Australian research institutions seek to (1) identify global inequalities in the distribution of environmental pressures, and (2) determine the relative importance of the drivers behind these inequalities. Keywords: Environmental accounting/costing, Inequality, Political economy, Socio-economic determinants of health 16 October 2015 Cultivating Equality: Delivering Just and Sustainable Food Systems in a Changing Climate – report by CARE, Food Tank, and CCAFS In advance of the World Food Day CARE, Food Tank, and CCAFS have released the report Cultivating Equality: Delivering Just and Sustainable Food Systems in a Changing Climate. The report focuses on the need to tackle inequity and gender inequality to end hunger and malnutrition in the face of climate change. Keywords: Inequality, Sustainable development goals, Sustainable food security, Socio-economic determinants of health 15 October 2014 Price gap between more and less healthy foods grew between 2002 and 2012 Novel use of UK national data finds a growing gap between the prices of more and less healthy foods between 2002 and 2012. Healthy foods in 2012 were three times more expensive per calorie than less healthy foods. Food prices in the UK have risen faster than the price of other goods in recent years, and this new study, which tracked the price of 94 key food and beverage items from 2002 to 2012, shows that the increase has been greater for more healthy foods, making them progressively more expensive over time. Keywords: Consumption and production trends, Food and agriculture policy, Food consumption, Food nutrients, Food taxes, Health and nutrition policy, Inequality, Socio-economic determinants of health 25 September 2014 Oxfam briefing paper on public–private partnerships in African agriculture This report from Oxfam discusses large-scale partnerships between governments in Africa and donors and multinational companies. “Moral Hazard? ‘Mega’ public–private partnerships in African agriculture” is as the name suggests critical of these partnerships (PPP) and questions whether these partnerships lead to poverty eradication and improved rural livelihoods. The report argues that this way of mobilizing funds for the agricultural sector is often unproven and risky. Keywords: Investment, Food and agriculture policy, Inequality, Political economy, Poverty alleviation 27 February 2014 Food aid research report There has been an increase in the number of people requiring ‘food aid’ in the UK. Food aid includes a range of initiatives which provide food to people in need, including food banks, meal projects, soups runs, food vouchers and community care projects such as meals on wheels. Policy makers, along with the media and the wider public, are now engaging with some of the questions such initiatives raise. Keywords: Consumer perceptions and preferences, Food and poverty, Inequality, Malnutrition/undernourishment, Poverty alleviation, Sourcing/procurement 14 February 2014 Film: Enough Is Enough Based on the best-selling book by Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill, this film lays out an alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth- an economy where the goal is enough, not more. The film explores specific strategies to fix the financial system, reduce inequality, and create jobs, featuring interviews with leading economists, politicians, and sustainability thinkers such as Tim Jackson, Kate Pickett, Andrew Simms, Natalie Bennett, and Ben Dyson. It is produced and directed by Leeds film-maker Tom Bliss, and includes illustrations by cartoonist Polyp. Keywords: Consumption and production trends, Development policies, Food and agriculture policy, Food and poverty, Green economy/alternative economic models, Inequality, Land use and land use change, Political economy 28 January 2014 Oxfam: Good enough to eat - Food Index The Good Enough to Eat Index highlights some of the areas of critical concern for many countries when it comes to making sure that people can eat well, and indicates some important failings of the global food system that must be addressed. The index is an interactive snapshot of 125 countries showing the best and worst places in the world to eat, and the challenges people face getting enough of the right food. It was constructed to illustrate how overconsumption, misuse of resources and waste are common elements of a system where one in eight people suffer from hunger, while there is enough food to feed the global population. Keywords: Consumption and production trends, Diabetes, Health concerns, Hunger, Inequality, Malnutrition/undernourishment, Obesity/overweight, Poverty alleviation, Resilience and vulnerability, Sustainable food security, Sustainable healthy diets, Socio-economic determinants of health 19 December 2013 Defra: Family Food 2012 The UK’s Family Food report provides detailed statistics on food and drink purchases, expenditure and the derived nutrient content of those purchases from a large household survey covering the United Kingdom. It looks specifically at the domestic, household level. Chapters include: purchases and expenditure, energy and nutrient intakes, geographic and demographic comparisons as well as a chapter on dietary trends. Keywords: Consumer perceptions and preferences, Consumption and production trends, Food consumption, Inequality 13 November 2013 Conflict or Consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads Forest Peoples Programme, Sawit Watch and TUK Indonesia has produced this report on the large-scale expansion of oil palm plantations across Southeast Asia and Africa and their environmental and social impacts. The report questions the effectiveness of RSPO standards (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). These standards in theory encourage oil palm expansion in ways that do not destroy high conservation values or cause social conflict. They also require member companies to respect the collective right of indigenous peoples and other local communities to give or withhold their consent prior to the development of oil palm on the lands they own, inhabit and use. Keywords: Deforestation, Food and poverty, Food sovereignty, Industry actions/CSR, Inequality, Land grabs/large scale land acquisitions, Land rights, Palm oil, Sustainable development goals 6 November 2013 Video: Al Gore lecture at Oxford Martin School A video recording of Al Gore's public lecture for the Oxford Martin School is now available on the Oxford Martin School website here. In his lecture Gore outlined the challenges presented in his latest book, ‘The Future’, ranging from climate change and wealth inequality to biotechnology and the loss of jobs to automation. Additional events arranges by the Oxford Martin School can be found here. Keywords: Climate policy, Genetic Modification/biotechnology, GHG emission trends, GHG impacts and mitigation, Renewable energy, Inequality, Political economy, Poverty alleviation 21 October 2013 Final report of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations Lanched on the 16 October 2013, the final report of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations Now for the Long Term, is now available online. This report calls for a radical shake-up in politics and business to deliver progress on climate change, to reduce economic inequality, improve corporate practices and address the chronic burden of disease. Keywords: Environmental policy, Food and agriculture policy, Food and poverty, Health concerns, Inequality, Poverty alleviation Filter results by:

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2017-17/1828/en_head.json.gz/19594

US: Kansas Moves Cattle Brand Registration to the Cloud Veröffentlicht: 23. März 2017 Cattle brands aren't mandatory in Kansas, but that isn't stopping the state from deploying a new tech-savvy way to register the time-tested livestock markings. Kansas, the historic linchpin of the American cattle industry and a leading beef producer, is for the first time in state history migrating its cattle brand registration process entirely online. The idea of branding cattle, and registering those brands, may sound like the history of how the Midwest was won, or else a John Ford film. But Kansas — where once cattle were herded to trains at Dodge City and Abilene, then shipped to Chicago for processing — now has its own cattle-raising industry and four of the nation’s top five cattle processors. Together with Nebraska, Kansas produces 25 percent of America’s cattle, but it doesn’t mandate they be branded — though a state Department of Agriculture (DOA) official estimated more than 75 percent are. Those that are branded must register the design and location of their brand with the state. Currently an average of 18,000 brands are registered with the state and renewed every five years at a $45 cost. (The brand program is self-supporting.) Until recently, in a telling time lapse, while renewals were due April 1 — with about 3,000 coming up in rotation every year — brands didn’t expire until Oct. 1, six months later. The reason was simple: Kansas needed the months in between to process the paperwork — for that’s exactly what it was. A listing of active brands, the so-called “brand book” printed twice a decade, migrated online in 2014, and brand applications are available online to be printed. But until this April, the process of registering a brand — originating a unique mark and an unused location from one of six on an animal’s hips, ribs or shoulders — has been done entirely by mail and telephone, and if an idea for a brand was rejected ranchers had to resubmit it. By mail. “We heard it all the time: ‘If I can write a check, if I can buy a new car online, why can I not renew a $45 brand online?’” said Dr. Justin Smith, the state’s deputy animal health commissioner. And so, nearly two years ago, after learning the state’s Pesticide and Fertilizer Program was familiar with KRS, officials began conversations with software provider Kelly Registration Systems (KRS) about utilizing its proprietary software and migrating aspects of the brand division — the brand book, registrations and renewals — to its private cloud. “We looked at doing it in-house, but we just came to the point of, this mouse trap had already been developed,” Smith added. KRS, which is headquartered in Georgia, helps agricultural chemical makers create and market products, and assists departments of agriculture and similar agencies in funds collection, and data capture and tracking. It handles 16 other online licensing processes for 33 other state departments of agriculture, but partnering with the Kansas DOA meant breaking new ground. “This is the first time that we’ve done a state that has the livestock brands or cattle brands. I think the biggest thing that makes it unique is the ability to draw the brand on the screen and not have to have it submitted as a PDF,” said KRS’ Chief Technology Officer Stuart Edmondson. Previously brand creators relied on pencil and protractor — calling the state to query Kansas officials on the particulars of whether a similar design or location may have already been registered, then mailing in their finished work and waiting for it to be accepted or rejected. Starting in April, ranchers can go online anytime of the day or night and create their own brand from eight “keyboards” of letters and numbers, their upside-down variants, and roughly 84 symbols, including a half-arc, a quarter-circle, a semi-circle, a spade, a heart and a question mark. Letters and numbers can be also rotated, offering additional variety. The renewal process is slightly ahead, having been taken online through KRS in March 2016. Smith said he wasn’t privy to the exact amount of the contract with KRS, but the cost was shared by DOA, the Pesticide and Fertilizer Program, and other state divisions. Rolling out online brand registration and renewal likely won’t be complete for some time, as in some cases officials are still working to uncover email addresses for cattlemen previously only reachable by mail or telephone. But as the agreement proves its worth, the state is finding that employees previously saddled with handling brand registration paperwork now have more time for other tasks. “We’re seeing that positive already in terms of the amount of paper that [we] can run through the office in a day. All that does is allow us the time to become better servants to the client as far as lost and stolen cattle reports. Those need to get out on a timely basis,” Smith said. Two other cattle-raising states, North Dakota and Nevada, have differing approaches to brand registration — but one has taken aspects of tracking cattle online, and a rancher said he expects that process to continue. In North Dakota, the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association, a private industry organization and spokesperson, took over brand administration from the state about 20 years ago. An official said brands aren't required, but if ranchers use them, they must be registered with the state, at a cost of $25 per position per species. North Dakota makes brand registration forms available online, but submissions, certificates and acceptance or denial letters are sent by mail — though upon request the department will also notify ranchers of their brand’s acceptance or denial by telephone or email. Stan Misek, chief brand inspector for the association, said there is some interest in taking brand registration online — but the idea hasn't reached critical mass. "Well, yeah, they want to do that, but we’re not that high tech yet. I know a lot of people who don’t even have a cellphone," Misek said. "I think as ranchers start getting younger, that’s when we’re going to get a push to go online." In Nevada, rancher Dave Stix Jr. is president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, a nonprofit cattle industry trade association. He’s also CEO of the Stix Cattle Co. and raises around 2,500 head of Black Angus and Red Angus cattle. Nevada cattlemen aren’t required to brand their cattle unless they’re grazed on public land, Stix said — noting that roughly 87 percent of the state is, however, public land — but those that do register must pay $120 and renew every four years. New brand applications and renewals are done by mail, but Stix said state brand inspectors use tablets to do onsite brand inspections. He praised the state Department of Agriculture for having “really stepped it up as far as technology,” and said he expects it to continue migrating processes online. “We’ve gotten along with the paper for a long time, but I think as long as it’s done right, it’ll happen in due time and it’ll happen properly. No need to rush it,” Stix said, noting that despite the emergence of radio ID ear tags, he believes the brand remains the best way to identify cattle. “They’ve been trying to get us to put radio ID into cattle using our radio signal. Those are lost, we find ’em in our corrals, a lot of the cattle rub them off their ears,” Stix said. “There’s a proper way and that’s the brand. There’s no better way." Autor(en)/Author(s): Theo Douglas Quelle/Source: Government Technology, 15.03.2017

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2017-17/1828/en_head.json.gz/19627

You are on the U.S. site Visit other JBS sites Paraguay About JBS Beef Brands Beef Resources Food Safety Where We Are Livestock Producers Pilgrim's Where We Are Visit Pilgrims.com Pork Pork Brands Value Added Food Safety Case Ready JBS Five Rivers JBS Food Canada Canada Beef Brands Quality Grades Product Selector Variety Meats JBS Australia Swift Trade Group Sampco & Weddel Hides & Leather Materiality Analysis Team Safety Economic Viability Conserving Energy & Water Value Chain Collaboration Our shared journey To be the best About JBS About JBS JBS® USA is a leading processor of beef, pork and lamb in the U.S., a leading processor of beef in Canada and the largest cattle feeder in the world with operations in the U.S. and Canada. We are also a majority shareholder of Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, the second largest poultry company in the U.S., with operations in the U.S. and Mexico. JBS USA represents the North American arm of JBS® S.A., the world's leading animal protein processor with more than 200,000 employees worldwide, more than 300 production units and export customers in more than 150 countries. Our company also enjoys a strategic relationship with JBS Australia, the largest processor of beef and lamb and one of the largest livestock feeders in Australia. Headquartered in beautiful Greeley, Colorado, JBS® USA processes, prepares, packages and delivers fresh, further-processed and value-added beef, pork, lamb and poultry products for sale to customers in more than 105 countries on six continents. The company employs more than 78,000 team members and operates more than 100 facilities in the United States, Australia, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico. MAKING YOUR WORLD STRONGER JBS® is a worldwide leader in animal protein production, with production facilities, sales offices, feedlots, distribution centers and transportation hubs at locations in your local neighborhood and around the world. LOCAL VALUES The story of JBS® began in 1953 in Brazil, when José Batista Sobrinho (whose initials now form the name of our company) started out processing less than five head of cattle per day. Through determination, discipline, simplicity, years of hard work and a few acquisitions along the way, JBS has grown from a small, family-owned business into the world’s leading provider of quality meat protein, leather and sustainable co-products. Our mission at JBS® has remained the same for more than 60 years: to be the best in all that we do, providing superior products and services to our customers and the opportunity of a better future for all of our team members. The JBS mission and values guide our approach to business and empower our team to achieve great heights. These are not words on a piece of paper; they are the foundation of our company and our culture. HUMILITY, DISCIPLINE, PASSION, EXPERIENCE We believe our people set us apart from the competition. We have assembled a strong group of disciplined leaders who demonstrate fidelity to our mission and values, and have a passion for our industry and the people we serve. At JBS®, we know our people make the difference. IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS JBS - All rights reserved.

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2017-17/1828/en_head.json.gz/20208

Equity markets turning bullish, grain markets basing Apr 25, 2017 Rice: Global geopolitical uncertainties weigh heavy on prices Apr 23, 2017 Land Bank Chairman: 'Save money, protect equity' Apr 21, 2017 As farm income drops, young farmers take hit Apr 14, 2017 Louisiana farmers working on masters John Chaney | Mar 05, 2003 ALEXANDRIA, La. — A group of central Louisiana farmers voluntarily returned to the classroom to learn to become better stewards of the land — and to do their part in protecting the water quality of Louisiana's streams and rivers. The farmers, like many across the state, are participating in a relatively new LSU AgCenter educational initiative known as the Master Farmer Program. "This is a model program," LSU AgCenter Chancellor Bill Richardson said. "And environmental officials from other states are using this program to develop programs in their states." Almost 60 farmers from Avoyelles and Rapides parishes participated in the introductory session of the Master Farmer Program held Feb. 18 at the LSU-Alexandria campus. "The Master Farmer Program is a multi-agency effort targeted at helping agricultural producers voluntarily address the environmental concerns related to production agriculture," said LSU AgCenter water quality specialist Fred Sanders. The original formation of the Master Farmer Program was a product of the Environmental Protection Agency's ongoing monitoring of the Total Maximum Daily Load of pollutants in water bodies, which has resulted in a number of streams in Louisiana and other states being placed on EPA's impaired waters list. To improve these waters, Louisiana needs to reduce the amount of pollution entering the streams and rivers. To address the part agriculture may play in that process, the LSU AgCenter, the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and many other state and federal organizations such as U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Louisiana Association of Conservation Districts and the state departments of Environmental Quality, Agriculture and Forestry, and Natural Resources worked together to develop the Master Farmer Program. This educational program is being offered to all Louisiana's agricultural producers — both large and small — throughout the state on a watershed by watershed basis until all producers in all of Louisiana's 12 watersheds are trained. "To date, more than 400 farmers have enrolled in the Master Farmer Program, and those represent over 600,000 acres of agricultural land in the state," said Sanders, stressing, "Farmers want to work and do their part to improve the water quality standards." The quality of the Master Farmer educational program is endorsed by the agricultural producers. "Look at this information," said Mike Boone, a farmer from Lecompte, La. "I always wondered where water goes that falls on my farm. Now, with the drainage map in this book, I can trace the water to the Gulf." The Master Farmer Program is an evolving program that begins with eight hours of classroom work focused on environmental stewardship. During that phase, farmers receive an overview of the environmental regulatory climate, the benefits derived from the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in reducing agriculture's contribution to non-point source pollution, and methods of obtaining assistance to implement BMPs in practice on their land. For certification as a Master Farmer, the producer then is required to visit at least one model farm, which will showcase the successful implementation of BMPs. "Model farms will serve as monitoring points to help us keep track of the differences these measures are making in our environmental quality," said Sanders. Among the practices involved in agricultural BMPs are a wide range of conservation practices such as planting filter strips to stop nutrients and sediment from leaving the farm, precision leveling of fields to conserve water and reduce erosion, soil sampling to apply nutrients as recommended, and planting a crop into existing vegetation to avoid soil disturbance. As part of the Master Farmer Program's completion, each producer also is required to develop and implement an approved conservation plan. Then, once certified as a Master Farmer, each participant must continue his or her education by earning continuing education points by attending a variety of activities such as field days and grower meetings. In addition to the core curriculum of the Master Farmer Program, there also will be opportunities for the producers to receive further education on the commodities they grow. John Chaney writes for the LSU AgCenter. (318–473–6605 or [email protected]).

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Indonesia re-opens secondary beef cut market SHAN GOODWIN 23 Sep, 2016 09:07 AM Beef rendang, commonly served in Indonesia. Demand for animal protein is growing in Indonesia. INDONESIA has relaxed its trade restrictions on secondary beef cuts, re-opening a market that was worth $42 million to Australian exporters two years ago. The breaking down of technical barriers in a market considered extremely important to Australian beef, given Indonesia’s geographical location and population size, has been high on the agenda of industry leaders for some time. While it has been a gradual loosening, this latest development augurs well for negotiations on the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) which recommenced in May, according to the Australian Meat Industry Council. National director processing Steve Martyn said Indonesia had struggled to get right the balance between encouraging domestic beef production and importing to ensure its people had access to high quality, reasonably-priced product. “Yes, Indonesia has focussed too heavily on self sufficiency in recent times, given the growth of demand for animal protein among its population,” he said. “We have invested a lot of time and money into building the relationship with Indonesia, both politically and trade-wise, and like to think this gradual relaxation of barriers to trade is a reflection of that.” The revised regulations came into effect mid-August and provide for an expanded list of eligible beef cuts to be exported to Indonesia, including edible offal such as liver, heart, feet and lungs. Asked if the development was particularly optune given current demand decline in key Australian export markets, courtesy of Australia’s cattle shortage, Mr Martyn said Indonesia would always be a very important market to Australia’s beef and cattle industries, irrespective of market conditions at any given time. Indonesian importers can now also apply to import beef at any time of the year, with import permits valid for six months. Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said that provided more certainty for commercial partnerships between importers and exporters, reducing costs in the supply chain and allowing for better planning to ensure demand could be reliably met. Before restrictions were put in place in January 2105, Australia shipped almost 20,000 tonnes of secondary beef cuts to Indonesia. Australia’s total boxed beef trade with Indonesia in 2014 was worth $327m. Mr Joyce said over the next few decades significant economic and population growth was expected to changed Indonesia’s demand for food. “Diets will become more diverse and demand for quality protein will increase,” he said. “The total population of Indonesia is forecast to increase by almost 25 per cent or 62 million people to 322 million by 2050. Page: 12single page is the national beef writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media. Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandnewspaper

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A new way to make machinery Apr 19, 2017 Tobacco purchasing should be based on value, not price Apr 03, 2017 Some Georgia growers wanted to talk soybean weed control, most didn’t Apr 10, 2017 Caledonia: Where prisoners have grown their food for 125 years Apr 04, 2017 PPA winners overcome challenges Paul Hollis | Jul 02, 2008 Uncertainty over the farm bill, extreme drought, rapidly escalating production costs — taken collectively, they don't constitute the ideal environment for farming profitably. But even in the face of these adversities, winners of the 2008 Farm Press Peanut Profitability Awards beat the odds and produced crops that were both efficient and high yielding. Each of this year's winning growers represents one of the three major U.S. peanut production regions — the Southwest Region, the Upper Southeast Region and the Lower Southeast Region. Farm Press established the awards program in cooperation with the Southern Peanut Growers Conference and the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation. “When you consider the hardships faced by these growers, it makes their accomplishments even more impressive,” says Greg Frey, publisher of Farm Press Publications. “Even in a challenging production year, they were able to balance production costs with excellent yields and quality. This is what has earned them the distinction of being named Peanut Profitability Award winners.” The 2008 honorees maintained high yields and grades, controlled costs, and maximized profits in their operations, says Frey. “All of these factors combined make for a successful peanut farming operation — you can't have one without the others and stay in business for very long,” he says. Recognizing deserving growers, says Frey, is only one part of the Farm Press Peanut Profitability Program. “Education is an equally important component of this program, and Farm Press accomplishes this by publishing numerous articles throughout the year focusing on production efficiency in peanuts. Growers also will benefit from reading about the production practices of our award winners,” he says. The winning growers will be honored during the eighth annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference at the Edgewater Beach Resort in Panama City, Fla., July 13-15. This year's winners include: Southwest Region — Otis Johnson, Seminole, Texas. Lower Southeast Region — Mike Nugent, Willacoochee, Ga. Upper Southeast Region — William McElveen, Bishopville, S.C. Entries in the awards program are evaluated by Marshall Lamb, research leader of the National Peanut Research Laboratory in Dawson, Ga. Lamb, who serves as advisor to the program, designed the nomination form that is used by growers in determining production efficiency. Lamb stresses there's no one set formula for maintaining profitability in peanut production. “It's always interesting to see how our winning growers approach things differently but with the same result — maintaining profitability and efficiency in their peanut operations,” he says. Rotation and timeliness are always generally common themes among the winners, he says, but they accomplish these good practices in different ways. “For example, one of our growers this year has a set rotation sequence for his peanut crop while another grew cotton for 14 years before deciding to grow peanuts again. It's the same principle, but they approached it in different ways,” says Lamb. All of this year's growers — as in years past — are doing everything on a timely basis, says Lamb. If they irrigate, they do it on a schedule that doesn't allow for plant stress, and when they spray fungicides, they follow a program that puts them ahead of disease pressure, he says. This year's Peanut Profitability honorees also did not hold back on crop inputs, says Lamb, doing whatever is necessary to make good quality peanuts and high yields. “We've noticed in our evaluations that the growers who put the most into their crops each season usually are the same ones who do the best job of managing their fixed costs, such as equipment and machinery. In other words, they're simply good managers,” he says. The Peanut Profitability Awards, explains Lamb, are based solely on production efficiency — honoring those growers who produce the highest yields at the lowest cost per acre. The awards are based on a producer's entire farm operation, and not just on individual farms or small plots. For more information on this year's winners and their production practices, see the articles in this issue of Southeast Farm Press. Sponsors of this year's awards include BASF, Bayer CropScience, Golden Peanut Company, John Deere, Sipcam Agro USA, Inc., the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation, Syngenta, the Texas Peanut Producers Board, Southeast Farm Press and Southwest Farm Press.

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Pueraria montana var. lobata (Willd.) Maes. & S. Almeida Pea family (Fabaceae) Origin: Temperate and Tropical Asia, Australasia, and Pacific Kudzu was introduced to the United States from Japan in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, as an ornamental plant. In early 1900s, it was recognized and promoted as a forage crop and planted throughout the southeastern U.S. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Soil Conservation Service paid southern farmers to plant kudzu to reduce soil erosion on deforested lands, resulting in over 1 million acres being planted. Kudzu, nicknamed “the vine that ate the South,” was recognized as a pest weed in the 1950s and removed from the list of acceptable species in the Agricultural Conservation Program. In 1998, it was listed as a federal noxious weed by the U.S. Congress. Kudzu occurs primarily in the eastern U.S. and has been reported to be invasive in natural areas from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas. Infestations have also been reported in North Dakota and Oregon. Kudzu grows well under a wide range of conditions and in many soil types. Preferred habitats are open, sunny areas like forest edges, abandoned fields, roadsides and disturbed areas. Kudzu grows best where winters are mild, summer temperatures are above 80°F and annual rainfall is 40 inches or more. Ecological Threat Its vigorous growth and large leaves smother and shade out native plants. It can kill trees through girdling and the extra weight of vines can lead to toppling during storms. Once established, kudzu plants grow rapidly, extending as much as 60 feet per season, about 1 foot per day. Description and Biology Plant: climbing perennial vine in the pea family (Fabaceae); vines may extend 32-100 ft. in length, with stems up to 4 in. in diameter; roots are fleshy, with massive tap roots that can get to 7 in. or more in diameter, 6 ft. or more in length, and weigh as much as 400 lbs.; up to 30 vines may grow from a single plant. Leaves: alternate, deciduous, and compound, with three broad leaflets up to 4 in. across, leaflets may be entire or lobed with hairy margins. Flowers, fruits and seeds: individual flowers, about ½ in. long, are purple, fragrant and borne in upright clusters during late summer; fruits are brown, hairy, flattened seed pods, each of which may contain as many as ten hard seeds. Spreads: expands locally by vegetative means through runners & rhizomes and by vines that root at the nodes to form new plants; may spread by seed in areas where a pollinator, the giant resin bee, occurs. Look-alikes: Thick tangles of various vines including grape, porcelainberry and bittersweet may be mistaken for kudzu as well as some native three-leaved vines in the pea family. Prevention and Biological Control Do not plant kudzu. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating biological control agents for kudzu including the naturally occurring fungus Myrothecium verrucaria. For successful long-term control of kudzu, the extensive root system must be destroyed. Any remaining root crowns can lead to reinfestation of an area. Mechanical methods include repeated cutting of vines just above ground level, frequent mowing and cultivation. Use of systemic herbicides with the active ingredients triclopyr and glyphosate have been used effectively (see Control Options). Return to the Table of Contents | Download a PDF of Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas and questions about the website should be directed to the webmaster. http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/pubs/midatlantic/pumol.htm Last updated:11-Nov-2010

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Weisinger’s looks ahead to the next 25 years Viticulture section stories By Patty MamulaFor the Capital Press Published on November 14, 2013 11:05AM Patty Mamula/For the Capital Press Eric Weisinger, winemaker and general manager of Weisinger's Winery in Ashland, stands on the front deck of the tasting room overlooking the Rogue Valley. Weisinger traveled to New Zealand for several years to broaden his wine knowledge. Buy this photo Patty Mamula/For the Capital Press Part of the vineyard and production barrels for Weisinger's Winery in Ashland, Oregon. One of seven original wineries in the Rogue Valley, it was founded in 1979 by John Weisinger and is known for pioneering a vineyard in Ashland. Wines include Pinot Noir, a well known blend called Petite Pomard,Chardonnay, Viognier, Petite Blanc, Merlot, Mescolare - a red blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Buy this photo ASHLAND, Ore. ­— John Weisinger was a minister and youth counselor before moving to Ashland to pursue his lifelong dream — founding a winery. The first grapes he planted in 1979 were Gewurztraminer cuttings a friend gave him.The 4 1/2-acre estate vineyard, the first in Ashland and, at 2,100 feet, the highest in the Siskiyou foothills, also now grows Pinot Noir and Tempranillo.When the tasting room opened in the spring of 1989, there were only six other wineries in the Rogue Valley.In the early years John was the primary winemaker. His son Eric took over from 1997 to 2006 when he left for New Zealand to broaden his experience. “When I chose this as a career, I decided that to get better I had to go. I learned more about grape growing, about management, about the art of making wine and about production — how to streamline and work smarter, not harder,” he said.He returned in 2011 and still consults locally and in New Zealand, primarily for the April harvest. He resumed winemaking and took over as general manager.“When I first came back, I took a fresh look at our production and changed vineyards to improve the quality of our fruit,” he said.In addition to the original vineyard, Eric manages several others and uses 11 acres of grapes, making 75 percent of the fruit they use estate grown.Eventually all the grapes will be estate grown. “Then our wine will really be the taste of Ashland,” said Eric. In August, at the time of this interview, wildfires in southwest Oregon filled the Rogue Valley with smoke. Eric said the sky reminded him of conditions from the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Smoke can have an affect on the grapes in terms of taste and maturation time, he said.After tackling production issues, Eric turned his attention to marketing, asking questions like “What is this brand and what’s it about? What do we want to be known for?”“It’s our 25-year anniversary, a good time for introspection. I think my job is to reshape the business for the next 25 years,” he said. The four pillars of the winery were clearly history, family, quality and locale. A new name, Weisinger Family Winery, and a new logo will be rolled out this fall.Another change to their business model is an emphasis on the custom crush service that takes grapes from raw fruit to bottled wine. This has grown from 10 percent to 60 percent of their production in the past few years. “What we earn off 2,000 cases of custom crush is about one-third what we make on our own wine, but the margins are higher,” said Eric.“We have the capacity to produce as much as 4,500 cases of our wine. But, we only want to make as many as we can sell. Decisions we make today will affect our business in 2015.” He continues to spread production out to hedge slightly and expects about 1,600 cases this year.Even so, he notes that the southern Oregon market is growing, especially toward the reds and the Rhone varieties that grow so well there, and tourism is on the increase in Ashland.Accordingly, he plans to increase wholesale marketing in 2014 and to grow the wine club by 25 percent.Weisinger Family WineryLocation: Ashland, Ore.Founder: John WeisingerWinemaker and general manager: Eric WeisingerVineyard: Fifteen acresProduction: About 1,600 cases annually of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Bordeaux style blends, Chardonnay, Semillion, GewurztraminerAVA: Rogue ValleyOpened for business in 1988.

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Bodegas Condado de Haza © by Sheral Schowe After the success of Spain's Rioja appellation, Spanish grape growers were anxious to discover new areas where the Tempranillo grape could flourish just as successfully. Ribera del Duero was soon to follow in the early 70's with the developing of vineyard sites, which proved to be ideal for the Tempranillo variety. This happened at a time when the region was in the process of ripping out its grape vines and planting more agriculturally economical sugar beets. The man who recognized the potential of the Ribera del Duero was Alejandro Fernandez, who initiated the replanting of the region with the area's first wire-trained vineyard. His efforts revitalized Ribera Del Duero's wine district and sparked a new international interest in Spanish wines. Alejandro Fernandez is famous for his Tinto Pesquera, a Tempranillo wine which has been internationally acclaimed since the mid 80's. In 1994, Alejandro's Condado de Haza was released to the international market. The grapes for these wines are grown on a very special slope, atypical to the majority of terroir in Ribera del Duero. The soils are diverse, including both gravel and clay, with a chalky base, creating a multitude of styles for one grape variety. The Condado de Haza vineyard estate is situated in a county once controlled by the fortified medieval hilltop village of Haza along the Duero River. The name reflects nobility of the past as well as the future. Condado de Haza Tinto is another example of the bold and brilliant winemaking style of Alejandro, who is considered by some to be the master of Spain's Tempranillo grape variety. This wine is fermented in American Oak for fifteen months prior to bottling. It is immensely enjoyable now, but also capable of a few years of cellar aging. Condado de Haza Tinto 1997 ($20.55) is an opaque, deep red/black color, with ruby-red edges. The aromas are ripe cherry, berry, cassis, new leather and sweet tobacco. The flavors reflect all that a Tempranillo is known for, with intense and concentrated fruit, vanilla, coffee, and baking spices, and oak. The oaky influence will mellow out over time, but falls well within the range of "drink now" status. This excellent Tempranillo finishes with some exciting acid, creating substantial length on the palate. It has enjoyed ratings in the 90's in the Wine Spectator, year after year, and the high 80's from the International Wine Cellar. Sept. 19, 2000 Back to the Sheral Schowe on Wine Index

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To submit a posting go to click here. Common Agricultural Policy David R. Stead, University College Dublin Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been one of the most controversial, and complex, farm policies of all time. The CAP was a cornerstone of the European Economic Community (EEC) established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which aimed to progressively create a common market and harmonize the economic policies of the then six member states. France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg were the original signatories. The objectives of the CAP for “the six” as stated in Article 39 of the Treaty were to (i) increase agricultural productivity; (ii) ensure a fair standard of living for the agricultural community; (iii) stabilize markets; (iv) provide certainty of food supplies; and (v) ensure that those supplies reached consumers at reasonable prices. To attempt to achieve these objectives (some of which were potentially conflicting), two main mechanisms were used. First, a generous EEC-wide common “target price” was set for each of the major farm products. Foodstuffs entering the EEC from non-member countries were subject to “variable levies” (tariffs), which prevented target prices from being undercut by cheaper imports. Second, if a commodity’s market price within the Community fell to an appointed “intervention price” – usually set ten to twenty percent below its target price – then national intervention agencies would purchase all produce that could not otherwise be sold at that price, artificially removing supply and thereby preventing a further fall in price. Thus the CAP effectively set a “price floor” for agricultural commodities produced in the EEC. Other countries subsequently adopted the CAP when they joined what became the European Community (EC) and is now the European Union (EU), beginning with Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1973 and Greece in 1981. Throughout its lifetime, the CAP has come under heavy criticism. The policy’s financial cost has been very substantial. In the 1970s and 1980s, the CAP absorbed about two-thirds of the EC’s entire annual budget on average. European taxpayers have paid higher taxes than would have been the case in the absence of farm support, while the setting of target and intervention prices substantially above the prices prevailing on world markets raised the cost of food for European consumers. Estimates of the CAP’s total expense vary widely due to differences in the methods employed and movements in world commodity prices; one ballpark figure for the late 1990s was a cost to each EU citizen of about British pounds 250 per year. The key problem was that stabilizing agricultural prices at high levels encouraged Europe’s farmers to increase output. Importantly, this met a number of the CAP’s original objectives, but by the early 1980s as domestic production consistently ran ahead of domestic consumption the EC was compelled to purchase and store large amounts of surplus commodities, producing so-called “butter mountains” and “wine lakes” which often had to be resold at a loss on world markets; or else the EC had to entice traders to sell overseas by paying them export “refunds” (export subsidies) equal to the difference between the Community intervention prices and the lower world prices. Moreover, the linking or “coupling” of support to the farmer’s current volume of production ensured that, inequitably, the largest producers received most of the benefits (in 1991 a European Commission document said that eighty percent of CAP assistance went to just twenty percent of farmers), and also contributed to environmental damage by encouraging farmers to increase output through intensive practices such as the application of chemical pesticides and the removal of hedgerows. Outside the EC, agricultural producers in developed and developing nations have been denied commercial opportunities on account of the EC’s import levies and the subsidized “dumping” of excess European produce on world markets. Radical proposals for policy reform were made as early as 1968 with the Mansholt Plan to provide financial incentives to encourage about half of the farming population to leave the sector during the 1970s and to take at least five million hectares of land out of production. But this and subsequent reform attempts were substantially watered down by the politicians who make the policy choices. Thus today the CAP still absorbs more than two-fifths of the EU budget. The failure of these more radical reform recommendations can be principally attributed to the influence of the agricultural lobby, particularly in France. While the costs of the CAP are widely dispersed among millions of EU taxpayers and consumers, its sizeable benefits are concentrated on a relatively small number of farmers. Europe’s agriculturists therefore have had a strong economic incentive to apply political pressure for the continuation of current policy, while the individual taxpayer/consumer has a far weaker pecuniary incentive to lobby for change. Hence there is a bias towards the status quo, and for many years the challenges of solving the problem of overproduction and curbing the CAP’s cost were only addressed through a number of somewhat minor policy adjustments. For example, production quotas in the milk sector were introduced in 1984, and since 1988 arable farmers have been given money if they “set-aside” from production part of their land. International complaints about the CAP in the Uruguay Round of world trade talks helped to trigger the MacSharry reforms of 1992, named after the European Commissioner for Agriculture at the time. Again representing a compromise from originally more far-reaching proposals, the policy changes made included the extension of milk quotas and set-aside, and much more importantly, for the first time significant reductions in the level of institutional prices for cereals and beef. In compensation for these cutbacks in price support, farmers were given direct payments (“cheques in the post”) per head of livestock and hectare under crops, more-or-less up to a maximum of their pre-reform quantities. Economists regard these direct payments as a less unsatisfactory type of subsidy than price support because they were partially “decoupled” (partially independent) from the current volume of the farmer’s production, thereby reducing his or her incentive to overproduce using intensive methods. Funds were also made available for programs to assist the development of rural areas (such as subsidies for afforestation) and for schemes where farmers pursue environmentally-friendly agricultural practices in return for additional payments. This change in policy direction, then, started to ameliorate the CAP’s impact on the environment. The Agenda 2000 reform – agreed in 1999 – extended the MacSharry reforms, with additional compensated cuts in institutional prices and reinforced rural development/agri-environmental schemes becoming the “second pillar” of the CAP. The latest major policy reform was the Mid-Term Review of Agenda 2000 (or Fischler reforms), agreed in 2003. (Subsequent CAP reforms have been sector-specific, such as the changes to the hitherto unreformed sugar regime in 2005 and the 2007 reform of the measures operating in the fruit and vegetable sector.) Pressures arose from the agreed entry to the EU of ten central and eastern European countries with large farming industries (this enlargement occurred in 2004), and especially from demands for further liberalization of the protectionist CAP from Europe’s trading partners in the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Agenda negotiations. The most fundamental alteration was the introduction of the “single farm payment,” an annual lump sum grant which replaced the area and headage direct payments historically received on each farm. Crucially, unlike the previous system, the single farm payment can be claimed more-or-less regardless of changes in the scale and type of farm production (although member states were given limited flexibility over the extent to which they undertook this additional “decoupling”). EU farmers, then, should generally now be making their production decisions based on market demand and production costs, rather than “farming for subsidies,” and this should cause less distortion to international trade. Receipt of the single farm payment, though, is conditional on farmers meeting “cross-compliance” requirements which ensure a high standard of environmental protection and animal welfare. In short, a consensus has now emerged in Europe around granting farmers financial assistance in exchange for undertaking rural stewardship activities such as environmentally-friendly farming, instead of subsidizing commodity production. This “European model of agriculture” therefore aligns farm support with the public’s concerns about the environment, food safety and animal welfare. Yet many criticisms of the “new CAP” remain, for instance, over its continued inequity since the biggest single farm payments are distributed to the largest (and typically richest) farm owners. At the time of writing, further substantive reform is being mooted in the Doha Development Round and in the lead up to the CAP “Health Check” in 2008. Probable reforms in the latter include the abolition of arable set-aside to allow this land to be utilized to produce biomass for biofuels, and additional allocation of funds from the (now fixed) CAP budget to help to finance rural development programs such as local tourism initiatives. If a breakthrough is finally achieved, a Doha Round Agreement on Agriculture is likely to include the elimination of CAP export subsidies by about 2013 and an overall average cut in its import levies of a little over 50 percent, which would further reduce the CAP’s adverse impact on non-EU producers. Ackrill, Robert.The Common Agricultural Policy. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000. Baldwin, Richard and Charles Wyplosz. The Economics of European Integration. London: McGraw-Hill (second edition), 2006. Chapter 9 on “The Common Agricultural Policy.” EuroChoices, passim. Fennell, Rosemary. The Common Agricultural Policy: Continuity and Change. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. “Reforming the CAP.” Symposium in Economic Affairs 20 (June 2000): 2-48. Ritson, Christopher and David Harvey, editors. The Common Agricultural Policy. Wallingford: CAB International (second edition), 1997. Swinbank, Alan and Carsten Daugbjerg. “The 2003 CAP Reform: Accommodating WTO Pressures.” Comparative European Politics 4 (2006): 47-64. EUROPA [European Union’s web site] Agriculture and Rural Development pages, http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/index_en.htm Wyn Grant’s CAP blog, http://commonagpolicy.blogspot.com/ Online Learning Center of Baldwin and Wyplosz (2006), http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0077111192/student_view0/chapter9/ Citation: Stead, David. “Common Agricultural Policy”. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. June 21, 2007. URL http://eh.net/encyclopedia/common-agricultural-policy/

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Farmers advised: Be ready for emergencies Craig Staebner shows off Belgium draft horses Saturday at Blue Slope Farm in Franklin. Published March 30. 2014 12:01AM | Updated March 30. 2014 11:39PM Franklin - Five severe weather events in the past four years have awakened Connecticut's agriculture community and emergency responders to the reality that the survival of the state's farms depends on how well they're prepared for the worst."The main message is that you need to reach out to first responders," Joan Nichols, director of member support and community outreach for the Connecticut Farm Bureau Association, told an audience of about 20 farmers during a "Disaster Preparedness for Agriculture" workshop Saturday. "Farmers are inherently self-sufficient, but we don't know to come help you if you don't communicate."Along with getting acquainted with their local first responders ahead of any disaster, Jeff Williams, coordinator of risk and emergency management for Groton, told the farmers they also need to make sure emergency responders are familiar with the specific layout of their farm. As an example, he described a Colchester chicken farm that needed its only access road cleared of fallen trees after one of the recent storms so repair crews could get in to restore power. The road also needed to be cleared so daily deliveries of grain for the chickens could resume."If you meet the emergency management director ahead of time, he can put you on the priority list for debris clearance," Williams said. "We'd much rather deal with a lot of dead trees than dead chickens."The workshop, at Blue Slope Farm in Franklin, was one of three offered by the farm bureau around the state in response to the need to help farms better prepare for severe weather events. The March 2010 floods, Tropical Storm Irene, the October snowstorm of 2012, Superstorm Sandy and the February 2013 blizzard have all caused millions of dollars worth of damage in crop losses, livestock deaths, collapsed barns and greenhouses and other damage to the state's $2 billion agriculture industry.Before these recent events, disaster planning for agriculture "had been an afterthought," said Margaret Chatey, marketing communications specialist for the farm bureau. "But the infrastructure that supports agriculture is very fragile."To address the need for planning and risk reduction, the farm bureau worked with the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System, the state Department of Agriculture and the Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create the workshops.Farms that don't prepare leave themselves most vulnerable to disasters, Joyce Meader, dairy and livestock educator for UConn Extension, said."If you haven't even thought about it, or hope it's never going to happen, when it does hit, it's going to be devastating," Meader said.John Carolus, owner of Fairvue Farm in Woodstock, said he understood first-hand the need to plan for future severe weather. After one snowstorm closed highways in the state, he and other dairy farmers couldn't get grain deliveries in or get their milk out to processors."It was getting serious," he said.Williams suggested contacting the local emergency management director to learn about the process for getting a waiver to let trucks use highways in those situations.Joseph Bonelli, associate extension educator at UConn Extension, urged farmers to take advantage of the USDA's crop insurance program. It covers losses of produce and other farm products due to hurricanes, floods, insect infestations and other disasters."This insurance puts a safety net under your operations," he said.In addition to large-scale natural disasters, farmers were also urged to prepare for localized ones such as fires or medical emergencies on their property. Brandon Glidden, assistant fire chief for the Franklin Fire Department, recommended that farmers acquaint local fire departments with their property ahead of time, and make sure that if they call for help, someone is posted at the entrance to the farm to direct fire and ambulance crews once they arrive.After the presentations, Craig Staebner, president of Blue Slope Farm, led the group on a tour of the 585-acre property and described steps taken there to reduce safety hazards. In addition to a dairy, goat and maple syrup operation, the property also houses a trucking business and a farm tool museum, and regularly hosts events such as square dances and an October festival that bring in hundreds of members of the public. All these uses, he said, expose the farm to multiple risks, so he and the other family members that run Blue Slope needed to make sure they were prepared to respond to emergencies."We all decided on the importance of having a plan," he [email protected]

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