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2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/16529 | Balkan drought highlights years of farm neglect
Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:24pm EDT Email This Article | Share This Article
By Daria Sito-Sucic
KALESIJA, Bosnia (Reuters) - As crops wilt and die in the Balkans, farmers struck down by a particularly harsh drought this year are ruing the region's failure to upgrade irrigation networks and invest in a long-term agricultural strategy.
Hot, dry weather in eastern and southern Europe has piled pressure on world grain markets already reeling from huge drought damage in the United States.
The toll in Bosnia, where surface soil temperatures in the south have hit 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit), is estimated at almost $1 billion - a huge blow to a country where the farming sector accounts for 20 percent of employment and about 10 percent of economic output.
The cost to neighboring Serbia, where agriculture last year accounted for about 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), is around $2 billion, and up to $250 million in Croatia, where yields have also been halved.
"It's a disaster," said Zoltan Pinkert, a farmer in the fertile flatlands of Baranja in north-east Croatia. "Everything was top-notch, and then the drought came. We've had less than 10 percent of the rain compared to normal years, and the damage to corn crops is 100 percent."
The region is no stranger to drought and farmers usually get by until the next growing season.
But producers in Bosnia say things have not been so bad since the end of the country's 1992-95 war and are threatening to block major roads and border crossings from early September unless the government pays outstanding subsidies and acts to protect domestic production.
The future looks bleak. Cash-strapped governments in the region, all facing recession, say the money is not there to invest in modern farming methods. | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/18188 | Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011
Farmers market boasts off-season success
by: Kurt Schultheis
The Sarasota Farmers Market is doing so well in the midst of the heat and humidity this summer that some vendors are boasting of days rivaling their very best in season. Chris Keesecker, owner of Java Dog and an 18-year market vendor, said he has seen a huge increase in traffic this summer. “Two years ago, summers were stagnant and vendors were stressed,” Keesecker said. “This summer, revenues are up and vendors are happy.”
Keesecker attributes the market’s off-season accomplishment to the board of directors’ newfound commitment to a year-round program. “The overall marketing effort and look of the market have helped to keep our numbers up even in one of the hottest summers we have had in a long time,” said Keesecker, who also credited new, popular events the board has created, such as the recent seafood festival, for improved customer interest this time of year. Sarasota Farmers Market Manager Phil Pagano said Keesecker and other vendors are telling him they are doing double the business they did last summer.
“Some of the days in the summer have rivaled some of my vendors’ best days in season,” Pagano said.
Last summer, the market had 60 vendors; this summer, it has more than 75 each Saturday. That’s only 10 fewer vendors than the market has during season.
Like Keesecker, Pagano attributes the summer boon to a two-year effort by the board to focus on a year-round farmers market. Another positive factor, he said, had been the board’s ability to convince vendors not to pack it up once season was over and the daytime highs began rising. “Years ago, vendors gave up or never had faith in the summer at all,” Pagano said. “They never believed people would show up. We believed they would.”
And show up, they have. While the number of vendors has doubled, Pagano believes the number of locals visiting the market this summer has doubled as well.
“Just because you live in Florida, it doesn’t mean the locals don’t want to get out of the house,” Pagano said. “It’s not excruciating hot in the morning, and that’s how we’re drawing them to the market.”
This summer, the market added new shaded areas as well as more tables and chairs, to help visitors beat the heat from the sun as it makes its ascent in the sky. Pagano pointed to yet one more factor that is making a difference. “The fact that we are open while other markets close (like the St. Petersburg and Bradenton markets) is also a plus.”
Additionally, the Sarasota market offers only a year-round space rate. The annual fee is $1,500 for the average 10-foot-by-10-foot space. “The year-round rate option allows us to plan an annual budget and allocate dollars for the market’s advertising,” Pagano said. The market’s advertising budget, which Pagano declined to disclose, is now split 50-50 between the traditional season and the summer season, unlike in past years, when all the market’s efforts went toward the four months of season.
Pagano has also been promoting the market through its website, social media such as Facebook and an e-newsletter that has attracted 3,200 subscribers and live streaming in high-definition each Saturday via sarasotafarmersmarket.org. “If you can supply a family-oriented atmosphere in a great downtown,” Pagano said, “it’s a major draw no matter what time of year it is.”
Homes on Siesta Key and Casey Key rank in the top 10
PHOTO GALLERY: First day back at ODA | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/18321 | Elisa Sumac Cardenas, Katherine van der Woude, Amelia Drake, Erika Rodbell and Robert Valek gather for SASA's first meeting of the year.
On Feb. 2, the Sustainable Agriculture Student Association held its first meeting of the year to honor a crop of new and returning officers. Leading the charge as SASA co-presidents, Morgan Bradley (MS/MCRP) and Erika Rodbell (MS) said that they look forward to building vital leadership skills while serving both the Iowa State and Ames communities. “SASA will continue to be involved with Food and First, the Local Food Cycle and other events in our community,” Bradley said. “We hope to increase our presence in the online community this year and also hope to have a table at the Ames Main Street Farmers' Market, at least for a few Saturdays. We hope this will spread awareness about our organization. We will have awesome t-shirts and mugs to sell!”
With the help of Robert Valek (PhD), who returns for his second term as treasurer, SASA has already secured full funding for a group trip to the MOSES Organic Farming Conference later this month. Other projects and goals for the upcoming year include participating in the annual Symposium on Sustianability, designing a new logo and organizing a fundraiser and multi-course dinner at a local farm later this summer. In addition to Bradley, Rodbell and Valek, the 2017 SASA officers are:
Secretary: Amelia Drake is an undergraduate horticulture major with an emphasis on food crop production and management. She returned to her home state of Iowa after living across the U.S. and working as a musician.
Outreach Coordinator: Elisa Sumac Cardenas (PhD) is in her third year of study as a co-major in Sociology and Sustainable Agriculture. She works in public relations as a Women and Gender Studies graduate assistant and enjoyed serving as SASA secretary last year.
Food at First Coordinator: Kristine Neu (PhD) co-majors in horticulture and sustainable agriculture and served as last year's GPSS Senator. Originally from Pelican Rapids, MN, her research focuses on improving high tunnel production. GPSS Senator: Katherine van der Woude (MS) is a first year graduate student in Sustainable Agriculture and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.
Coordinating Committee Representative: Samuel Ikendi (MS/MCRP), is a first year graduate student in Sustainable Agriculture and Community and Regional Planning. Originally from Uganda, his interests include project monitoring and evaluation. | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/18660 | The Legacy of Big Ag Downstream: Big River (VIDEO)
By Paula Crossfield | General
What happens in Iowa doesn’t stay in Iowa. This is the lesson illuminated in Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney’s latest film, Big River, a companion to their successful film King Corn (made with director Aaron Wolff). In King Corn, Ellis and Cheney grew an acre of corn and followed it to the plate by way of the processing that brings us most of our packaged food and the confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that bring us 99% of our meat. This time around, they follow the top soil, fertilizer runoff, and pesticide residues from the acre they planted into the local water system and further to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone. Big River begins during the floods that overtook Iowa in 2007, which lead Ellis and Cheney to ponder the ecological consequences of the farming methods they used on their acre of corn. To discover just how modern farming affects the local community and beyond, they hop into a canoe and move down river to visit the largest nitrate-removal facility in the world — a necessary technology used to clean Iowan’s drinking water; a fertilizer factory, which replaces the land’s natural fertility with a process that uses natural gas to extract nitrogen from the air (the result is nitrates that bind with water and are easily pulled downstream); and the fisheries of Louisiana, where a 300-mile long dead zone filled with those nitrates is fueling an algae bloom that is killing the fish.
Perhaps the worst legacy of our modern farming system, though, has remained on the farm. The land Ellis and Cheney grew their corn on in Iowa is owned by Chuck and LeVon Pyatt, conventional farmers who have been using pesticides and artificial fertilizers for many years. While they were filming, LeVon succumbed to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a disease tied to pesticide exposure that is all too prevalent in this part of the country. It seems that the system that pushes us to try and grow as much corn as possible no matter the costs might just have human lives on its hands, as the incidences of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has more than doubled since the 1970s.
Check out the trailer for Big River:
The film is going to be traveling the country this year, where it will be screened at theaters, universities and homes near you. And if its not showing near you, you can go to the website and sign up to host a screening for your community of both King Corn and Big River.
But wait! There is more you can do to promote change in a system that is bad for the environment, the economy and our health: Big River‘s creators urge you to write Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and tell him that Green Payments make a better alternative than subsidies for the next Farm Bill; encourage him to prohibit the use of Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds for Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs); ask him to think about the next generation of family farmers, and help them get access to land, training, and federal dollars that support sustainable agriculture; and nudge him to help farm families test their wells for contaminants, as too many rural residents are exposed to chemical residues. It wouldn’t hurt either if he watched Big River, or hosted a screening at the USDA. The more information, the better the opportunity for improving the quality of life for hardworking, rural Americans.
Peggy Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Can't wait for this movie. What a perfect follow-up to King Corn! | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/18804 | May 6, 2015 6:55 AM ET
FAO: FAO, EBRD and UFM seek to boost food security in the Mediterranean region iCrowdNewswire - May 6, 2015 Unleashing public and private investment to enhance agricultural production and improve food security essential for the southern and eastern Mediterranean
A potato farmer in Tunisia. Growing fruit and vegetables is spurring booming exports from the southern Mediterranean.
Barcelona – Boosting sustainable agricultural production and trade is one of the main priorities for the southern and eastern rim of the Mediterranean, where most countries produce insufficient quantities of food staples. For this reason, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) have co-organised the “Private Sector Forum on Food Security in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Region“, a two-day conference (5-6 May) to deepen relationships between the public and private sector – from farmers and their organisations to small, medium and large agribusiness enterprises – and to develop initiatives to increase investment in agricultural and food systems.Opened by Carlos Cabanas Godino, Secretary General at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment in Spain, the Forum has gathered high-level policy-makers, financial institutions and representatives from the private sector, research centres and academia.The Forum offers the opportunity to discuss how the public and private sectors can collaborate to bolster food security in the region by enabling sustainable private investment in a region characterised by population growth, natural-resource constraints and a structural deficit in the production of staple foods.
Trade flows are growing
The countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean region import half of their basic crops. Imports of agricultural food products to the region have risen by $69 billion, or 63 percent, between 2002 and 2013. Meanwhile, exports have risen fivefold since 2000, to $31 billion, including dramatic increases in fruit and vegetable shipments to the Middle East and North African markets.
In 2013 the region imported 29 million tonnes of wheat. It is increasingly dependent on imports for key staples such as grains, sugar and vegetable oil, which supply the majority of calories consumed. Furthermore, moving grain from port to mill can cost up to four times more than the global standard, due to slow turnaround times for vessels, storage costs, and high product losses.
This high demand for basic food products is mainly due to rapid population growth in a region which has limited and fragile natural resources – in particular, land and water – and an acute vulnerability to climate change. The region also suffers from under-investment in agriculture and insufficient private sector participation.
During the Forum, participants will examine ways to tackle these challenges. Discussions will focus on how to boost local production of fruit and vegetables for export; further diversify import suppliers and export markets; enhance procurement policies supplemented by well-designed strategic-reserve policies; better structure food value chains; increase investment in research and development; and make import processes cheaper. Furthermore, stronger regional integration of agricultural markets would help countries cope with supply shocks and would mitigate changes in food prices.
At the Forum, EBRD Vice President Philippe le Houérou noted: “In recent years, food security has become one of the EBRD’s priorities. A dynamic, competitive and inclusive agribusiness industry, driven by private sector participation, can be a powerful force to promote food security. In the next three years, the EBRD aims to invest over €300 million in the region’s agribusinesses, from SMEs and family farms to larger agro-processing companies, to reinforce the private sector role in enhancing food security. We are also combining our efforts to put in place policies that encourage investment, to build more efficient import value chains, and to encourage more inter- and intra-regional trade, which will help achieve this potential.”
Southern and eastern Mediterranean countries could shift from a model in which they seek to meet all of their own food needs, to an agricultural self-reliance model based on using comparative advantages. Under this model, export earnings generated by food products appropriate to the region are used to purchase imports of food goods that are not suited for local production.
Making the most of valuable water While the Mediterranean region is an ancient agricultural heartland, it faces growing constraints on natural resources. Its population on the southern and eastern rim is expected to grow significantly, reaching 360 million by 2030. At the same time, climate-change forecasts suggest that precipitation levels in the region could decline by 10 to 40 percent by 2050.
“To become as efficient as possible, investments in the agricultural sector must make the best use of scarce natural resources in the region. For example, every drop of water has to be used with extreme care and to generate the highest possible value,” said Laurent Thomas, FAO Assistant Director-General for Technical Cooperation.
He further noted: “FAO is active in providing policy and technical advice to member countries dealing with water scarcity as a corporate priority for the region, and I praise all actors investing in water-saving technologies. Other FAO priorities for the region include building resilience for food security and nutrition and supporting small-scale agriculture for inclusive development.”
A forthcoming FAO analysis will show that natural-resource constraints support the region’s comparative advantage in growing higher-value crops such as olives and other fruit and vegetables. Higher export levels of products in which the region enjoys a comparative advantage would also help cushion the effects of potential global food-price inflation such as the increases that shook much of the region in 2008.
Mobilising all private players, mapping priority initiatives
Although agriculture in the region is increasingly dynamic, it is also characterised by a myriad of smallholders and small rural enterprises. This profile poses a particular challenge for policy-makers.
“Youth employment is a burning issue in the region. We see agriculture as part of the solution because it can generate sustainable sources of income and jobs in rural areas,” said UfM Secretary-General Fathallah Sijilmassi. “Small producers and enterprises should be properly included in agricultural food chains.” He also noted that this Forum falls within the UfM strategy for private-sector development as a driving force to foster regional integration in the Mediterranean region.
As experience shows, agricultural economic growth is most effective when it is inclusive, allowing smallholders access to credit and market opportunities. Participants explored the role that cooperatives can play in procuring key inputs, and agreed that the domestic private sector can bring an array of innovative solutions to the region’s food security equation.
To help realise that potential, FAO, the EBRD and the UfM have reiterated their willingness to ensure that the voices of the private-sector and farmers’ organisations are heard in policy forums at regional and national levels.
Complementing the EBRD’s promise of investment, the institutions are committed to mobilising technical assistance that can support policy platforms.
These platforms would consider issues such as Egypt’s grain import infrastructure, Tunisia’s olive oil sector, Morocco’s horticultural sector, the role of cooperatives, as well as water-efficient technologies and agricultural practices across the region.
Inspectors check frozen fish at a Moroccan port. Transportation logistics present a major investment opportunity in the region.
Private Sector Forum on Food Security in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Region
Images from the forum
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Union for the Mediterranean
FAO’s Investment Centre
Mohamed Manssouri, Service Chief of FAO’s Investment Centre Division, discusses role of private and public sectors in the agribusiness industry.
FAO senior economist Emmanuel Hidier reviews the conference’s goals
UfM and the private sector
EBRD and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean
EBRD Private Sector for Food Security Initiative
FAO: Food security and nutrition in the southern and eastern rim of the Mediterranean
FAO: The Grain Chain: Food Security and Managing Wheat Imports in Arab Countries
Vegetables offer higher value than grains in a region with limited water resources.
Christopher Emsden
FAO Media Relations (Rome)
(+39) 06 570 53291
[email protected]
Nibal Zgheib
EBRD Media Relations (London)
(+44) 20 7338 7753
[email protected]
UfM Communications (Barcelona)
[email protected]
Journalists & editors: For photos, audio clips, video material & b-roll, contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or [email protected]. Online tools: Photos via the FAOnews Flickr account FAO’s online newsroom RSS feed of FAO news releases Follow us on Twitter: @FAOnews | @grazianodasilva This news release was issued by the Media Office at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
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2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/19252 | News and events > News > Gates Foundation Grant to fund Global Crop Diversity Trust Project Gates Foundation Grant to fund Global Crop Diversity Trust Project
The most generous crop biodiversity preservation grant ever will fund a project to save crops which are neglected by modern plant breeding but of particular importance to the poor.Director of the Trust, Cary Fowler said “It will secure at-risk collections in poor countries and document their astonishing diversity, making it available to meet the food needs of the poor.”Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President of the Gates Foundation’s Global Development Program said “Our effort to help hundreds of millions of small farmers and their families overcome poverty and hunger rests in part on food security. But there can be no food security without first securing the basis of our food production – the genetic diversity of every crop, in particular those most important to the poor that unfortunately are neglected by modern plant breeding.”The initiative aims to secure over 95 percent of the endangered crop diversity held in developing country genebanks and aid the implementation of the new UN Food and Agriculture Organization's International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.Some of the funds will finance research into inexpensive conservation techniques for crops that are difficult to cultivate and reduce conservation costs by 75 percent, improving the security of the collections of such crops.The grant will also fund a global information system allowing plant breeders to search genebanks worldwide for strains that can survive diseases and cope with climate change. The facility will include 4,000,000 samples of more than 2,000 species of more than 150 crops—amounting to 85 percent of the diversity of all agricultural crops.“By providing access to crop genetic information, plant breeders across Africa may be able to adapt their crops to varieties that will grow in different climate conditions. Investing in this future may help stave off potential catastrophic damage to some agricultural systems due to climate change.” explained Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.Erik Solheim, Norway’s Minister of International Development said “It is virtually impossible to exaggerate the importance of crop diversity. It is a vital part of the solution to many of the world’s great challenges, from environmental conservation to climate change and food security”The new initiative also ensures that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is able to receive and preserve at least 450,000 distinct seed samples from international agricultural research centres and developing countries. Due to open in March 2008 the depository is chiselled out of the Arctic permafrost in Svalbard, Norway and serves as a last resort for agricultural diversity.Finally, of the total grant, $15 million will go to the Trust’s endowment. Its proceeds will be used to maintain the collections of the 21 most important crops.“Rescue and salvage operations are the beginning. The Trust’s endowment will ensure the health and availability of these collections in perpetuity,” Fowler said. Back to news archive
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BGCI Appoints Southeast Asia Botanic Gardens Network Coordinator | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/19834 | India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse
April 13, 20094:01 PM ET
The first of a two-part series
Revisiting India's 'Green Revolution'
Mor Vimmer/NPR
Sandeep Singh says he has been forced to deepen his well, because the groundwater under his fields has been sinking as much as 3 feet every year.
Daniel Zwerdling/NPR
Read Part 2
'Green Revolution' Trapping India's Farmers In Debt April 14, 2009
Farmers in the village of Chotia Khurd in northern India don't realize it, but they symbolize a growing problem that could become a global crisis. They gathered on a recent morning in a stone-paved courtyard — a circle of Sikhs with brightly colored turbans and big, bushy beards — to explain why the famed "bread basket" of India is heading toward collapse. Their comparatively small region, Punjab, grows far more wheat and rice for India than any other region. But now these farmers are running out of groundwater. They have to buy three times as much fertilizer as they did 30 years ago to grow the same amount of crops. They blitz their crops with pesticides, but insects have become so resistant that they still often destroy large portions of crops. The state's agriculture "has become unsustainable and nonprofitable," according to a recent report by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology. Some experts say the decline could happen rapidly, over the next decade or so. One of the best-known names in India's farming industry puts it in even starker terms. If farmers in Punjab don't dramatically change the way they grow India's food, says G.S. Kalkat, chairman of the Punjab State Farmers Commission, they could trigger a modern Dust Bowl. That American disaster in the 1930s laid waste to millions of acres of farmland and forced hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes. Article continues after sponsorship
The story of Chotia Khurd is a cautionary tale: Political leaders and scientists can't necessarily transplant a technology from one country and culture to a vastly different one and expect it to flourish without serious side effects. The 'Green Revolution' The story begins in the 1960s, when parents in America's well-fed suburbs would admonish ungrateful children to "think about the starving people in India." Occasional news reports told wrenching stories about Indians subsisting on grass and leaves. The country survived on imports, like a beggar. The public concern prompted a loose coalition of scientists, government officials and philanthropists — spurred and funded, in part, by the Rockefeller Foundation —to launch a "Green Revolution." In the context of the times, "green" did not refer to what it means today — organic, pesticide-free farming methods. To the contrary, India's farmers were persuaded to abandon their traditional methods and grow crops the modern, American way. For example, the advisers told farmers to stop growing old-fashioned grains, beans and vegetables and switch to new, high-yield varieties of wheat, rice and cotton. Farmers began using chemical fertilizers instead of cow dung. They plowed with tractors instead of bulls. The "Green Revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s meant that if farmers embraced chemicals and high-yield seeds, their fields would turn lush green with crops. (An official at the U.S. State Department, William Gaud, apparently coined the term in 1968.) During the Cold War, the term also implied that if countries like India could stamp out hunger, the population would be less likely to foment a violent revolution and go communist. A Temporary Fix In India, ground zero for the Green Revolution was the state of Punjab, which borders Pakistan and the foothills of the Himalayas. And the system seemed to work miracles — for a while. The United States sent money and technical support, including advisers from one of America's most prestigious agriculture universities. India's government showered Punjab with low-cost chemicals and seeds — and they paid the farmers, in effect, to use them by guaranteeing minimum prices for Green Revolution crops. It helped India transform itself from a nation that depends on imports and food aid to a budding superpower that often exports grains. Villages like Chotia Khurd were harvesting three to four times as much grain per acre as they did before. Many of the farmers and the local government were flush with money. They paved their dirt roads. The farmers replaced their mud houses with bricks and cement. They bought American tractors for a small fortune. Just about everybody in Chotia Khurd bought cell phones, with a wide variety of ring tones — so it's hard to chat with a farmer without getting interrupted by electronic versions of Sikh chants or theme songs from Bollywood hits. But government reports and farmers themselves say that era is over — and today, the Green Revolution system of farming is heading toward collapse. 'Farmers Are Committing A Kind Of Suicide' To show why, the district director of the Punjab Agriculture Department, Palwinder Singh, leads the way up a narrow dirt road into wheat fields that encircle the village. On the surface, they look robust. The countryside is electric green in every direction. But Singh points to a large contraption rising above the crop, like a steel praying mantis. The machine is blanketing the countryside with a percussive, deafening roar. "That's part of our most serious problem," he says. It's a drilling rig. A young farmer in a purple turban, Sandeep Singh, is standing next to the rig, looking unhappy. (The two men are not related — according to tradition, all Sikh men share the last name "Singh," which means "lion.") When farmers switched from growing a variety of traditional crops to high-yield wheat and rice, they also had to make other changes. There wasn't enough rainwater to grow thirsty "miracle" seeds, so farmers had to start irrigating with groundwater. They hired drilling companies to dig wells, and they started pumping groundwater onto the fields. But Sandeep says he has been forced to hire the drilling company again, because the groundwater under his fields has been sinking as much as 3 feet every year. Government surveys confirm it. In fact, his family and other farmers have had to deepen their wells every few years — from 10 feet to 20 feet to 40 feet, and now to more than 200 feet — because the precious water table keeps dropping below their reach. Nobody was surprised when environmental activists started warning years ago that the Green Revolution was heading toward disaster. But they were astonished as government officials started to agree. "Farmers are committing a kind of suicide," warns Kalkat, the director of the Punjab State Farmers Commission. "It's like a suicide, en masse." Kalkat offers an unsettling prediction in a nation whose population is growing faster than any other on Earth: If farmers don't drastically revamp the system of farming, the heartland of India's agriculture could be barren in 10 to 15 years. | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/20091 | Follow @thecattlesite News & Analysis Features Markets & Reports Sustainability Knowledge Centre Directory Events Our Shop NewsPrinciples for Responsible Investment in Agriculture to be Developed24 October 2012 GLOBAL - A two-year consultation process to develop principles for responsible investment in agriculture that respect rights, livelihoods and resources was approved by the 39th Session of the Committee on World Security (CFS), which ended on Saturday at FAO headquarters. Consultations will be carried out at global and regional levels under the auspices of CFS, the foremost inclusive platform for everyone to agree on policies that ensure food security and nutrition for all. The intergovernmental body is open to effective and meaningful participation by UN bodies, civil society, the private sector, agricultural research institutions, financial institutions and philanthropic foundations.
The principles should be seen as complementary to the "Voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in the context of national food security" endorsed by CFS in May this year after inclusive and participatory negotiations. They will build on existing frameworks and guidelines, and not duplicate work by others.
FAO estimates that the investments required in developing countries to support the required expansion in agricultural output to meet projected demand in 2050 amount to an average net annual investment of $83 billion. This total includes investment needs in primary agriculture and necessary downstream services such as storage and processing facilities. This represents an increase of about 50 percent a year over current levels.
The principles will address all types of investment in agricultural value chains and food systems including smallholder producers, research, extension services and technology transfer. They will include foreign and domestic, public and private small, medium and large-scale investments.
To be effective, the principles should address the concerns of both host countries and investors. Policy and regulatory frameworks need to ensure that development benefits are maximized.
Food insecurity in protracted crises
CFS also recognized the seriousness of food insecurity and malnutrition in countries in protracted or recurrent crises. A multi-stakeholder consultation process was agreed that will result in an Agenda for Action designed to ensure the food security of people affected by such crises, which are often not covered by existing emergency aid and development assistance.
A Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition
Another important achievement of the week was the adoption of the first version of a Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF). The GSF will improve cooperation, coordinate actions and support partnerships at global, regional and country levels to prevent future food crises, eliminate hunger and ensure food security and nutrition for all.
Policy recommendations on social protection and climate change
During the week, there were two policy round tables. The first on social protection for food security recommended adopting the principle that disadvantaged people are already penalized. Governments should put in place programmes to ensure the food security and nutrition of the most vulnerable is protected, including the first 1,000 days after conception. Climate change policy recommendations included increasing public and private investment and international cooperation to enhance food security and nutrition, and developing strategies to deal with food-related climate change issues. These include weather forecasting, risk management tools and support for small holder farmers. Finally, governments should support farmers to help them increase production and mitigate problems caused by climate change.
TheCattleSite News Desk Economics, Policy and Regulatory, General Share This | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/20806 | « Wants vs. Needs: What's the Diff? |
| Are the Green Bags Really Green? »
Mind Your Own Agri-Business
by Eileen Weber The confirmation hearing for Tom Vilsack, Barrack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture, will take place on January 14th. To some, that comes as good news. Political pundits have noted Vilsack’s background as a former governor of Iowa as well as his shared viewpoints with Obama. They both support the use of biofuel, reducing our dependency on foreign oil, and climate change.
“As governor of one of our most abundant farm states, [Vilsack] led with vision promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers in fostering an agricultural economy of the future,” said Obama of Vilsack’s appointment on December 17th, “that not only grows the food we eat, but the energy that we use.”
But others, like Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley, are a little apprehensive about the challenges facing Vilsack in his new role. In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on December 18th, Pollan said that the former governor’s appointment may just turn out to be “agribusiness as usual”. Pollan noted that the incoming administration should focus “on food and the people who eat it.” Vilsack, who had originally declined consideration for the position, also has a well-known track record with Monsanto, a company focused on bio-engineering food. “It’s the embrace of corn-based ethanol that has driven up all food prices,” said Pollan. “It’s not making agriculture more sustainable.” Ethanol, incidentally, is a key source of revenue for Vilsack’s home state of Iowa.
Pollan, who has been very vocal on the subject recently, had made similar statements about the position for Secretary of Agriculture in an earlier interview with NPR in November. He had also written an open letter in October to the President-Elect in the New York Times suggesting a complete overhaul in the way we conduct the business of agriculture.
Prior to Vilsack’s appointment, there were calls to appoint Pollan. In fact, there were a few web sites petitioning on Pollan’s behalf to take on the role of what he termed should be the “Secretary of Food”. Pollan, however, was not interested. But he was quoted in a blog by Steph Larsen of Ethicurean.com as saying that perhaps the “floating of my name will push the center a bit.”
How far our food travels is a growing concern for many Americans. Long distance transportation of meats and produce uses large quantities of fossil fuels and carbon emissions. And, the average American meal travels 1,500 miles to reach its plate.
When food grown locally is then shipped across the continent to be packaged and then shipped back to its origin to be sold, something is wrong with our system. But it doesn’t end there. "The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases," Pollan told NPR. "It is responsible for the catastrophic American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs." To Pollan’s point, corn-based foods, particularly high fructose corn syrup which can be found in almost every processed food on your supermarket shelf, are keeping us overweight. Children are fatter. Adults are fatter. We have more weight-related health problems than we did only a few decades ago, diabetes not least among them. All of this is related to what we put in our mouths.Whatever Vilsack does during the next presidential term, this certainly qualifies a time for change. It is clear that we need fewer processed foods and more natural, sustainable foods grown locally and with a minimal carbon footprint. These are the issues that will face Vilsack once he takes office and the Obama Administration moves forward. Only time will tell what lies ahead for the food we eat.
agribusiness, agriculture, Barack Obama, biofuel, biotech, farming, Michael Pollan, Monsanto, Tom Vilsack
I have both an educational and professional background in agriculture and I come from a western state (Montana). I was quite taken aback with the selection of Vilsack for several reasons. First lets remind folks that the Department of Agriculture not only is involved in developing farm policy (both production related as well as economic)with all of its ramifications on the environment, nutrition animal welfare etc... BUT...The United States Forest Service is within the department of Agriculture and as such the secretary of Agriculture is reponsible for vast and diverse federal land holdings These federal holdings were put under tremendous stress by the Bush abdministration who as was their want allowed industry to set policy... which was simply disaterous in much of the intermountain west and even in the Appalachian regions particularily West Virginia where mountain top removal for coal production has been a true environmental disaster. So I guess mypoint is that while much of what Michael Pollan states is arguably correct, he too ismissing many of the criteria neccessary in the selection of the secretary of agriculture...this is not simply the people versus agri-business its much more complicated than Pollans views on food production...this post is about much more than support your local ag producers and cleaning up the food supply system it is about managing entire ecosystems around the country...rationalising and returning ag production back to a regional and locally based policy...not a centralized impractical and environmentally ruinous unresponsive and nutrionally faulty system of agri-conglomerates producing processed food based on the corn soybean complex.
jim foster | | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/22083 | Lure of the land gallops through families
The machinery has changed since this 1948 demonstration, but a belief in hard work carries down the generations. Picture: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
FORDYCE MAXWELL
AS WELL as being aware of nationally significant dates, such as today, I have a knack of remembering personal ones that has stood me in good stead for birthdays and wedding anniversaries. Less happily, it means that my memory bank also logs death dates remorselessly as years roll on.
I try not to pay extra attention to anniversaries that end in five or zero, but can’t avoid the fact that 8 November was the 40th of my father’s death. He was 57. I spent a worried year at that age – something I’ve discovered many men do. Living longer than your father did is now common enough, but experiencing it makes us ponder the meaning of life more than usual.As does living longer than your grandfather, an anniversary I passed a couple of years ago with more pause for serious thought, mostly about whether, with a more stress-free and comfortable lifestyle than either generation enjoyed, I’ve had as worthwhile a life or can counteract genetics and continue to put more years on the clock.
Another 30 or so would be handy for all I have in mind. No doubt my father, with his “Live as if you might die today, farm as if you will live for ever” ethos – the line he wrote in an autograph book I kept briefly as a boy – thought the same. But stomach cancer and, just as crucially, a lifetime of non-stop hard physical work denied him that.
My grandfather believed similarly that hard work was the answer to most problems. It would have taken a lot to convince either man that wasn’t necessarily so, and that the hoary farming adage about “never making money by taking your jacket off” held some truth.There are successful examples of both schools of thought. I’ve interviewed and written about farmers who started with nothing or very little – “I had eight hens and an old tractor”, as one said – and built up extensive, successful, businesses.I’ve met others, or watched them in action, who built up even more successful businesses by being good managers of time and money, thinking big and borrowing bigger, paying others to graft while they did the thinking, and dealing permanently in a collar and tie.Then there are others who combined both approaches, including the large-scale dairy farmer who said that as a younger man “who thought I’d built a bigger fire than I could carry sticks to” he calmed his worries with a few hours of flat-out physical work before getting back to the desk and the phone.
There are others still who simply have a talent for making money and would have succeeded in whatever line they chose, but it just happened to be farming. Whereas my father and grandfather might have quoted another bit of farming lore: “Money talks, but I only ever hear it say goodbye.”My grandfather might have known better. One of a large farming family, he began to train as a lawyer and was more than intelligent enough to see the long-term possibilities. But he gave them up to go into partnership with a brother on a small tenanted farm. The lure of the land is a kind of hereditary insanity that gallops rather than runs through our family history.That partnership was dissolved soon after the end of the First World War. He lost his first wife, married one of her sisters who was prepared to take on a family of eight, and in 1930 – the middle of the farming depression years – moved from East Lothian to a bigger farm in Northumberland.There my father, already working at home from the age of 14, was appointed shepherd and learned the hard way about the joys of sheep. After my grandfather died, history repeated itself and my father came out of partnership with a brother to take a tenancy of his own in 1951 on a small Borders farm where the previous tenant had gone bankrupt.
Building it up with a large family, taking chances to increase the acreage, starting to make profits, took a long time. Remarkably, in spite of the gruelling hours and work load, he found time to be involved with young farmers, start a youth club, and be one of the driving forces behind a new village hall. About the time life looked as if it might get easier – in 1973, malting barley hit an unprecedented £50 a ton, children earning their own livings, new machinery on order – he fell ill and died.But not, characteristically, before harvest was over, including late beans. The last job I did with him, on a day away from The Scotsman where I was deputy agricultural editor to Bob Urquhart, was putting beans into store after struggling to rig up an auger with a certain amount of knuckle-grazing, swearing and cheek about “soft hands”. A few days later, he was dead.It doesn’t take 8 November to remind me of the most honest, hard-working man I’ve ever known, but the text on the headstone where I laid flowers at the weekend puts it well enough: “Here lies a workman who needeth not be ashamed of his labours.” Back to the top of the page | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/23526 | 7:30 p.m. update: Bee hive thefts a concern for beekeepers, Sheriff's Office
By ALMENDRA CARPIZO — Staff Writer
The Butte County Sheriff's Office is seeking information in a series of bee hive thefts that have cost beekeepers thousands of dollars in losses during the worst possible time — almond pollination. The first bee hive theft happened in November 2013 in Gridley, according to a Sheriff's Office. In late January, another theft of bee hives was reported from the Afton Road and Cherokee Canal levee area in west Butte County. A third theft occurred in February in Nord. Pat Heitkam, owner of Heitkams' Honey Bees in the Capay district of Orland, had 32 hives stolen, a $10,000 loss to his business, out of an orchard in Nord about three days ago, he said. His employees placed the hives in the orchard for pollination services and when they returned to check on the hives, the bees were gone. The only thing left was the pallet the hives had been placed on. In the last three months, there have been three cases reported in Butte County, but hive thefts have also occurred in neighboring counties, said Jay Freeman, a detective with the Butte County Sheriff's Office. There's been a substantial amount taken in each case, ranging from 30 to 130 hives, he said. The combined number of hives stolen in Butte County is about 200. Heitkams has been in the beekeeping business for about 30 years, and said that before this year, it had never happened to him. "It's becoming a problem," he said. He called the Sheriff's Office about the theft of his hives and reportedly learned there was a theft in Gridley of about 100 hives, in Orland about 18 hives were stolen, and another beekeeper lost 48 hives, he said. The Sheriff's Office believes this is a sophisticated operation and that the same group of people may be responsible for all the thefts in recent months. "They definitely know how to handle bees," Freeman said. Heitkam and Ed Ryon, owner of Ryon Apiaries in Durham, have heard the same possibility being brought up by fellow beekeepers. It has to be someone that knows about bees and what they're doing, Ryon said. His apiary was one of the places hit by the thieves. He lost 40 hives about two weeks ago. In his case, the alleged thieves took the hives and the pallets. There's been a lot of speculation about it possibly being people struggling to keep their bees alive, Heitkam said. Either way, the men say that right now is the worst possible time for the thefts to happen. This is the time of year when the bees are the most valuable because there's so much demand for pollination, Heitkam said. This is the time of the year when beekeepers have the most money invested in the bees. It's difficult to replace the bees right now, Ryon said. Ryon had to buy a big load of bees from Texas so that he could make his pollination contract this year. He said it's about $200 to replace each hive. Bee hive thefts haven't really been an issue in the area until recently, with the last week or so really escalating, Ryon said. Thefts happened a few years ago, but not to this extent, Freeman said. The Sheriff's Office has contacted the Glenn and Tehama sheriff's offices, as well as the Farm Bureau and several media outlets to alert people about the issue. Freeman encourages for farmers and beekeepers to keep close communication on activity and to track anyone who is seen removing or is near bee hives. If possible to write down a license plate for vehicles and take photos. Because some of the thefts occurred in orchards that were being pollinated, it's important to check with the owner of the bees, Freeman said. The suspects may look like they are beekeepers, but they're actually stealing them. Most of the thefts are thought to have occurred once it's dark out, so if anyone witnesses suspicious activity around bee hives, they are asked to call the authorities. Several people in the agriculture industry are in talks about hiring a security company to monitor properties at night to discourage people from stealing, Heitkam said. There's also the possibility of placing tracking devices on bee hives. For now, Heitkam and Ryon ask that farmers and the general public help them avoid more thefts. "The growers are depending upon those bees to pollinate for them," Heitkam said. "The farmers lose out and we lost out." Ryon encourages people contracting with beekeepers to be aware of who they're renting from. Anyone with information regarding the thefts is asked to call detective Freeman at 538-7671. | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/24180 | Is organic agriculture polluting our food with heavy metals?
SlateGreen RoomNews and commentary about environmental issues.Sept. 8 2008 12:02 PM
Rusted Roots
By James E. McWilliams
If I'm reading the banana peels correctly, the prospects for organic agriculture have never been better. Indeed, the most recent batch of bananas I bought came adorned with a "certified organic" sticker that confirmed the virtue of my purchase. It explained, "When you purchase organic produce you are taking part in the HEALING of our land." This makes intuitive sense. Conventional agribusiness, after all, is a chemically dependent, resource-intensive venture that contributes to global warming, aquatic "dead zones," and massive land degradation. Organic systems, by contrast, restore soil health, foster biodiversity, and recycle organic matter rather than lading the land with synthetic chemicals. Whereas conventional agriculture follows the law of supply and demand, organic agriculture follows what its founder, Sir Albert Howard, called "the law of return." Potential waste, according to this dictum, ends up enriching the soil. Advertisement The law of return, however, has a loophole. One issue frequently overlooked in the rush to embrace organic agriculture is the prevalence of excess arsenic, lead, cadmium, nickel, mercury, copper, and zinc in organic soil. Soil ecologists and environmentalists—and, to some extent, the concerned public—have known for more than a century that the synthetic pesticides of conventional farming leave heavy metals in the ground. But the fact that you'll find the same toxins in organic soil has been something of a dirty little secret.
The implications of this fact cannot be overlooked. The human body naturally contains trace amounts of heavy metals, but when they accumulate faster than the body can excrete them, several serious health problems can follow, including cardiovascular and neurological disorders as well as kidney and liver damage. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the U.S. Public Health Service, cites fruit and grain consumption as the leading cause of lead exposure in the general population. Lead exposure has been proven to cause severe anemia and permanent brain damage. It's not yet clear whether organic (or conventional) soil contains enough of these metals to pose a genuine risk to human health. But continuing research on this topic weighs heavily on the future of what we've come to assume is a sustainable alternative to conventional agriculture.
Scientists have known since the 1920s that organic fertilizers used by farmers to supplement conventional systems—composted animal manure, rock phosphates, fish emulsions, guano, wood ashes, etc.—further contaminate topsoil with varying concentrations of heavy metals. Organic advocates, who rely exclusively on these fertilizers, remain well aware of the problem today, although they rarely publicize the point. No one is saying that organic soil has higher heavy-metal counts than conventional soil as a rule—scientists have not conducted enough research to make such a determination. Still, some evidence indicates that organic soil can, in some cases, be more contaminated. George Kuepper, an agriculture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, observed in a 2003 report that composting manure actually concentrates the fertilizer's metal content, which could lead to greater levels of the contaminants in organic soil.
Advertisement Recent studies have lent Kuepper's concern tentative support. For example, in 2007, researchers conducted an analysis of wheat grown on various farms in Belgium; based on the results, they estimate that consumers of organically grown wheat take in more than twice as much lead, slightly more cadmium, and nearly equivalent levels of mercury as consumers of wheat grown on conventional farms. Beyond the comparative impact of organic vs. conventional systems on the soil's heavy-metal concentration, there's the question of how easily these trace elements enter crops. Although the research here is also relatively thin, what has been done suggests that the problem of plant uptake is equally serious in both organic and conventional systems. For example, 14 percent to 28 percent of New Zealand's cattle (destined to be organic beef) were found to have kidney cadmium levels exceeding limits set by the New Zealand Department of Health because of a diet of plants grown in contaminated soil. Similarly, a 2007 study of Greek produce found that organic agriculture does not necessarily reduce the cadmium and lead levels in crops. As it turned out, "certified" organic cereals, leafy greens, pulses, and alcoholic beverages had slightly less heavy-metal contamination than conventional products, but "uncertified" organic products had "far larger concentrations" than conventional ones.
These findings might be preliminary and inconsistent, but pressure is mounting on the organic community to take action. Under rules set by the USDA's National Organic Program, responsibility has been left to the individual farmer to manage plants and animals in a way that does not contaminate crops with heavy metals. The question of how to monitor that responsibility, however, is complicated by the fact that there are as yet no federal limits on heavy-metal concentrations applicable to all fertilizers. Organic farmers thus work with broad suggestions rather than concrete federal regulations. They're routinely forewarned by organic watchdog groups such as the Organic Trade Association about dangerous levels of copper and arsenic in poultry manure. They're reminded of proper "nutrient management planning" and encouraged to experiment with the relationship between soil pH levels and rates of heavy-metal contamination. They're advised to test soil regularly for heavy metals and to adjust fertilizer combinations and relative nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium levels in the soil when metal concentrations rise. A handful of states—California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas among them—have established loose legal guidelines. But the fact remains: The decentralized sprawl of information about fertilizers and heavy metals fosters a far-flung approach to the problem.
The Organic Materials Review Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides certifiers with an independent review of products intended for organic use, is working to change this situation by framing a standard of fertilizer use. OMRI officials have evaluated models from Canada, Washington state, and the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials. Initially, the organization established regulations that, according to Patty Martin, director of Safe Food and Fertilizer, would have been like "driving a hazardous waste truck into organic agriculture." After her 2006 testimony, however, OMRI revised its recommendations to include a somewhat more stringent set of limits on heavy metals in fertilizers.
No matter how they end up, OMRI's guidelines may ultimately come to naught. Scientists are currently documenting another cause of heavy-metal pollution in global agriculture. "Atmospheric deposition"—the transfer of pollutants from the air to the earth—has nothing to do with organic practices per se but is, rather, the result of industrial processes beyond the farmer's control. Farmers already know that fertilizers are not the sole source of heavy-metal contamination. They've inherited a landscape once pummeled with arsenic and lead insecticides. Heavy metals can leach from wooden fences treated with copper chromium arsenate and from lead paint on houses. But the idea that these contaminants can come directly from the air takes all this to a more bewildering level.
Mercury from tooth fillings incinerated with humans corpses and magnesium dust blown east from the Gobi Desert can now join heavy-metal residues wafting from smelting plants and arsenic from coal mines to contaminate soil. Needless to say, airborne contaminants don't land on conventional farms alone. As atmospheric deposition grows more widespread, the difference between organic and nonorganic farming will become ever smaller.
Fortunately, complete despair may still be avoided. Consider this: Plant biologists are working to genetically modify a fern plant that, when ashed and dusted on soil, is capable of sucking up zinc. The dust can then be gathered so the recovered zinc may be recycled and put to better use. Of course, in order for bioremedial technologies such as this to move forward, the dichotomy between organic and conventional agriculture will have to be collapsed, a sober view of organic agriculture will have to be adopted, and we'll have to read the banana leaves with greater skepticism. James E. McWilliams is the author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly and a professor of history at Texas State University. | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/24528 | Bighorn regs threaten U.S. sheep industry
Cattle and Beef Industry News
by Theodora Johnson, WLJ Correspondent
“Here in southwestern Wyoming, we have a very strong, vibrant sheep industry. This is the single biggest threat I think we’ve ever faced.” These were the words of 5th-generation sheep rancher Shaun Sims, who is working to defend his federal lands grazing rights while the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) insists that domestic sheep are threatening “viable” populations of bighorn sheep. Despite the fact that the two species have been coexisting for decades, USFS’ Region 4 (Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Idaho) has determined that, due to alleged disease transfer between the two species, they should not be allowed to interact on the range. That could mean removing sheep grazing from entire federal allotments anywhere bighorn are thought to be nearby—including an unexplained “buffer” zone ranging from 9 to 24 miles wide around core bighorn areas. “Our family has been ranching for over 100 years, and grazing on these forest allotments for almost 50 years. I have kids who want to keep ranching here,” said Sims, pointing out that while USFS has set its sights on removing grazing, plenty of other environmental stressors—including drought, hard winters and increased predation—are undoubtedly leading to bighorn die-offs. He said that herds that haven’t had contact with domestic sheep for 30 years have been having pneumonia outbreaks and die-offs. USFS’ lack of scientific evidence and single-minded focus on removing domestic sheep, he said, is leading industry to question whether reducing disease transmission is really at the heart of their actions. Sims went on to say that more is at stake than just his family’s future: “If they just unilaterally remove sheep grazing wherever bighorn are thought to live, we’ll lose infrastructure that will put the entire industry at risk.” Loss of open space and increased wildfire risk could reasonably be expected to ensue—to the detriment of wildlife species such as bighorn, he said. Nonetheless, there’s good reason to expect that USFS may tell Sims that next year, he can’t turn his sheep out on his federal allotments. A decision to remove 70 percent of domestic sheep grazing on Idaho’s Payette National Forest was just upheld by the district court of Idaho. Alleged protection of bighorn “viability” was at the root of the decision—even though both Congress and a federal judge have told USFS that the “science” they used was inadequate. Nevertheless, USFS’ Region 4 is using that same “science” to start in on “risk assessment analyses” on other forests where bighorn are found. Other USFS regions are also considering changing their forest and allotment management plans in the name of bighorn “viability.” The bighorn sheep is not on the endangered species list, except for one sub-population in California. In fact, it’s hunted in most states across the west. However, language in USFS’ 1982 “forest planning rule” calls for “viable populations” of “species of concern.” This “viability” language, according to Public Lands Council (PLC), is found nowhere in statute and should not be included in USFS forest plans or management decisions. In fact, PLC and its affiliates are currently litigating the latest forest planning rule (from 2012) because it contains similar (and expanded) “species viability” language. According to PLC, this bighorn situation—which could destroy a quarter of the American sheep industry if the Payette decision is duplicated across the board—is a prime example of why the “viability” language must be done away with in the new planning rule. “What’s killing us here is ‘species viability,’” said Sims, a PLC member. “Every national forest has the latitude to define it differently. What does ‘viability’ even mean? And are they going for ‘viability’ of each herd, or across the entire range? In Region 4, they sound like they’re going for ‘viability’ of every single herd. So much is up to interpretation by forest officials, this has potential to be even tougher than the ESA.” Sims, who last week was in Washington, D.C. for the annual American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) flyin, said he asked USFS officials at the national level why they were allowing the Payette model, which is flawed, to be used across the entire region. Case-by-case risk assessments, he argued, would be more appropriate. The Washington officials’ response: We give the regions policy direction, but leave the implementation of that policy direction to the regional and local offices. In other words, the Washington officials indicated they would be hesitant to get involved with local-level decisions—even if those decisions were not based in sound science. Several industry organizations and ranches challenged in court one such USFS decision: the permanent removal of over 10 thousand head of sheep on almost 70,000 acres on the Payette National Forest. PLC, ASI, the Idaho Wool Growers Association, the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, the Colorado Wool Growers Association, and several ranches filed suit against USFS for its use of what industry has called “spurious” science and modeling. The industry groups charged that USFS failed to provide adequate science relating to disease transmission between bighorn sheep and domestic sheep, as well as an accurate risk-assessment model. For example, USFS assumes that domestic-bighorn interaction will result in disease transmission 100 percent of the time. This assumption is based on a study where researchers took cultures from known-infected domestic sheep and placed them directly in the trachea of bighorn—obviously not reflective of a real-life scenario on the range. The industry group’s challenge also stated that USFS broke a multitude of procedural laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedures Act, that are designed to protect producers from “arbitrary and capricious” agency decisions. Unfortunately, those legal arguments have fallen on deaf ears up to now. Since the Idaho district court’s adverse ruling in March, the groups are now considering whether to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Legal action has not been the sheep industry’s only approach. Before litigating, administrative appeals to rescind the Payette decision were made all the way up to the chief of USFS—to no avail. The industry has also pursued congressional action, which has had traction. Back in 2012, PLC and their affiliates, including ASI and the western wool growers’ associations, pushed Congress to pass legislation preventing US- FS from removing domestic sheep grazing in the name of bighorn until more conclusive science was available. Congress did pass a year’s block on any domestic sheep removals, and directed USFS to work with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to come up with more conclusive science. The sheep industry has poured over $100,000 into research to determine what the true risks are regarding bighorn/ domestic interaction, and what can be done about it. But despite this good-faith effort, USFS has continued to charge ahead using the Payette “risk assessment” model on more forests. Even the Bureau of Land Management is considering changing resource management plans for bighorn management—despite the fact that BLM doesn’t have “viability” language in its regulations. PLC, ASI and western sheep affiliates are still banging the drum on Capitol Hill for protection of ranching families from US- FS and BLM grazing decisions based on bighorn. At the very least, they are arguing, Congress should require the agencies to provide alternative allotments for ranchers who are being forced off their ranges. And this includes either forgoing environmental analysis (NEPA) on vacant allotments, or getting it done in an expedited fashion. As long as the agencies are willing to shortchange procedural laws like NEPA when it comes to throwing ranchers off the land, the industry groups argued, then they should have no problem doing it when it comes to finding ranchers new allotments. Sims said the sheep industry must not give up the fight on the bighorn “viability” issue. “We have strong evidence that the Payette model is severely flawed,” he said. “In Wyoming, we have a good state plan that USFS should defer to. Meanwhile, ARS researchers are working on a vaccine that could nullify the whole disease-transmission concern. We can find solutions to this without jeopardizing an entire industry.” — Theodora Dowling, WLJ Correspowndent Also in Cattle and Beef Industry News
Law took aim at federal powerSenate confirms PruittA closer look at horse hoofsDeflation changing the food retail meat purchase, says ‘Power of Meat’Report: forecast for food with a story looks good | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/24706 | Sage (Salvia officinalis) is an herb which has been valued for centuries for its fresh scent, the peppery depth of flavor it adds to foods and for its special constituents which help to keep skin healthy and beautiful. Sage grows as a small perennial shrub, usually no more than 24 inches tall;the oblong leaves have a slightly rough texture and hair-like growths. It is a member of the mint family and is related to rosemary. The plant is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean region, but spread to northern Europe during Medieval times. It is now, of course, a treasured garden herb grown throughout the world. Salvia officinalis, usually called common sage or kitchen sage, should not be confused with Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia, which has a similar scent), sagebrush (Artemisia tridentate, native to the plains region of North America) or Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa).Sage has been used as both an herb for food flavoring and as a source of healing ingredients for more than 2,000 years. The earliest records of its use show that the Egyptians prepared a tea-like beverage from its dried leaves to increase fertility. The Romans apparently introduced the plant into Europe, where it quickly found favor as both as a culinary ingredient and as a medicinal plant. The scientific name for the genus, Salvia, is taken from the Latin word meaning "healthy" and is the root of the modern English word "salve," reflecting the curative value associated with the plant. Throughout the Medieval period in Europe, sage was credited with the power to heal almost every ailment. It was even an ingredient, along with thyme, rosemary and lavender, in "vinegar of the four thieves," a concoction believed to provide protection against infection by bubonic plague. It was considered such a valuable herb that it was perhaps the only spice" that was traded to the Far East;during the 16th century | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/25201 | Search Nikiski's apple expert helps others branch out
Seeds of wisdom
Posted: Monday, May 06, 2002 By JENNY NEYMANPeninsula Clarion
Eleven central Kenai Peninsula residents trekked out to Nikiski Saturday morning, to take part in a yearly ritual involving genetic manipulation, limb splicing, cross breeding and other scientific mumbo jumbo.
It sounds like it could be a Dr. Frankenstein experiment, but the man in charge of the event wasn't a mad scientist -- it was Mike O'Brien, Nikiski's resident expert on orchards, and the creations being produced were definitely not monstrous -- they were homegrown apple trees.
O'Brien held his annual apple grafting class at his orchard. The class teaches participants how to graft together branches of trees and gives O'Brien a chance to share his wealth of agricultural knowledge with fellow apple tree enthusiasts.
"It's nice giving these classes," he said. "For someone who really enjoys growing trees, it's nice to see people get into it. Some are more into it than others and those are the ones you connect with."
O'Brien has been "into it" since 1971, when he first began raising and grafting apple trees in Anchorage. What began as a hobby has blossomed into a business and a determination to develop a good-sized, tasty variety of apple that is hardy enough to thrive in Alaska's challenging agricultural environment.
O'Brien is coming ever closer to his goal. His 2.5 acres of fenced orchards, complete with its own beehives, off Island Lake Road produce 1,000 pounds of apples a year, he said. And he has come up with four varieties of apple that meet his taste standards. Now all he has to do is get his trees to mass produce those apples.
The process of grafting and cross-pollinating trees to create a particular apple is a tricky one that requires patience, a great deal of trial and error and the ability to learn from one's successes and mistakes. On Saturday, O'Brien spent four hours sharing the knowledge he's gained from his many years of experience with this process.
Tim Stumo of Sterling came to the class hoping to pick up some tips for growing apple trees in Alaska and to learn the grafting process.
"That's why I'm here, to learn," he said. "I always figured I could do it, but I wanted to see somebody else do it."
Stumo grew apple trees in northern Minnesota before he moved to Sterling two years ago, he said.
"I putz around a little bit," he said. "I just got four trees planted last year and they're doing OK."
The class began inside the house, with O'Brien explaining the ins and outs of growing and grafting apple trees and displaying some of the tools of the trade. The lecture touched on a wide variety of topics, from choices in fertilizer to obtaining proper pH levels in the soil, and even pest control.
"The first thing a person should do if they're planting trees is make a fence," O'Brien said.
His own orchard is encircled by an eight-foot fence to keep out all matter of pests, including moose, bears and snowmachiners. He also recommended putting arbor guard -- a plastic sheath that wraps around the trunk of a tree -- on trees during the winter to protect against voles, shrews and rabbits.
"It's a never-ending battle to keep everything out," he said.
Mark Stynsberg uses a razor knife to trim a root before attaching it to an apple tree branch. Stynsberg was one of about a dozen people who learned grafting techniques from O'Brien.
Making sure trees have enough heat to grow was another topic covered. Ironically enough, it is not the cold Alaska winters that pose a threat to fruit trees. O'Brien mentioned one tree variety he grows that can withstand temperatures of minus 50. It is the lack of warmth in the summer that causes the problem.
"You want as much heat as you can get," he said.
O'Brien explained that fruit trees need a certain amount of heat in the summer to grow, take nutrients from the soil and produce fruit. He recommended using an insulating fabric as ground cover and providing windbreaks around the trees, if not constructing full out greenhouses as he has.
After the inside session, O'Brien took the class out to the orchard to do some grafting.
He had a bucket full of rootstocks -- a plant with roots and a basic stem but no branches --soaking in water for the class to use. The rootstocks were grown from crab apple seeds. O'Brien uses crab apple roots for grafting new trees because of their hardiness, he said.
"Most people think 'crab apples' and pucker up, but they're really as good as any variety we have," O'Brien assured the class.
He took the visitors into the orchard to cut scion wood from the tried-and-true varieties of apple trees in the orchard -- Norland and Parkland trees. Scion wood is a three- to five-inch section of single-season growth wood cut from one tree and grafted onto another.
Then it was time for O'Brien to demonstrate the grafting process.
"Now we're going to make a tree," he told his guests.
He first demonstrated a bench graft. The first step is preparing the scion wood by removing all but one bud. Next O'Brien used a utility knife and made a whip cut at the end of the scion wood, which is an angled cut like sharpening a stake. Then he made a tongue by slicing the knife into the middle of the cut.
The top of the rootstock stem was cut in the same way. O'Brien joined the two together by interlocking the tongues and wrapping the grafted area with masking tape. The scion wood is dipped in melted wax, heated to 55 to 60 degrees, up past the grafted section to seal the area and keep sap from running out. After that, the area is painted with a grafting sealant, the plant is tagged and it is put back into the bucket to soak.
"So that's all there is to that," O'Brien said, telling his audience to try it themselves. "I can go through it again, and I'll be right here if there's any questions."
After everyone had successfully bench grafted two trees, which they later took home with them, O'Brien demonstrated the field graft and had people try that, as well. A field graft is similar to a bench graft, except the scion wood is grafted on to a branch of an existing tree. Only the grafting sealant is used to protect this graft.
"Now is a good time to do field grafts because the energy coming up from the roots will heal anything you put on there," O'Brien said.
A field graft has a lower chance of surviving than a bench graft -- 75 percent vs. 90 percent -- but if successful, it can make different varieties of apples grow on one tree, which is what Ami Rediske of Nikiski was hoping for.
Apples hang from one of O'Brien's trees several autumns ago.
Rediske has an apple tree in her yard that came from her father's homestead 35 years ago, she said.
"I want to graft a few big apples onto it," she said. "I would love to have several different big apples growing on that tree. That would be fun."
O'Brien told the class they could buy and take home the crab apple trees they grafted onto if they wanted to, or any other type of tree they wanted. Stumo said he should get one of the Norlands or Parklands because they bear fruit within a year, whereas the trees he has at home aren't bearing yet.
"I might get one for my little ones," he said. "They're getting tired of waiting and helping and mulching and not getting an apple."
By the time class was winding down O'Brien had provided his students with invaluable information, trees of their own to plant, an invitation to come back in mid-September during apple-tasting season and, last but not least, words of encouragement.
"It's tough to grow the stuff here, but it can be done," he said. "... I know for sure that the ones you did today will work."
MAD SCIENTIST WHIP ALSO RECOMMENDED PUTTING ARBOR GUARD MARK STYNSBERG ANCHORAGE ALASKA TIM STUMO MINNESOTA ENVIRONMENT M. SCOTT MOON ENERGY COMING KENAI PENINSULA PERSON COMMUNICATION AND MEETINGS MIKE O'BRIEN AMI REDISKE Subscribe to Peninsula Clarion | 农业 |
2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/25480 | Tea Basics 101 – Tea Type or Taste, How Do you Choose?
Mary E. MacDonald asked: With over 3000 different varieties of tea in the world, how do you choose? Do you choose by the particular type of tea, or do you choose by the taste you like best?Surprisingly, all tea comes from the same evergreen plant — Thea sinensis, of which two varieties are the most common — Camellia sinensis and Camellia assamica. The type and taste characteristics of each tea are determined by the growing region — climate, soil, and altitude — as well as how the tea is processed.The first step in any tea production occurs when the tea is harvested or “plucked,” by hand, once the top two leaves and bud have sprouted. The leaves are then spread out on long trays in warm temperatures, to promote moisture loss of about 50%. This is known as withering. The withered leaves are then sometimes rolled, by machine, to help release the leaves’ oils and juices and then they are left out in the open air for several hours. This open air process is known as “fermentation.” It’s not really a “fermenting” process per say — it’s actually an oxidation process that occurs in the tea leaves, whereby the leaves absorb oxygen, which changes their chemistry, and therefore affects both the taste and color of the tea. After the fermentation stage, the leaves are then passed through a dryer to stop the oxidation process. Once thoroughly dried, the tea is then ready to be sorted, and taste-tested.Based on the methods used in production, tea can be divided into four different types: black, oolong, green and white tea.Black TeaBlack tea is withered, fully fermented and dried. Black tea least resembles the natural tea leaf. The manufacturing processes and varieties of black tea differ considerably among the various growing regions. Black teas should give a strong, hearty and bright, reddish or amber-colored brew.Assam (India) — rich, bold aroma, full-bodied with a strong malty taste, and a clear, dark red brew. It is delicious with a spot of milk.Ceylon (Sri Lanka) — very aromatic, golden-amber brew with a rich, full astringent flavor that is sometimes described as “fruity” or “biscuity.” Goes great with a little milk.Darjeeling (India) — the rarest and most prestigious of black teas. Its quality is excellent due to the growing climate and altitude. It has a distinct taste for each growing season; First Flush, light and astringent with an amazing aroma and a green muscatel, sometimes “flowery” taste, and Second Flush has a darker, more round, less astringent, and “fruitier” full-bodied flavor. Both provide varying degrees of muscatel and wood flavors, along with a rich, golden-red brew.Keemun (China) — has a subtle orchid aroma and a rich, red brew. The flavor is mild with a hint of sweetness, full-bodied, and wine-like.Lapsang Souchong (China) — a dark tea with a distinct smoky fragrance and flavor, due to the tea leaves being withered over open fires of pine. Gives a rich, red brew.Nilgiri (India) — gives a bright and smooth, well-rounded, “fruity” mellow flavor.Yunnan (China) — has a brisk, rich, slightly peppery or “spicy” taste with a pronounced floral aroma. Named the “mocha of tea” it has a red-amber color, and is full-bodied.Oolong TeaOolong tea is withered, partially fermented and dried. Oolongs fall between black and green tea in color and taste, have low caffeine, and give an orangy-brown to dark brown brew. Oolong tea should give a very mellow, delicate and “fruity” flavor. Some varieties give a deliciously “nutty” finish.Darjeeling (India) — excellent oolong with a flavor finish of unripened fruit. The brew is pale yellow.Formosa (Taiwan) — undergoes a longer fermentation period than other oolongs and therefore is darker in appearance. It has a bright, brownish-amber brew and possesses a delicate, “fruity,” sometimes “nutty” taste and a superb aroma.Pouchong (China) — the least fermented oolong, therefore it falls somewhere between green and oolong tea. It’s often used as a base for jasmine tea as well as other scented teas. It has a very mild, smooth, sweet flavor, and gives a pale, orangy-brown brew.Green TeaGreen tea totally skips the oxidation process. After it’s been withered, if at all, it’s immediately steamed or heated via firing or pan frying to prevent oxidation. It is then rolled and dried. Green tea most resembles the tea leaf in its natural state. Higher grades of green tea have a fuller, more complex flavor, and can usually be steeped more times than the lower grades. Green tea should give a pale, yellowish-green brew, and the taste should be smooth and fresh — very light and delicate.Bancha (Japan) — very similar to Sencha but of a lower quality and caffeine content, and a weaker flavor.Chun Mee/Precious Eyebrows (China) — gives a smooth taste with a clear, pale yellow brew.Genmaicha (Japan) — a medium quality Sencha tea, mixed with toasted rice and popped corn. It gives a light brown, refreshing brew with a slightly “smoky” or “nutty” flavor.Gunpowder/Pearl Tea (China) — gives a strong, greeny-coppery brew with a pungent taste.Gyokuro (Japan) — is the most refined and expensive of Japanese tea. It has a subtle aroma and a very smooth, sweet, mild taste.Lung Ching/Dragon Well (China) — has a delicious aroma and fresh, mellow flavor. The brew is clear yellow with a slightly sweet aftertaste.Matcha (Japan) — powdered tea made from Gyokuro leaves, used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. The brew has a jade green color and the flavor is very strong — makes excellent iced tea.Sencha (Japan) — has a mixture of subtle sweetness, bitterness and fresh green scent. The taste varies in strength according to the season in which it is plucked. The brew is a clear and bright, light green.White TeaWhite tea is unfermented — it goes through the least amount of processing of all the teas. The young tea buds are plucked before they open and receive no oxidation or rolling; they are simply withered and then immediately dried by steaming. The curled up buds have a silvery, white appearance, thus the name. White tea is produced mainly in China (Fujian Province) and Sri Lanka. It is produced in limited quantities and is therefore more expensive than the other three types of tea. It produces subtle flavors in the cup — fresh and mellow with a hint of sweetness and a slight “flowery” taste. The color of the brew should be very pale — straw-colored. White teas are extremely rich in vitamins.Yin Zhen/Silver Needle (China) — its flavor is flowery and sweet, and the brew is very pale.Pai Mu Tan/White Peony (China) — has a very smooth, velvety flavor with a fresh aroma. The brew is clear and pale.Once through the production process, and depending on its quality, each variety of tea is then either marketed as a single source tea, or mixed with teas from other countries/regions to form a blend. Many consumers prefer purchasing single source tea from specific estates or plantations, and quite enjoy the slight taste variations that can occur from year to year, due to that tea’s regional climate fluctuations. On the other hand, some retailers of fine tea like to offer their customers tea that always tastes the same, from the first purchase to the fiftieth, so they blend together a number of different teas to ensure a consistent quality and taste from year to year.Whether choosing your tea by type or by taste, it totally depends on your own personal tastes and preferences. Those who prefer a very light tea that has little caffeine and a mild taste should lean towards purchasing white or oolong tea. Those who enjoy an aromatic, “herby,” yet refreshing tea should purchase green tea, and those who prefer a darker more robust brew should look to purchase black tea.Nonetheless, once you’ve made your tea type or taste choice, and are ready to purchase, check that the tea leaves smell fresh and are roughly the same size. Never buy tea that looks dull. The leaves should be glossy, and there shouldn’t be any twigs or stalks in the mix. And finally, when brewing your tea, always look for a bright, clear infusion — teas of high quality and taste should never have a dull, muddy brew.tea
Tags: Different Varieties Of Tea, Oxidation Process, Thea Sinensis, Varieties Of Tea, White Tea
This entry was posted by arizonius on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 3:58 am and is filed under Tea.
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2017-09/4496/en_head.json.gz/26399 | Tag Archives: Feeding Pennsylvania
Posted on February 17, 2017 by Agmoos 1 Waiting in the wings so as not to spoil the surprise, Dave Smith’s family was on hand to celebrate the ‘milkshake man’s passion, dedication and commitment to Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers and the next generation, which earned him the unanimous appreciation of his peers in the form a special Golden Milkshake award. Not only have the milkshake sales helped get fresh milk into the hands less fortunate but also helped the Dairymen’s Assn give $1 million in grants over the last 15 years for programs geared for the next generation of dairy farmers. Dave and wife Sharon are flanked by son Joel (left) and daughter Erin and her husband Aaron Wachter. By Sherry Bunting, Farmshine, February 17, 2017
LANCASTER, Pa. — Leaders of the Center for Dairy Excellence (CDE), Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association and Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania (PDMP) pulled off a surprise honorary service award during the 2017 Pennsylvania Dairy Summit here at the Lancaster Marriott last Wednesday evening, February 8.
Dave Smith, known practically everywhere as ‘the milkshake man’ was presented a special Golden Milkshake award for his dedication and commitment to Pennsylvania’s dairy industry.
Not only has Dave been the driving force behind the ubiquitous Pennsylvania Dairymen’s milkshake sales, and more recently fried mozzarella cubes, at the Pennsylvania Farm Show and other venues, he was instrumental in the launch of the Fill a Glass with Hope campaign — facilitating dairy relationships with Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and Feeding Pennsylvania to raise money to put fresh milk in food banks across the state.
A surprised and humbled Dave Smith was speechless at first, but quickly took the podium to say:
“You dairy farmers are truly the reason for the success of the milkshakes.
“This is your product. You work hard to make a quality product. Consumers want what you have.”
Dave (left) was lauded by his peers Don Risser (second left), president of the CDE Foundation, Doug Harbach (right), president of PDMP and Reid Hoover (second right), president of the Pa. Dairymen’s Association for his continual focus on improving the state’s dairy industry for future generations through promotion and combining this with avenues for getting dairy into the hands of those less fortunate.
In addition to serving as the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association executive director since 1995 and serving on the board for six additional years, Dave has been active in leadership with Young Farmer’s, 4-H dairy club and 4-H dairy judging as well as being an active member of Lebanon County Farm Bureau and the Pennsylvania Guernsey Breeders’ Association.
“Dave has given tirelessly to our organization and its mission for the past 22 years,” said Hoover, who credited his oversight with the Association’s success in selling milkshakes and dairy foods at the Farm Show. “Dave is continually looking ahead to find new markets for fluid milk and to put milk in the hands of those who need it most.”
Dave shows the mozzarella blocks bought and cut into cubes for Farm Show fried cheese cubes. In 2014, Dave estimated the Dairymen’s Assn moved 3 tons of mozzarella in 8 days in this delicious Farm Show treat that is only growing in popularity at Farm Show since then.
Through expansion and new product introduction, gross sales have been increased approximately 500% in 15 years, allowing for $1 million in grants to be distributed to dairy and agriculture programs focusing on next generation development.
“We appreciate Dave’s active promotion and advocacy for dairy youth,” said Risser. “We are incredibly grateful for his efforts that bring success to these programs.”
Recently, Dave has been working out the details for the Calving Corner, a cow birthing center that will be part of the 2018 Pennsylvania Farm Show.
The fourth generation of his dairy farm family, Dave grew up raising and caring for the Guernsey herd in Annville, received his B.S. in Dairy Science from Virginia Tech and co-managed the farm with his father for a number of years, including the former dairy store where Ja-Mar Dairy’s milk was processed, bagged and sold until the late 1980s.
Today, the milk cows are gone, but Dave and his son Joel raise 140 head of cattle and farm 400 acres of ground.
Share thisTweetEmailPrintLike this:Like Loading... Posted in agriculture, Dairy, Uncategorized | Tagged agriculture, Center or Dairy Excellence, Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, dairy, dairy farming, Feeding America, Feeding Pennsylvania, fill a glass with hope, Milk, Milkshake Man, milkshakes, Pennsylvania Dairy Summit, Pennsylvania Dairymen's Association, Pennsylvania Farm Show, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania | 1 Reply | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/450 | Exploring the idea of 'sustainable' farming
by Jessica Naudziunas, Harvest Public Media Listen to this story: Jessica Naudziunas, Harvest Public MediaMay 15, 2012 - 7:00pm Editor's note: You can't feed the growing world population without farmers. But there are serious questions today about who will take on the job a few decades from now. Farmers are getting older, and technological, cultural and political forces are bringing immense changes to those who build their lives around the land.
In this weeklong special report on "The Farmer of the Future," Harvest Public Media and NET News look at how some of those forces may play out over the next few years. Tune in every day this week for radio reports, culminating Friday, May 18th with the NET News documentary "Hispanic Farmers on Broken Ground," airing on NET1/HD at 7 p.m. CT. Harvest Public Media
In the video above, farmer William Powers talks about his and his wife's farm and their views on sustainability.
Photo by Jessica Naudziunas, Harvest Public Media The Powers family owns Darby Springs Farm near Lincoln, Neb.
The farmer of future will grow food and raise animals with tomorrow in mind. They'll know contributing to the food supply is not enough. If the soil, air and water they use to produce food is damaged, good luck feeding anyone.
That's the idea, anyway, behind "sustainability" one of the big buzz words in agriculture today. It's all about making sure natural resources are not depleted or permanently damaged so that we can farm into the future. But how best to do this and who's really making the commitment for the long term?
Unlike with the organic label, you can't be certified "sustainable." So many people have come up with their own idea of the word.
There is a five-part definition, courtesy of Congress no less. But it's a little complicated and vague, covering everything from enhancing environmental quality and using resources wisely to keeping a close watch on the farm finances. Part E reads: "Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."
How do you interpret that?
"These are the kinds of questions that a lot of people can spend a lot of time debating and looking at the fine detail," said Rob Hedberg, national director of the of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE).
Farmers have studied the fine detail, picking and choosing sustainable methods as they please. The consensus, though, seems to be that farming sustainably is not organic or industrial, it's a mix of all of the good practices from each.
"Sustainability is a journey," said William Powers, a farmer in Lincoln, Neb., and director of the Nebraska outpost for the SARE program. "Sustainability goes beyond something that is written down."
Sustainable farming speaks directly to educating the individual, Powers said, but the big idea behind agriculture in the U.S. for so long has been "grow food, at any cost to the environment, to communities, to farmers themselves, to feed the world." Though, as hard as the industrial agriculture model works to reach that goal, Powers said, when he looks around he doesn't see a well-fed world. The town nearest his farm has people who go hungry.
"So if that's the goal, they've failed," Powers said. "It's just not an obtainable goal in my opinion. A growing population needs to learn to feed themselves, to be able to live for themselves and that's going to be sustainable."
Dan Howell, a farmer-rancher in Marshall County, Kan., agrees. Photo by Jessica Naudziunas, Harvest Public Media Dan Howell, a farmer-rancher in Marshall County, Kan., is experimenting with his land like an idealistic young farmer.
Photo by Jessica Naudziunas, Harvest Public Media Howell used to farm commodity crops on all of his land. Now, he has diversified his farm.
Most of his 1,500+ acres once yielded strictly row crops, milo soybeans wheat the classics in Kansas. But at the age of 60, Howell is experimenting with his land like an idealistic young farmer.
"Years ago when I wanted to farm more crop ground, I went through the farm crisis of the 80s, and that was really ugly," Howell said. "I am wanting to be a little closer to shore than farther away."
Howell said he no longer uses big equipment or fertilizer on his land, and for the most part, the farm runs itself. He said he's sustainable because he works with the land, instead of manipulating it to work for him.
"I don't like buying $3 and $4 fuel," Howell said. "So, these are things that I can do to buy less of it and still be productive."
Changes have come in the form of a high tunnel, a young fruit orchard, and a shiitake mushroom grove built into an old cluster of trees. He sells his cows to other farmers and his produce to the local school system. Instead of living in a barn, or a small grazing field, his docile Hereford and Angus cows rule the rolling hundreds of acres around them.
"In society today, we don't have a real strong sense of accepting diversity in agriculture," Howell said. "I've had several friends, and good people, but they say Why don't you let me rent that ground and plant and grow corn and soybeans, instead of running cows on that ground?' They thought I had fallen off a rock fence or something."
But, Howell said, when making a decision about the type of farm he wanted to run, he looked to the future and knew, after decades of planting soybeans, that it could not sustain him, or his family for very long. Related Articles
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2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/656 | Industry Observations from China’s West Texas cotton area
By Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cotton economist John Robinson, Ph.D., recently toured what he calls “the West Texas of China,” trekking to southern Xinjiang to get a first-hand look at farming and harvesting practices.
The result of his two-week trip abroad was a collection of observations—views of farming practices and other insights—that will serve as aids in forecasting cotton trends for Texas and U.S. farmers, plus help determine potential worldwide demand. His comments are compiled in the string of quotes and paraphrases.
“If I had to guess I’d say that Xinjiang is probably like West Texas in that it will be the last bastion of domestic Chinese cotton production,” he said “They have to overcome problems with saline soils, and lack of labor, and the cost of hauling cotton bales from there to the eastern portion of China. One way they’re dealing with the latter is trying to establish more cotton spinning and cloth/apparel (towels) manufactured locally in Xinjiang.”
“Cotton is obviously king there,” he said. “They’re trying to diversify the region’s agriculture by growing more ‘jujubee’ orchards (sort of like a date), potatoes and other (crops).”
He said there is little transportation system in place, observing carts that are typically used for onions and other commodities being hauled.
In Xinjiang, it is “incredibly dry and is much like West Texas,” Robinson said.
“Everything is irrigated, and the irrigation system appears to be a system of canals tapping into reservoirs of snow-melt water from the nearby mountains,” he said. “I saw a few instances of visible white salt on the soil surface; it was obvious they have a soil salinity problem.”
Most of the fields he viewed had been harvested, mostly by hand.
“The fields themselves look like nice 10 to 20 acre rectangles, bordered by a row of trees,” he said. “I think the purpose of the border is like a Rolling Plains shelter belt to mitigate sandstorm damage. They harvest seed cotton and dump it at the edge of the field in a pile. I guess that works as long as it doesn’t rain… I don’t get the impression that it rains very much.”
Robinson said at some point, a tractor pulling a trailer showed up and the seed cotton is thrown in and hauled to a gin.
“In terms of marketing, that’s where the growers sell their cotton to the gin-buyer,” Robinson said. “I think that’s the same model just about everywhere else (except the U.S., Brazil, and Australia where growers retain ownership of ginned bales).”
Robinson said when the group visited a gin on a Saturday, it looked like a normal gin operation on the inside.
“There were piles of seed cotton outside, covered with tarps,” he said. “From what I saw of the hand- harvested cotton, it was pretty clean looking. I’ve heard things about hand-harvested cotton in Africa and India where there is lots of human hair contaminant, plus rocks, etc. But this stuff looked pretty clean to my uneducated eye. This gin had one line that was ginning hand-harvested cotton. It had a separate line that was ginning machine-picked cotton.”
Robinson said the finished pressed bale was wrapped in the normal looking ties and then a plastic wrap. The finished bales were stored outside in big stacks. Some of the stacks had huge tarps over them and some did not.
“I was told these bales were heading north, presumably to some warehouse owned by the quasi-military, quasi-government agency which everybody just calls the Corps. This is the historical legacy of this place. There were a bunch of Chinese military out there and when they were retired from military service, they got retrofitted into cotton farmers.”
He also toured a custom harvest business run by a father-and-son team.
“They had quite a collection of equipment, which they admitted was financed in part from the Chinese government, some sort of borrowing subsidy,” he said. “They have 37, six-row Case pickers. These were stored in a huge compound of garage bays that either housed the pickers or housed piles of machine parts, oil, etc. you name it.
“The compound also had fuel tanks and fuel trucks, and quite a number of ‘living boxes,’ which were big trailers that could accommodate a harvest crew. The system is geared for mobility — they haul around the machines, the crews, the fuel, etc. to wherever they’re picking.”
chinatexas a&mcottoncotton trendsirrigation About the Author: | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/2650 | Senator Larry Craig is serving his third term in the United States Senate. Senator Craig represents all of the people from Idaho unlike our Congressmen that represent a specific district. Senator Craig was also elected to four terms as United States Congressman for the 1st District.
Senator Craig was an Idaho Future Farmers of America President and was National Vice-President of the Future Farmers of America. The Senator grew up on a ranch near Midvale that was homesteaded by his grandfather in 1899. Senator Craig has been involved with agriculture all of his life and has been a strong advocate for Idaho and Agriculture.
Senator Craig serves on several committees and they are: Appropriations, Energy & Natural Resources, Environment & Public Works, Veterans’ Affairs, and a special committee on aging. Senator Craig has been very important to Idaho and Agriculture because of his love of both. He has worked hard to keep farmers where they belong, on the farm.
Senator Craig holds many meetings around Idaho and held a meeting at my farm in 2006 to talk about the Farm Bill and the Conservation Security Program (CSP.) I showed Senator Craig the new technology on my combine and how it can help me become more efficient. Our family was also honored to have a picture with the Senator representing four generations of our family.
In appreciation for his dedication to agriculture, I presented him with a plaque from the Nez Perce County Grain Producers and Farm Bureau recognizing his work. Dillon and I were able to meet with Senator Craig on a different trip to Washington, D.C. to discuss Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS.) | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/3134 | More apples coming
HomeApplesTradeMarketingRichard LehnertGood Fruit GrowerAugust 2014 IssueMore apples coming How to retain the crop Four reasons to apply a stop-drop material More apples coming
Apple supply worldwide could hit 100 million tons by 2025, up from 65 million now. Good Fruit Grower, Richard Lehnert // Aug 5, 2014 // Apples // Marketing // Trade U.S. apple growers will have their hands full in the near future. They need to sell a crop that is getting bigger fast, but for which domestic consumption isn’t growing. And while consumption is growing in developing countries where incomes are expanding, the race to access those consumers is being won by competitors.
That assessment came from Dr. Desmond O’Rourke, who presented his views in a web seminar hosted by Northwest Farm Credit Services on May 29.
O’Rourke says that for American growers to have a prosperous future, a team effort is required, and an important player is the federal government. “The U.S. government has done a lousy job of keeping trade -avenues open,” he said.
And on the cost side, the government has added laws and regulations. “The Food Safety Modernization Act will add costs and more record keeping without providing much benefit to the apple industry,” he said.
A successful team needs the following: “savvy -marketers” who take the pulse of the market, know what consumers want, and communicate it back through the production chain; packers who respond to these market signals with quality apples in the right kinds of packs and at the right time; and growers who are oriented to quality and production efficiency.
Growing supply
O’Rourke started his presentation on the supply side, noting that Washington State seems headed toward producing a much larger annual crop of 140 million to 145 million packed boxes, and perhaps more. Yields are rising as well as acreage, and if club apple varieties perform, limits on their production may be increased by members of the clubs.
While smaller than Washington State, New York, Michigan, and California are significant production areas that are getting larger, and production is growing in the more minor producing states as well. “These states, which were producing mainly for processing, are swinging toward the fresh market, so there will be a lot more fresh apples available,” -O’Rourke said.
World apple production was around 65 million metric tons last year, with China producing about 38 million of that. China is heading toward an annual production of about 50 million metric tons.
“They are planting,” O’Rourke said, adding that other countries are as well. World annual production could hit 100 million metric tons by 2025, he said. Production is growing in Turkey, Poland, India, Iran, Chile, Argentina, Ukraine, South Africa, and Brazil.
The largest exporters of apples in 2009 were China, the United States, Turkey, Poland, Italy, Iran, and India.
One of the limits facing Chinese producers has been their inability to find good alternative varieties to Fuji, -O’Rourke said.
Demand side
U.S. growers face a dilemma. In the domestic -market, where people have money to spend, growers need to produce new varieties to provide a novel -experience to induce consumers to buy more apples. Apple -consumption is stagnant in richer countries, he said.
In the developing countries, however, apples are -considered a treat, and rising incomes do lead -consumers to eat more apples, and they need not be new varieties.
Ideally, U.S. producers could serve both markets. The American market poses its challenges and risks, as -growers need to provide both familiar and novelty products.
They also face activist nongovernmental organizations that are often critical of agriculture and skilled in public relations. It doesn’t help apple growers that their product tops the annual Dirty Dozen List compiled by the Environmental Working Group. Various activist groups worry about local production, carbon footprints, social responsibility, and sustainability, etc.
In other countries, U.S. growers face mounting problems of access, and the U.S. government has been increasingly less successful in tearing down barriers to free trade. American growers need to export apples, O’Rourke emphasizes.
He says the era of the Pax Americana is ending. In the 20 years after World War II, the United States was the dominant industrialized country and was able to set the world trade agenda and, through force of arms, assure the free flow of goods around the world.
As industrial power recovered in Europe and Japan, these nations generally backed U.S. policies and goals. But since the 1970s, the group of industrialized nations has grown to about 20 major economies, and many of them do not support U.S. goals.
Since 1995, there has been very little progress on freeing up world trade, and he sees no major breakthroughs. Moreover, the U.S. has been slow to adopt bilateral trade agreements. Other countries do seek to forge trade agreements with selected trading partners, while U.S. policy has been focused broadly on free trade and the World Trade Organization.
“Many of our apple growers’ major competitors are able to produce high quality fruit and they are eyeing the same export markets,” O’Rourke said. Those are the markets in the developing countries where rising incomes generate more apple sales.
What needs to happen
The U.S. government must do more to promote free trade, O’Rourke said. Two “mega-deals” are under negotiation but have been slow to mature. They are the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would enhance trade and investment among partner countries. Originally, the plan was developed in 2005 among Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore, quickly joined by Brunei. The United States asked to join in 2008, and since then seven other countries have entered the negotiations and several more have expressed interest in joining.
The negotiations have been stalled by some U.S. Senate Democrats, -O’Rourke said, and President Obama is “lukewarm,” he said.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would link the United States and the European Union. The chief benefit to U.S. agriculture would occur if the conflicts on food safety issues could be resolved. But there are many sources of conflict there, some of which have virtually shut down apple exports to the European Union.
Marketers are the link between retailers and the production side of the apple industry. They need to respond to retailer demands and send the message to packers.
O’Rourke thinks they need to combine forces to better serve retailers’ needs for year-round supplies of products and also be proactive, sending signals from growers to retailers.
“Washington marketers are not spending enough to promote demand,” he said.
Packers, who turn raw apples into desirable products and packs, should be communicating both to marketers and to growers.
Growers need to drive down their unit costs of production, produce desirable varieties in their best grades and sizes, and have the best packing and marketing partners they can find.
They need to do the best job they can of producing the established varieties, but continue to try to find new ones that they can grow well. “New varieties are a costly gamble,” he said, “but growers should be testing one or two at all times.”
Growers wanting to watch O’Rourke’s 45-minute -presentation can find it at www.northwestFCS.com.
O’Rourke is considered the foremost economist focusing on the fruit industry. He spent the major part of his career—30 years—as an agricultural economist at Washington State University. In 2000, he retired and started Belrose, Inc., in Pullman, Washington.
He keeps track of economic conditions in the fruit business around the world, with his most important outreach being the monthly World Apple Report. More about it can be found at www.e-belrose.com. •
By Richard Lehnert|2014-08-05T08:52:30+00:00August 5th, 2014|Apples, August 2014 Issue, Good Fruit Grower, Marketing, Richard Lehnert, Trade| About the Author: Richard Lehnert
After growing up on a Michigan dairy farm, Richard Lehnert began writing about farming in 1962, while still a junior studying journalism at Michigan State University. He worked at newspapers for a year before joining the staff of Michigan Farmer, where he spent 26 years, the last 15 as chief editor. He joined the staff of Good Fruit Grower in 2010.
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2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/5054 | Mid-South Farm and Gin Show to feature special dicamba seminar Feb 06, 2017 Push for cotton safety net a priority for Cotton Council Feb 16, 2017 Farms facing shortfalls with 2016 commodity prices Feb 16, 2017 What’s in store for the next farm bill? Feb 16, 2017 Regulatory>Legislative House budget cuts: land-grants, Extension, research
Extension, land-grants warning House budget cuts will have immediate negative impact.
House passes fiscal year 2011 continuing resolution.
Cuts $217 million from National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
Cuts Smith-Lever funds by $30 million. David Bennett | Feb 22, 2011
Growers and rural communities are being alerted to budget cuts made by the House that will affect Extension programs and agricultural research. Last week, the House passed a continuing resolution for the 2011 fiscal year that included a $217 million cut for the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Smith-Lever funds – used, among other things, to run 4-H clubs – were cut by $30 million.
The Senate is expected to debate the House’s continuing resolution soon.
The cuts would be difficult enough for land-grant universities and Extension to absorb but are doubly frustrating for officials because of their timing. Adding to the pressure: coming halfway through the fiscal year, the cut to programs (approximately 10 percent) must be made over six months instead of a full year.
On Tuesday, Delta Farm Press spoke with Paul Coreil at the LSU AgCenter about the budget cuts. Coreil, Vice Chancellor and Director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, said Congress needs to understand the full impact such cuts will have. Among his comments:
How will this affect the AgCenter, Extension and university research?
“It isn’t a very complicated issue. We’re in the middle of a fiscal year and all the money has been allocated. All the federal funds I get for Extension are in salaries for agents and specialists that are in the field, working today.
“We’ve got to cut 10 percent from there. I don’t know where we’ll get it.
“This was an unexpected mid-year cut. Here we are getting ready for the growing season and we have specialists and agents working with growers – and their salaries are dependent on the federal funds. How do you manage that when you have people hired out in the community working with farmers?
“These are formula funds that we’ve been getting and rely on – they’re recurring. If the cuts have to come, we need time to consider how to implement them. There’s no trick-bag to use when there are people already getting paid those funds. It isn’t like there’s money sitting in a drawer here that I can just send back and say ‘the cut has been made.’
“We work with farmers, ranchers and 4-H programs for kids all over this state. These salary dollars are important. State funds have already been cut drastically and the federal funds are critical.
“And if cuts must be made, they need to be made in a way that makes sense. We don’t need to be sitting here wondering how in the world we’ll send money back after it’s already been dedicated and allocated.”
Can you explain why this came down mid-fiscal year?
“You have to ask congressional membership that question.
“But for a manager trying to run a quality program to help producers and communities, it causes quite a shock to the system. Everyone is starting to understand these cuts will have an immediate impact and the options we have are limited.
“We must work very closely with the congressional delegation so they understand the consequences of this type of a mid-year reduction. We’ve already made commitments.
“The ‘why’ of this, is something I can’t answer. But I can tell you about the consequences. That’s why there’s so much turmoil and concern regarding the timing and lack of planning we’re being provided.”
Where is the pressure to cut mostly coming from?
“From what I read, this is largely a result of the November election and changes that took place in Congress. Regardless of party, though, the message to them is the same: this will have an impact on parishes in Louisiana and other states’ counties that have strong Extension programs.
“The federal funds for Smith-Lever are what we stand on to get matches from our state legislature and local government. We get significant support from the county governments for these offices.
“Everyone needs to step up and do their part – federal, state and local. Of those three legs of the stool, if one makes massive reductions mid-year it shakes everything up. We have a lot of local and state elected officials that are very concerned about this. There’s only around six months left in the fiscal year and the dollars have been dedicated.”
Past cuts and timing
On past cuts, timing and being able to plan properly…
“In the past, reductions have come and we’ve dealt with them. But you need time to reorganize priorities, reduce or eliminate programs and give proper notice to people; make sure the local communities understand the consequences of the cuts. With enough time, those things can be done properly.
“But this move puts us in a very precarious situation. We don’t have a lot of options to make this at least appear to be something we’re doing with organization and a lot of thought.
“There’s a lot of concern in the calls I’m getting from constituents and ag leaders on this. I’m sure they’re making their views known to the congressional delegation, as well.”
Have you gotten any response from the Louisiana or Mid-South delegation on this? Or is it still early days?
“It’s still early. The vote on this was only taken last Friday (Feb 18).
“But I think the constituency is letting them know of their concerns. And it’s being expressed, I think, widely.
“Hopefully, by March 4, something a bit more workable will arise.”
Have you been in contact with your counterparts in neighboring states?
“Yes, we’ve had conference calls – throughout the country and the South. Everyone has the same dilemma with this mid-year cut.
“The sentiments are the same. We’ve all already reduced our staffs and budgets over the last several years. And we’ve used the federal funds to try and maintain the quality of the Mid-South programs.
“The Mid-South has already downsized and cut to the bone. We’re really down to our base priorities even without this cut.
“The thing concerning a lot of people is these base funds – Smith-Lever for Extension, Hatch Act for research, and a couple of other solid funding lines – are of the highest priority in all states. Those are the acts of Congress that have been providing the base funds we get.
“We match those funds at the local and state level – about six-to-one in Louisiana. And in the other states it’s probably at that level, or higher.
“Again, everyone is doing their part. We use those federal funds to justify and convince local governments and state legislators to give us dollars. It’s been a three-way partnership.”
FY 2012 and the need for research
Any rumblings about the 2012 fiscal year budget that begins in October?
“Yes, we’re hearing rumblings. President Obama has put out his proposed budget and it has a 5 percent cut for research and Extension.
“But because of the debate over the 2011 budget, we haven’t had a whole lot of time to spend on 2012.” Anything else you want our readers to know?
“The Cooperative Extension Service, the experiment stations and land-grants are dedicated to helping maintain the economic activity in agriculture. I’m very proud to be a part of the land-grants.
“With all the challenges we see -- shortages, lack of stockpiles of corn and commodities appearing that they’ll be so much more important in the coming decades -- we need good research-based information to be applied in the field. That’s a good investment, the basis of a society having a good, abundant, safe, affordable food supply.
“It would be wise for the United States to maintain its leadership in ag production. And research and Extension has made it so secure. But it appears that security is about to become much more of a challenge.
“As there are more and more people, they’ll need more and more food. And as prices go up, we’ll need to be more efficient and have higher yields.
“This is a good investment. And it’s an investment that pays off for everyone.
“We need to rethink how we look at agriculture. It needs to rise to the top as critical to the welfare and stability of our country.
“Congress needs to really think through these cuts. The basis for our quality of life is really an abundant food supply.” | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/5732 | A 'short and sweet' season for strawberries
Allison Nowicki, 1, of Tolland stops Saturday to enjoy a fresh strawberry as families take advantage of warm, sunny weather to pick their own at Scott's Yankee Farmer in East Lyme.
Strawberry season in Connecticut never lasts long, but this year it may be even shorter than normal."The strawberries are taking a hit," said Teri Smith, co-owner with her husband Joe of Smith's Acres in East Lyme, which sells strawberries grown on its fields at its Niantic farm stand and at local farmers' markets. "Enjoy them while you can."In a year of perfect strawberry-growing weather conditions, she said, picking starts around Memorial Day and extends through July 4. In more typical years, the season is about three weeks. This year, picking started last weekend, a bit later than normal, and heavy rains over the last week are leaving many strawberries vulnerable to fungus.At Scott's Yankee Farmer in East Lyme, co-owner Karen Scott said the pick-your-own field off Chesterfield Road fared better than two other fields elsewhere where strawberries are grown for sale in the Boston Post Road farm stand. While many ripening berries have been lost to rot, there are still lots of good ones to be had, she said.The season this year, she said, will be "short and sweet."Hours at Scott's pick-your-own fields were extended this weekend after heavy rains this week kept many away. The pick-your-own field, which opened June 9, is normally open from 8 a.m. to noon on weekends, but is staying open until 2:30 p.m. to give its customers more time to take advantage of the weekend's good weather.On Saturday, the pick-your-own field was busy with strawberry fans of all ages, who all seemed to be finding plenty of perfect red berries to fill their baskets.Over the past few days, about 3 to 4½ inches of rain fell in southeastern Connecticut, drenching fields still drying out from the June 7 downpour.Rainfall totals from the June 7 deluge through Friday ranged from 7½ to 8½ inches at various locations in the region, according to The Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University. In the Connecticut River valley, flooding of farm fields damaged vegetable and tobacco crops, said Linda Piotrowicz, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture."A lot of fields have to be replanted, but there is time to replant," she said.She added that the river had not yet crested as of Friday afternoon, so the full extend of the flooding and the damage isn't yet known.While some strawberry growers around the state are reporting damage, she said others weathered the heavy rains well, and are hoping for an influx of customers."They need lots of people to come and pick," she said. "They did a good job protecting what they have."Smith said other than the damage to strawberries, crops at her 35-acre farm came through the heavy rains relatively unscathed. The only effect, she said, is that fertilizer has to be reapplied to corn and tomato fields, because most of it washed off the fields before it could soak into the soil.Other than the losses in the 5 acres of strawberries at Scott's, corn and other vegetable crops at the farm are showing no ill effects from the rains."Everything else looks good," Scott said. "We needed the rain. Now we need some sun."At Maple Lane Farms in Preston, owner Allyn Brown said his blueberry, raspberry and black currant bushes were undamaged by the rain, and his Christmas trees "love the moisture.""Other than being behind in my work, it hasn't hurt us too much," he said. The five irrigation ponds at the farm are full."It's good to be going into the summer months with the ground saturated," he said.The farm plans to open for pick-your-own blueberries, raspberries and black currents by July 4 weekend, Brown said.“We're hoping the fields will all be dry by then," he said.Holmberg's Orchards in Ledyard is also planning on an early July opening for its pick-your-own blueberries, owner Rick Holmberg said. Tomatoes and new fruit trees planted this year are all growing well, he said. Holmberg's raises peaches, apples and nectarines."Other than getting mud on our shoes and having to work in the rain, we're in good shape," he [email protected] | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/5820 | Almond Board describes new projects funded by assessment increase Feb 15, 2017 Governor Brown’s never-ending drought emergency Feb 21, 2017 Delayed first irrigation can improve walnut tree health, yield, quality Feb 15, 2017 ABC invests $4.7 million for next gen almond farming, sustainability Feb 16, 2017 Computer software recommended
Ron Smith 2 | Mar 03, 2001
A SIMPLE, inexpensive computer software program may provide solutions for farmers looking for ways to collect and use information more effectively. Jason Johnson, Texas Extension economist, San Angelo, says a program as simple as Quicken may solve farmers' information overload. “Quicken is one possibility,” Johnson told seminar participants at the recent Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Anaheim, Calif. “But other software programs may work equally well. Just make certain the program will do what you need it to.” Johnson said Quicken is not designed specifically for agriculture, “but it is adaptable. It allows farmers to select one system from which they can pull out relevant information and use it for management decisions.” He said accurate records are essential for several reasons. The most obvious is for tax purposes. “But farmers must realize the difference between tax accounting and managerial accounting,” he said. “For management, they need new layers of information.” Managerial accounting Managerial accounting includes information that helps farmers make business decisions. “It shows where money comes from and how it is spent,” Johnson said. “It helps identify profitable enterprises and farm entities. Growers can look at lease rates, income from specific crops, returns from various segments of a farming operation and make comparisons.” He said computer software allows them to do that. He likes Quicken because of its simplicity. “It looks like a checkbook,” he said. “It's also inexpensive and readily available, from outlets such as Wal-Mart, for instance. And, although it's not designed specifically for agriculture, we can manipulate it.” Johnson says the software offers potential for listing income categories, such as cattle, corn, cotton or grain. It also provides for expense categories, such as fuel, fertilizer, land rent, insurance and pesticides. “Just like a check, the software provides a memo line,” he explained. “Farmers need to use the memo line religiously to record and categorize every transaction.” Setting up categories and classes is essential to success, he said. A category may be a specific farm or a specific crop. And that category may be further broken down. For instance, Farm A may be one category and cotton from farm A may be a separate entry. No-till cotton from the same farm could be another class. Farmers may detail classes as precisely as variety or planting date. Accuracy necessary “Precision is necessary,” Johnson said, “to make accurate comparisons and determine where money is spent and profit is made. The power of categories allows a farmer to take information and use it for management decisions. But they have to be meticulous about logging in the information.” Johnson says an insurance check, for instance, may cover two crops. “On the memo line, divide the cost into classes,” he said. “If the insurance check is for $1,000, subdivide it the way it's spent. Perhaps $400 for corn and $600 for cotton. That way, when they review income, they can allot specific expenses to specific crops.” He recommends an overhead class to cover any cost that can't be charged against any one crop or farm entity. “Utilities, for instance, can't be charged against one enterprise and should be put in an overhead or general farm expense category. “But don't lump too much. If a farmer can assign a cost to a specific crop, he should assign it. And be consistent with categories. It's the specific information included in the memo lines that allow farmers to make comparisons that help with management decisions.” Johnson said tax reporting is an important aspect of any record-keeping system. “With this program, farmers can flag items that are deductible.” E-mail: [email protected] 250 crops in state The Golden State produces about 250 different crops, including seeds, flowers and ornamentals. Its favorable climate allows year-round production of lemons, artichokes, avocados, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, mushrooms, spinach and squash. Beans are one of man's earliest cultivated crops. Most varieties originated in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Imagine having 129 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 California's farmers who produce food and fiber to feed and clothe 129 people around the world for a year Amazing asparagus can grow 10 inches in 24 hours under ideal conditions, produce for nearly 15 years and generate spears for six to seven weeks of spring and summer. Gone are the days of the “honeymoon salad” — lettuce alone with no dressing. Today's vast assortment of greens and year-round availability of fresh produce ensure unlimited combinations of ingredients for deliciously interesting salads. Asparagus is a member of the lily family. Although Pierce's disease has been plaguing growers for more than a century, the culprit currently wreaking havoc over eight California counties is the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter. This half-inch-long insect with a voracious appetite is not a picky eater and is believed to dine on the stems of more than 70 species of plants. If all the strawberries produced in California this year were laid berry to berry, they'd wrap around the world 15 times. According to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the pharaohs loved mushrooms so much that they decreed them food for royalty; commoners were not allowed to eat them. Mushrooms continued to be a royal treat until Louis XIV began to grow them in caves near Paris. Because they are easy to grow and require little labor, mushrooms became a popular crop in France and England. In the late 19th century, people in the United States began to grow them. Today, mushroom cultivation is a profitable segment of California agriculture with a yield per acre of 2.44 million pounds. You know strawberries are a big deal in California, but did you know just how big? There are more than 26,000 acres producing an average of 10 million pint baskets of the delectable little berries. What wine goes well with strawberries? Champagne, of course. Be careful when opening that bottle though…Farm Bureau sources report that cork can exit a bottle at speeds up to 62 mph. California cauliflower is a powerhouse of nutrition. One half-cup serving has 100 percent of the daily requirement of vitamin C plus calcium, potassium, fiber and It's good raw and crunchy or fabulous steamed and served with a sauce made from one of California's great cheeses. More than 5,000 farmers participate every year in California's 341 certified farmers' markets. Biotechnology can help farmers feed more people by making plants more nutritious, resistant to pests and diseases, and by extending their shelf life. Nights are cooler, days are shorter and bears are getting ready to hibernate. Fall is the time to enjoy those good-for-you California comfort foods like potatoes. One of nature's most versatile foods, potatoes provide an abundance of vitamins, minerals and fiber. And they're available in colors: red, white, blue, yellow and purple. A recent study found that the yellow jelly around tomato seeds keeps platelets in the blood from clumping together and forming killer clots that can block blood vessels. Research continues in the hope this may be an alternative therapy to aspirin, which can cause stomach upsets. We love salad! Americans eat about 30 pounds of lettuce every year, about five times more than in the early 1900s. More than 1.7 billion pounds of it are grown on 254,500 California acres. It's eaten plain and stuffed with peanut butter or cream cheese. This crunchy, flavorful vegetable is used in soups, salads and stuffing. What is it? Celery. More of it is sold during the holiday season than any other time of year. California food processors grow, produce, pack and ship nearly half of the world supply of processed tomato products — 11 million tons — and 100 percent of the canned peaches and black olives for the U.S. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/5821 | Almond Board describes new projects funded by assessment increase Feb 15, 2017 Governor Brown’s never-ending drought emergency Feb 21, 2017 Delayed first irrigation can improve walnut tree health, yield, quality Feb 15, 2017 ABC invests $4.7 million for next gen almond farming, sustainability Feb 16, 2017 Management Riggs leaves strawberry commission
David R. Riggs, president of the California Strawberry Commission since 1980, has announced he is stepping down as chief executive of the commission. Riggs will remain with the commission in a consulting capacity and will be available for special projects assigned by the commission. “At this time and this point in my career, given current events, I would like greater freedom to pursue other interests,” Riggs said in his announcement. “There are a number of projects which are important to me, some associated with the strawberry industry and others outside. Specifically, I would like to explore opportunities for greater involvement in political and government affairs activities. This arrangement allows me to do that. “A great deal has been accomplished by the commission during my 25 years of service. Activities for the commission have ranged from improvements in varieties and production, advances in marketing, crisis management, negotiations over pesticide regulations, and food safety. The challenges facing the strawberry industry are, in most cases, the challenges faced by all specialty crop farmers. I would like to take part in advancing the industry across all commodities,” he said. In recent years, Riggs has been chairman of the Crop Protection Coalition, which has led the industry's effort to achieve a rational policy on the phase out of methyl bromide. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/6365 | Detroit: A Tale of Two… Farms?
By Eric Holt Gimenez | Farm Bill, Food Deserts
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal celebrated the Hantz Farms project to establish a 10,000 acre private farm in Detroit. The project hinges on a very large land deal offered by financial services magnate John Hantz to buy up over 2,000 empty lots from the city of Detroit. Hantz’s ostensible objective is to establish the world’s largest urban mega-farm.
I say “ostensible” because despite futuristic artists’ renderings of Hantz Farms’ urban greenhouses, presently John Hantz is actually growing trees rather than food. The project website invites us to imagine “high-value trees… in even-spaced rows” on a three-acre pilot site recently cleaned, cleared and planted to hardwood saplings. These trees, it seems, are just a first step in establishing a 200 acre forest and eventually–pending approval by the City Council–the full Hantz megafarm.
In the short run, the purchase by Hantz cleans things up, puts foreclosed lots back on the tax rolls and relieves the city of maintenance responsibilities. If the tree farm expands, it could provide a few jobs. In the long run, however, Hantz hopes his farm will create land scarcity in order to push up property values–property that he will own a lot of.
The Hantz Farms project openly prioritizes creating wealth by appreciating real estate rather than creating value through productive activities. If successful, the urban mega-farm will clearly lead to an impressive accumulation of private wealth on what was public land. It is less clear what this will mean for the low-income residents of Detroit.
Despite two years of glowing national press coverage, not all is going smoothly with the project. Under Michigan’s Right to Farm Act, the Hantz megafarm would pass from the jurisdiction of the city to that of the state. Many in the city are reluctant to lose control over such a big chunk of real estate. When friction on the issue developed between the Administration, city offices and the public, the Hantz negotiations moved quietly out of the public spotlight. But the wheels kept turning…
In a June memo to the Detroit City Council, the City Planning Department complained that:
It has come to our attention, due to inquiry from the media, and communication from a representative from Hantz Farms that the Administration is proposing to sell property to Hantz Farms or some subsidiary for a project on the east side of Detroit. Our office has not received any formal information from the Administration regarding such a proposal; therefore, we do not know with certainty the scope of the project or whether or not it complies with current zoning and/or other City codes.
The potentially massive transfer of public assets to private ownership (at a cleanup cost of $2 million to the city) has led many residents to call the Hantz deal a “land grab.”
Though the scale is unprecedented, does this real estate project really have anything in common with the brutal, large-scale land acquisitions sweeping Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America?
Land grabs in far-off places occur when governments allow outside investors to push subsistence farmers and pastoralists off massive swathes of tropical farm and range land to establish mega-plantations of palm oil or sugarcane for ethanol. Despite the hype, very few of these projects actually grow any food. Often the land grab is simply about investing in real estate. Researchers studying the global phenomena have not yet found any benefits for local communities resulting from these land grabs. On the contrary, uprooted from land and livelihoods, poor rural people are forced into the option of last resort: migration.
Notwithstanding, from Goldman Sacks and the Carlyle Group to university pension funds, holders of big money are anxious to put their wealth into land, at least until the global recession blows over. Cheap land, devalued by economic and post-industrial recessions, is literally up for grabs. Once acquired, the easiest and most effective, low-cost way for big financial dogs to quickly mark their newly-acquired territory has been to plant trees–trees require little maintenance and if global carbon markets ever really kick in, could pay dividends.
As Susan Payne, CEO of Emergent Asset Management has bluntly stated, “In South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa the cost of agriland, arable, good agriland that we’re buying is one-seventh of the price of similar land in Argentina, Brazil and America. That alone is an arbitrage opportunity. We could be moronic and not grow anything and we think we will make money over the next decade.”
Whether the objective is to safeguard wealth, speculate on real estate, accrue water rights, bet on carbon credits or actually plant food or fuel crops, the point of a land grab is to leverage financially-stressed governments in order to acquire large areas of public land under a convenient global pretense (e.g., cooling the planet, feeding the world or ending the world fuel crisis). This supposedly benefits the planet by enriching few and impoverishing many. Detroit’s 2,000 city-owned lots (now on sale at $300 each), coupled with a food security discourse, fits some of the land grab parameters.
But like most places around the world, there are people living in the land of Detroit, and not all residents are happy with Hantz’s plan–which is probably why he has worked behind the scenes, avoiding Detroit’s Urban Ag Work Group, the City Planning Commission, and the Detroit Food Policy Council. While some residents support the Hantz forest, others–like those working with D-town Farms, who are already very busy growing and distributing food–don’t believe the hype. They are opposing the Hantz deal on moral, political and economic grounds. Malik Yakini of the Detroit Black Food Security Network noted that he was anxious to participate in more active opposition to this land grab, and that given the Administration’s disregard for the work of the Urban Ag Work Group and the City Planning Commission, the sale of the land to Hantz undermines real democracy.
These are strong words coming from one of Detroit’s leading food security advocates. When one looks at the trajectory of D-Town Farms and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, what appears as indignant opposition is really a fundamentally different logic for addressing the health, education and general welfare concerns of Detroiters living in the underserved neighborhoods the city refers to as blighted neighborhoods.
The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network is a coalition of community groups that focus on urban agriculture, policy development and co-operative buying. They have been farming in Detroit since 2006, pioneered an 18-month effort to formulate a city-wide food policy adopted by the City Council in 2008, and researched and proposed the model for the current Detroit Food Policy Council. They have helped grow an extensive network of gardens and buying clubs to address fresh food access and employment challenges in Detroit’s underserved neighborhoods. Throughout, the Network held public meetings and worked extensively with city leaders, local business, churches and neighborhood organizations, as well with Wayne State and Michigan State University. The seven acre D-Town Farm is a hub in an extensive community-based effort to turn the local food system into an engine for local economic development, owned and operated by those who are most adversely impacted by the lack of fresh food access in Detroit’s underserved neighborhoods.
But recognizing that Hantz Farms follows a speculative and private real estate logic and seeks to concentrate wealth, while D-Town Farms follows a community livelihoods logic that seeks an equitable distribution of opportunities and resources, still barely touches the surface of the deep differences in demography, culture, socio-economic status and political orientation of the two urban farming projects.
At the center of this tale of two farms, lies a contentious global question just beginning to resurface in the United States these days: the land question.
Land–rural or urban–is more than just land; it is the space where social, economic and community decisions are made, and it is the place of neighborhood, culture and livelihoods. It is home. Therefore, it is more than just a “commodity.” While John Hantz’s stated objective is to produce scarcity of the land as a commodity, residents living in the lower-income homes of post-industrial Detroit deal daily with scarcity of health, education and basic public services to which they are entitled. The transformation of these public goods into private “commodities,” coupled with their scarcity has not resulted in any improvement for residents. Market demand and human needs are not the same, and one does not necessarily address the other. Driving up the price of land in underserved neighborhoods may well put the city on the road to gentrification, but it won’t help solve the challenges facing the majority of Detroit’s citizens.
There are many notable, socially and economically-integrated projects in Detroit that are already improving livelihoods, diet and incomes through urban farming. It is difficult to see how these can flourish in the shadow of a mega-project designed to price low-income people out of their own neighborhoods. While private sector initiatives need to be a part of any economic development strategy, unless the City’s democratic public institutions can find positive ways to address Detroit’s land question, it runs the risk of reproducing a classic land grab–with all its disastrous consequences.
Originally published on Huffington Post
Nancy S. Greenia Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
thank you for your solid overview of the situation. I shared this article via facebook. I see that LEAP (Lower eastide action plan) is supporting the project (requesting support via a petition to city council), this has me concerned. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/7532 | New food safety rules aimed toward farmers
By MARY CLARE JALONICK - The Associated PressWASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration proposed Friday the most sweeping food safety rules in decades, requiring farmers and food companies to be more vigilant in the wake of deadly outbreaks in peanuts, cantaloupe and leafy greens.
The long-overdue regulations are aimed at reducing the estimated 3,000 deaths a year from foodborne illness. Just since last summer, outbreaks of listeria in cheese and salmonella in peanut butter, mangoes and cantaloupe have been linked to more than 400 illnesses and as many as seven deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The actual number of those sickened is likely much higher.The FDA’s proposed rules would require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to include making sure workers’ hands are washed, irrigation water is clean, and that animals stay out of fields. Food manufacturers will have to submit food safety plans to the government to show they are keeping their operations clean.Many responsible food companies and farmers are already following the steps that the FDA would now require them to take. But officials say the requirements could have saved lives and prevented illnesses in several of the large-scale outbreaks that have hit the country in recent years.Under the new rules, companies would have to lay out plans for preventing those sorts of problems, monitor their own progress and explain to the FDA how they would correct them.“The rules go very directly to preventing the types of outbreaks we have seen,” said Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods.The FDA estimates the new rules could prevent almost 2 million illnesses annually, but it could be several years before the rules are actually preventing outbreaks. Taylor said it could take the agency another year to craft the rules after a four-month comment period, and farms would have at least two years to comply – meaning the farm rules are at least three years away from taking effect. Smaller farms would have even longer to comply.The new rules, which come exactly two years to the day President Barack Obama’s signed food safety legislation passed by Congress, were already delayed. The 2011 law required the agency to propose a first installment of the rules a year ago, but the Obama administration held them until after the election. Food safety advocates sued the administration to win their release.The produce rule would mark the first time the FDA has had real authority to regulate food on farms. In an effort to stave off protests from farmers, the farm rules are tailored to apply only to certain fruits and vegetables that pose the greatest risk, like berries, melons, leafy greens and other foods that are usually eaten raw. A farm that produces green beans that will be canned and cooked, for example, would not be regulated.
Such flexibility, along with the growing realization that outbreaks are bad for business, has brought the produce industry and much of the rest of the food industry on board as Congress and FDA has worked to make food safer.In a statement Friday, Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the country’s biggest food companies, said the food safety law “can serve as a role model for what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to achieve a common goal.”The new rules could cost large farms $30,000 a year, according to the FDA. The agency did not break down the costs for individual processing plants, but said the rules could cost manufacturers up to $475 million annually.FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the success of the rules will also depend on how much money Congress gives the chronically underfunded agency to put them in place. “Resources remain an ongoing concern,” she said.The farm and manufacturing rules are only one part of the food safety law. The bill also authorized more surprise inspections by the FDA and gave the agency additional powers to shut down food facilities. In addition, the law required stricter standards on imported foods. The agency said it will soon propose other overdue rules to ensure that importers verify overseas food is safe and to improve food safety audits overseas.Food safety advocates frustrated over the last year as the rules stalled praised the proposed action.“The new law should transform the FDA from an agency that tracks down outbreaks after the fact, to an agency focused on preventing food contamination in the first place,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/7715 | Peanut market better, but take care in how you sell and plant for it Feb 15, 2017 (Correction) Bayer may divest assets in Monsanto merger Jan 24, 2017 Resistance management even more critical with new herbicides Feb 06, 2017 Virginia hulless barley shows promise as livestock feed equal to corn Feb 23, 2017 FARMERS WHO ARE installing irrigation for the first time or expanding a current system should carefully consider the available water supply and the type of irrigation to be used.
Equipment Irrigation options numerous, but do homework before making investment
• The important thing is having that water supply available when you need it during the growing season. There are a lot of options out there.
• Unfortunately, Alabama is at a disadvantage because we can’t always drill a 100 or 200-foot well and begin to pump 500 to 1,000 gallons per minute. Paul Hollis | Dec 06, 2012
For a farmer who’s considering installing irrigation for the first time or expanding, there are several factors to consider, but first and foremost are water supply and the type of irrigation system to be used.
“The biggest issue we have to consider with water supply is making sure we have enough water during the growing season, especially during the latter part of the season when it’s most critical, such as the tasseling stage of corn,” says John Fulton, Auburn University Extension Specialist — Biosystems and Engineering.
“It’s typically the driest part of the year, and it’s the maximum water usage for the plant. So it’s critical that we have an adequate water supply at that time.”
Growers must consider the potential for significant water use with any irrigation system, says Fulton.
(For a look at how one Alabama farming operation is using irrigation, see Alabama's Dee River Ranch: state of the art irrigation technology on display).
“In Alabama, we commonly have droughty growing conditions, and corn or cotton could require anywhere from 1/10 inch starting out to 3/10 or 4/10 inch of water, depending on the growth stage. Growers need to ask themselves if they can supply that amount of water adequately and at a frequency to maintain or maximize our yields,” he says.
It’s important to factor in the crops you’re growing and the water-use curves of each, says Fulton.
“You also need to look at the type of irrigation you want to install and at the water supply or storage you would need.”
Alabama is blessed with adequate annual rainfall, but much of it occurs during the winter months, he says.
“The important thing is having that supply available when you need it during the growing season. There are a lot of options out there. Unfortunately, Alabama is at a disadvantage because we can’t always drill a 100 or 200-foot well and begin to pump 500 to 1,000 gallons per minute.
“Groundwater is very limited in many places in Alabama, so we have to look at other ways to make it economical. There are ways to gain access to groundwater and drill wells, but it’s very expensive.
“A lot of times, you’re talking about a 600 to 1,000-foot well, and you could spend from $20,000 to $80,000 just to get the well in place, and that doesn’t include the pump and other expenses.”
If a farmer is planning on drilling for water, Fulton recommends hiring a reputable, experienced well driller.
“They’ll drill small test wells and look for the water, and they can see the depth and flow rate that can be expected for irrigation.
Pulling from river, large stream
“There’s also the possibility of pulling water from a river or large stream that’s adjacent to your property as long as it’s flowing during the growing season and as long as you’re not having an environmental impact on the fish or wildlife in that body of water.”
Another option, says Fulton, is on-farm storage, whether it’s using existing ponds or constructed ponds or reservoirs that can then be used to supply water for irrigation.
“If you want to install two or three center pivots and water a larger area, you’d need a larger pond or multiple ponds to support the irrigation during the early season and not draw it down to the point of being dry when water is needed for critical crop stages.”
Water storage on the farm is now a proven irrigation technology, says Fulton, and the NRCS AWEP program has provided cost-share funds for developing ponds to be used in watering cropland.
(Alabama’s Mitch Lazenby has gotten into irrigation with on-farm water storage. To see his story visit Mitch Lazenby investing in irrigation for farm's future).
Investing in any type of irrigation requires a lot of capital, says Fulton, but many farmers are seeing a quick payback, especially with current commodity prices.
Most producers who have adopted irrigation for row crops are using center pivots, primarily because of efficiencies they provide, the area of coverage, and the costs when compared with other options, says Fulton.
“The idea is to sustain yields and manage risks. If you can maintain corn yields of 200 to 250 bushels per acre during drought years or maintain three-bale cotton, it can mean something significant for your operation.
“Normally when we talk about center pivots, we’re talking about being able to cover a crop about every three days. If you’re able to make only a partial turn, it might take more than three days.”
Another irrigation option is traveler guns or hose reels that fill in areas where center pivot might not work, says Fulton.
“They are cheaper from a capital investment standpoint, so growers may start out with those. But they are a 24/7 operation and can be very tiring and labor-intensive.
“Also, they’re high-pressure systems, so they’re not as efficient as center pivots. We’ve seen some furrow irrigation in Alabama, but it’s trickier because you have to have the correct soil types to support it. Secondly, you have to do some land-grading, which can be an expensive proposition.”
In the last 10 years, subsurface drip irrigation also has become an increasingly popular option in Alabama, says Fulton.
“We’ve seen a tremendous expansion of drip irrigation both in north and south Alabama. Farmers are burying the tape, and it’s working well in smaller fields where center pivots just aren’t feasible. You might have an odd-shaped, 20 or 30-acre field where drip irrigation will work better.”
Since 1998, researchers in Alabama have been looking at drip irrigation and have seen many successes, he says.
“Pressure-compensating tape allows you to go over a hillside and down, and it allows you to have an even water flow regardless of where you are along that slope. We’ve got more than 3,000 acres or so of row crops in Alabama being watered by subsurface drip irrigation.”
TAGS: Management Soybeans Cotton Peanuts Corn 0 comments Hide comments | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/7864 | The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook
July 6, 2010 | Be the first to write a review Real nutrition that doesn't cost the earth
Wendy E Cook
Features over 150 delicious recipes
Softbound$39.00
Biodynamics is about respect for nature, sustainability, and spiritual ecology. But most of all it is about flavorful, nutritious, enjoyable food! The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook is a rich book of information, beautifully illustrated and packed with delicious and healthy recipes.
The biodynamic movement is supported by top chefs, master winemakers, and numerous celebrities—Prince Charles introduced biodynamic methods at his Gloucestershire farm. Nonetheless, biodynamic agriculture had a humble beginning in 1924, with a small group of farmers and gardeners gathered to hear Rudolf Steiner give a series of lectures on revitalizing agriculture. It was a time of growing interest in industrial farming and mass production, and Steiner spoke of the need to preserve and nurture the qualitative aspects of food. He outlined an agricultural method based on a holistic perception of nature.
Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook explains the principles behind biodynamic methods and places it in the context of food and cooking through the ages. Wendy Cook, author of the bestselling Foodwise, takes us on a journey through the four seasons with more than 150 delicious recipes based on many years of working with biodynamic nutrition. She considers the ethics of food, the foundation of a balanced diet, and conjures up the color and vibrancy of Mallorca, which has contributed so much to her personal approach. Included are supplementary sections on breads, sauces, salads, desserts, drinks, and much more.
The Biodynamic Food & Cookbook will find a permanent place in every healthy kitchen. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/9047 | #LCK
Top Chef Thurs 9/8c Get Updates
#TOPCHEF
The Nice Thing About 'Top Chef'
Jamie explains that, well, everyone's a winner! by Jamie Lauren
December 10, 2009 • 11:30 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email More This is it, folks. It all comes down to this last blog ... the last episode. I, for one, cannot believe I have successfully written 14 of these puppies. I'll tell you, after about Week 5, I really didn't think I was going to be able to hang. I didn't think I would be able to think of something to write about each week. I know at times I've rambled, but I really tried to do my best when covering the show. I think it's been an overall great season, filled with really fantastic caliber chefs and some really great-looking food. It all comes down to this, though ... the end ... the top three, and they all certainly deserved to be there. Consistently these guys have been on top pretty much all season, so I think it comes as no surprise that they are in the final round, and what a final round it was. I wouldn't want to be a judge sitting on the panel for this round, I can only imagine how hard it must be to pick between three really great talents.Down to business: No Quickfire, since it's the last episode. Sad for Bryan, because I know he really wanted to win one, but sometimes you just don't win things (this I can certainly attest to). It doesn't matter much though; winning isn't everything, and I do really believe that. After being on a show like Top Chef, I have learned that you don't have to win to be successful. At this point it's all about how you play the game after the show, and I believe that these guys will have no problem moving on to do great things in their careers. That is one of the nice things about being on Top Chef; it really does expose you to an audience you never knew existed. It's an amazing thing to go from being no one to someone overnight, and getting sent things like cookie bouquets, t-shirts, paintings, books, aquarium memberships, etc. Your life sure does change, and I think there isn't anyone who would be prouder then the moms of these guys. I was trying to figure out why the producers decided to have the moms come on as guests, and then it hit me. I think it definitely had something to do with the brothers being on the show together and being in the finale together. I for one felt it was a wee bit cheesy, but sweet, I guess, if you're into that kind of stuff. I can only speak for my mom, who thinks it's the coolest thing ever that I was on the show (hi mom. I know you read, and apparently now comment on my blogs), but I didn't make it to the finale, but I guess moms will be moms. They are proud no matter how well you do. It was nice to get a little back story on the guys from the mouths of their elders, and to see how excited they were for their sons. Also, I loved the twist of the extra course (as if we didn't see that coming) that was inspired by their childhoods. I definitely think Kevin took the cake on that one, but before we get ahead of ourselves...It is the finale after all, and what would a finale be without some help!?!!? I LOVED the randomness of the sous chefs. I think the brothers got super-lucky, especially Bryan who drew Jen, and Michael who drew Eli. Talk about luck, getting the two other chefs that were in the top six. Then there was Kevin. Poor guy. He seemed to have quite a challenge with Preeti. I can't believe it took her so long to do just two small tasks. That must have been really frustrating for him, having someone who definitely was not even close to being on the same level as his competitors' sous chefs. In some ways I guess it was a bit of a disadvantage for him, since he had to absorb a great deal of the work and had to constantly look over his shoulder at everything she was doing. I'm sure it added an element of unwanted stress to his finale game plan. It was an interesting twist, adding fear of getting stuck with one of the chefs who was eliminated early. Interesting and mean. But hey, I guess that's the way the producers like it. Who am I to say? They needed a good twist and guess this was the best they could think of.Now, onto the food. First off, I do think this group made a much better dinner then the finalists on my season. I also loved that they had to make a dessert, especially considering that Hosea won last year by serving meat as his last course, and I was impressed with all three chefs' desserts. These guys certainly came prepared, but aside from that, only a few of the dishes really jumped out at me. Plus combined with the fact that I thought the episode was a slightly anti-climatic ending to a somewhat predictable season and I am left unimpressed. There is not a shred of doubt that these guys are incredibly talented, in fact probably the most talented group of finalists yet, but there was a certain something missing for me that I simply cannot explain. I kept waiting for something amazing to happen and it never quite did. As I said before, I loved the idea of Kevin's boyhood dish, and the piece of crispy chicken skin looked awesome, but I really thought the brothers V. failed on that course, Bryan and his notorious under-seasoning and Michael with his gnarly-looking fried broccoli bits. Neither looked appetizing. Hopefully they grew up eating better then that. Poor guys. As for the mystery basket course, I thought it was an odd selection of things to put together (as mystery baskets are... I once got one with mushrooms, delicata squash, pomegranates and Mexican chocolate—That blew), but I would have loved to see the chefs incorporate the crab more. I was really shocked that Michael was the only one that actually put the crabmeat on the plate, as opposed to just in a sauce. His dish was the clear winner in that round for me, and it would have been Kevin's had he not cooked his matsutake mushroom incorrectly, at least according to our esteemed panel of experts. Bryan, what did he make again? I forgot.As for the main courses, this is really where the chefs had a chance to shine and show their true styles, and I thought all three did a great job expressing themselves. I have to say I really loved Bryan's venison dish. I thought it looked beautiful, had a perfect array of textures, and that piece of meat was gorgeously cooked. Michael also impressed with his squab, though I was confused about his "textures of mushrooms." I almost wish there was a little more explanation of that so I could grasp the concept better, but the idea of a pistachio cassoulet was an interesting play on words and a smart use of nuts. It really showed his creativity and skill. Sadly, my boy Kevin didn't pull through on his entree as well as the brothers V. did. I am a huge, huge, huge fan of all things pork. I wax poetic about bacon all the time, so I get it, but this was one time where I actually did agree with Tom. I thought his dish could have used another element for it to be a more well-rounded entree. To me, it looked more like a first course, not a final course. But, in the end I do have to give Kevin props for really sticking with his style and not being intimidated by the technical skills of the brothers. I can imagine in his position, it must have been really hard for him to stay on his path and focus and do his thing with that kind of pressure around. Plus, dude put bacon in a dessert! Love it. Sweet flavors and bacon are so good together. I'm glad he had the nerve to do that for his final plate. It was actually the one dessert of the three that I would really like to try, but, I am a fan of simple, and I like desserts that play off of sweet and salty, and Kevin did that with his.So, this brings us to judgment. I haven't watched the ending. Based solely on what I saw, which was about 56 minutes of the episode, I am still tossed up over who I think is the winner. The judges were so split and divided it really is a hard one to call. My gut tells me my pick Kevin didn't win, just based on some of the comments that were made. So I think it comes down to a family rivalry, and because of Bryan's lack of seasoning in two dishes I am going to have to begrudgingly choose Michael. As cocky and arrogant as he may come across, he really is a spectacular cook. He thinks outside the box and constantly impresses, and at the end I think he was the chef who made the most impact in the finale. Either way though, I'm sure all their mothers are thrilled for their boys.Thanks a ton for reading my blog this season. I really loved reading all your comments and feedback. If you ever want to get in touch, you can find me on Twitter, as most of you already know (@chefjamielauren) or you can e-mail me at work at [email protected] if there is another Top Chef tour this year I'll be able to meet some of you out on the road. Until then, can't wait for next season! You May Also Like... | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/9430 | Valent finds new territory manager
Bobby Santana has been named Turf and Ornamental Territory Manager for Southeast Florida.
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – Valent Professional Products announced that Robert “Bobby” Santana has joined the company as the territory manager for Southeast Florida.
Santana will be responsible for cultivating Valent’s lines of turf and ornamental products. Santana joins Jerid Wendling as one of two territory managers exclusively dedicated to serving Florida’s horticultural, turf and lawn care professionals.
Santana is a native of Clearwater, Fla., and graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in food and resource economics, focusing on agribusiness management.
Santana has deep family ties to the Florida turf and ornamental industries. His father is in turf and ornamental sales, and his brother-in-law’s family owns a nursery in Central Florida.
Santana most recently worked in turf and ornamental distribution in Southwest Florida. He will be based in Fort Lauderdale for Valent.
“I’m familiar with Valent’s outstanding line of turf and ornamental products, and the opportunity to work with these products was one of the main reasons I decided to join Valent,” Santana said. “In sales, it’s always good to have a strong product behind you. I’m excited about the opportunity and look forward to getting started.”
Valent names new head of biorational business unit
SureGuard Herbicide with new use
Johnson joins Valent as vice president of technology | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/10149 | OPERATING CONTROLLED DRAINAGE AND SUBIRRIGATION SYSTEMS
Prepared by: Robert Evans, Extension Specialist
andWayne Skaggs,William Neal Reynolds Professor
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Published by: North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Publication Number: AG 356
Last Electronic Revision: June 1996 (KNS)
Dual-purpose drainage/subirrigation systems are now being used on poorly drained soils to reduce water-related stress on crops. The mechanics of this dual-purpose system is discussed in Agricultural Water Management for Coastal Plain Soils, AG-355. During wet periods this system operates as a drainage system (Figure 1). Here, excess water is removed from the field through a system of underground drain tubes which outlet to a main drain tube or open
ditch. When a structure (such as a flashboard riser) is used in the outlet ditch to regulate the drainage rate, the system may function in either the controlled drainage or subirrigation mode. Usually a weir is placed in the control structure so that the water level in the drainage outlet has to rise higher than the weir crest before the water will flow out of the field.
The process called controlled drainage occurs when the structure is used
to conserve water by reducing drainage outflows and when no additional
water is pumped in. During dry periods, water may be pumped into the control outlet where it moves back through the drainage network, thus raising
the water level in the field. In this mode the system is being used for subirrigation.
The dual-purpose system will normally fluctuate between the drainage, controlled
drainage and subirrigation modes several times during one cropping season. Because the role of the system often changes, intensive monitoring and management
of the system is necessary for effective operation.
Figure 1. Three modes of operation for a water management system: drainage, controlled drainage and subirrigation.
The best crop response for a drainage/subirrigation system will be realized
with a system that is specifically designed to serve both purposes. Systems whose designs focus on drainage are, in general, not adequate to function in both modes. The physical limitations of the system can, however, be overcome somewhat. One way would be to increase system management. Another way to overcome some limitations would be to increase the drainage intensity of the system by installing additional tile lines between existing lines. This additional drainage capacity is needed when the water table rises, a
condition which decreases the drainage capacity of any subsurface system. Land shaping to improve surface drainage may also be needed, especially on
an existing system with limited drainage capacity.
If a new system is to be installed for both drainage and subirrigation, the system's size and layout must satisfy the water management needs of the specific site. Many factors influence this size and layout. For example, crop rooting depth and tolerance to water stress are important considerations. Several
soil properties such as water-holding capacity, hydraulic conductivity, and location of layers within the profile should also be measured for each site. Furthermore, rainfall distribution within the geographic region under consideration will influence the design and operation of the system. Finally, farm operators should carefully evaluate the time available to "look after" the system. To reduce the initial cost, design the system for an intensive level of management. However, intensive management may not be realistic since the subirrigation system will often compete for time with other vital farm operations.
The final design of the drainage/subirrigation system should be evaluated using the water management simulation model, DRAINMOD. For initial planning purposes,
subirrigation/drainage requires about 65 percent of the spacing normally
needed for drainage alone. Drain tubing depth should be about 3 to 4 feet which is somewhat shallower than the depth for conventional drainage. Subirrigation offers little advantage to placing the tubing deeper unless the lower layer is more permeable than the overlying layers. The control structure should be sized and managed so that the ditch or waterway can carry its full capacity during high flow periods.
In eastern North Carolina, removing excess water from the field is the system's most important
role. Thus, in areas where droughts are temporary, the system functions mainly as a drainage system. During the traditionally wet winter and early spring period, the water-level control structure should be set below the level of the tile outlet to provide maximum drainage capacity. This water level should be maintained until after the crop has been planted and most of the trafficable operations have been completed. To maintain water quality in receiving streams, it may be desirable to operate in the controlled drainage mode during most of the winter in order to reduce nitrate outflows on some sites.
Once the system is operational, the most important management decisions include:
when to raise/lower the control structure;
at what height to maintain the weir in the control structure; and
when to add water to the system.
These decisions not only may differ for every site, they may also vary with the crop. Depending on soil type, root depth, drain depth and control structure
setting, from 1 to 4 inches of plant available water can be held in the profile that would otherwise drain (Figure 2). (Plant available water is any water
retained in the soil that plants can use.) This amount represents from 3 days to
2 weeks of water storage that would not need to be supplied by pumping. How important this water is to the crop depends on the capabilities and limitations of the system. The following situations based on system capabilities should be considered as a guide for the initial decisions.
Figure 2. Water retained in the soil profile as a result of managing the drainage outlet.
When To Raise/Lower the Water-level Control Structure
Controlled drainage-Conserving water by controlled drainage is most critical on systems where supplemental water is not available. If dry condi-
tions are anticipated, it would be desirable to raise the weir soon after planting to conserve as much water as possible. On the other hand, the system
should be operated so that prolonged saturation of the root zone does not occur,
especially when the crop is young. In North Carolina, late April and early May are sometimes "rainy periods." Therefore, on systems which do not have adequate drainage capacity, water table management too early in the season may result in excess water stress when the crop is young.
Raising the water table too soon or controlling the water table at a shallow
depth below the soil surface will also discourage deep root growth, an effect
which could make the crop more susceptible to drought later (Figure 3). Holding the water table too high will also encourage denitrification which could result in a nitrogen deficiency later in the season. Thus, the long-term average production benefit of controlled drainage greatly depends on the system's drainage capacity in addition to the severity of the drought stress.
Consider, for example, a conventional, predominately surface drainage system with inadequate drainage capacity during wet periods. In a very dry season, little benefit would be realized from controlled drainage (as compared to drainage alone) on a crop such as corn since very few soils can store enough water to grow a crop without rainfall for 6 to 8 weeks. However, a controlled drainage system can store enough water to reduce drought stress for short periods. For this reason, the greatest benefit will be realized in years which
have frequent small rains (often less than 1 inch) with only short droughts. But in a very wet year, yields will probably be reduced if the water table is held too high because of inadequate drainage. The long-term average benefit of this type of system (as compared to conventional drainage alone) would be minimal.
Operating the system in the controlled drainage mode can provide considerable yield responses if the system is designed for subirrigation or controlled drainage. This situation occurs when the system has adequate drainage for water
table management, but the supplemental water supply has not been developed. As before, a very dry year would offer little or no benefits. But in years with
frequent rains and short droughts, the potential yields could be 10 to 20 percent higher than for drainage alone. This situation will occur about 1
year in 4. In a very wet year, few or no benefits would be realized from saving
water, but since drainage is adequate, there would be no harm in controlling the
water table elevation as in the earlier example. Over the long run, this type of
system would produce average yield increases of 2 to 5 percent above yields with
a conventional drainage system for a crop such as corn.
Figure 3. Root development in response to good and poor water table
management. Subirrigation-Saving water early in the season is not as important for high yields if the system is designed for drainage and subirrigation and if adequate supplemental water is available. Any water saved and used later in a dry period will delay the need for irrigation and reduce associated pumping
costs. On the other hand, saving water might increase the risk of some early wet stress and discourage root development.
The risk associated with raising the structure either too soon or too high on any system can be reduced by increasing the intensity of system management. For
example, in case of heavy rains and systems which do not have adequate drainage,
operators must be prepared to manually lower the structure to increase the drainage rate. This drainage control is critical when the crop is young and
should be done as soon as it is clear that too much rain will fall. Controlling such drainage could mean lowering the structure in the middle of the night.
The structure should not be raised again until the water level midway between drains or ditches has dropped at least 12 inches below the soil surface.
This level, however, depends on soil type and crop age as discussed earlier.
On systems which are designed for controlled drainage or subirrigation, the water control structure does not need to be lowered after heavy rains provided the system is being operated and managed as it was designed. Lowering the level will increase the drainage rate and may reduce slightly the risk of excess water stress if the crop is young; however, this effect is likely only in unusually wetseasons. As soon as the rain stops and the water table in the field drops below the soil surface, the structure should be reset to the design height.
Drain spacings can be increased slightly (up to 10 to 15 percent) on a system if the operator wishes to devote more time to manage the system.
Local rainfall patterns will influence the timing and positioning of the control
structure level. From a conservation and utilization standpoint, the structure should not be raised until the water table in the field has dropped to the design level. Such timing would reduce the potential damage due to early
excess water and still conserve water for a subsequent dry period. Of course, this situation is never known in advance, and the longer you delay raising
the structure, the greater the risk that rainfall wil not adequately fill the
storage capacity of the profile. Therefore, the best approach is to compile past rainfall records for your specific location and use this information
together with weather forecast information to decide when to begin raising the
Level of the Water Table Control Structure
The optimum water table control level will depend on the crop, stage of growth and soil type. This level will need to be higher for sandy soils or shallow-rooted crops. For corn, the water level at the control structure needs to be between 18 and 30 inches for most soils. At planting, begin with the structure adjusted to the bottom of the drainage outlet. This level will usually be between 3 to 5 feet. Until experience is gained and the crop response to the system can be observed, raise the level of the structure incrementally about 6 inches every 7 to 14 days in order to reach the final desired elevation about mid-May. In most years this practice will allow the profile to store its maximum potential at the onset of the drought period and reduce the risk of early crop damage due
to inadequate drainage.
Several years of system operation may be required before learning the "final" and best setting. Keep accurate records of any apparent wet stress, dry stress and yields at several locations in the field to determine the best setting. Compare yields at points directly above the drains to yields midway between drains. The greatest water stress should be observed midway between drains.
Adding Water to the System
The main concern here is not to let the soil get "too dry" before starting to
irrigate. The crop responds more slowly to a subirrigation system than it does to a conventional overhead system. This is because as the soil dries out, the hydraulic conductivity of the soil decreases drastically and the volume of water
needed per unit rise of water table height will also increase. In comparison, 2 to 3 days are normally required for water in a saturated (wet) soil to move
from the-drain to midway between drains. On the other hand, the water may require 2 to 3 weeks to travel this same distance once the soil dries out.
Most subirrigation water travels laterally in a zone 3 to 6 feet below the surface. In general, the water table should not be allowed to drop below this
zone during any part of the growing season so that when irrigation becomes necessary, only a few days will be needed to "start up." In most poorly drained
soils in eastern North Carolina, the water table will not drop below 6 feet except during dry periods that begin in late May and continue into the
Two approaches can be used to manage the subirrigation system. First, the water level in the outlet is maintained near a constant level, for example, 20 inches deep. This level is allowed to fluctuate only 1 to 2 inches and is easy to manage by using float switches to start and stop the irrigation pump. However, in this case, the crop relies on irrigation for much of its water, so this approach could present a problem. If the water table is held too high when this
method is used, it would reduce the profile storage space above the water table,
storage space that is at a minimum. Consequently, most rainfall that occurs during the irrigation season drains from the profile.
With the second approach, the water table is raised to the desired level, then the pump is shutoff (Figure 4). The water table will then be allowed to recede due to evapotranspiration until it drops to some lower allowable limit. At this point, pumping starts and the water table is again raised to the upper level where the process repeats itself. With this method, the water table is allowed to fluctuate 12 to 18 inches depending on soil type. This approach has greater potential to store and use the rainfall that occurs when the water table is in the deeper range.
Figure 4. Cyclic method of water table control during subirrigation.
Pumping raises the water table into the drainage outlet, then the water table
recedes due to evapotranspiration.
In using either method, the water table should be maintained at the greatest depth that will still supply adequate water to the crop. This level will provide
the maximum storage potential for-and more efficient use of-rainfall. To take advantage of this rainfall, delay pumping as long as possible, especially when the growing season begins. It should not be necessary to add water to a crop such as corn before mid- to late May in most years, but don't let the soil get too dry for reasons discussed earlier.
Monitor the System
Observation wells should be established at several locations in the field to monitor the position of the water table. These wells should be located midway between the drain lines and at least at two different locations in the field. Additional wells should be set up for each soil type being irrigated. Small diameter pipe 4- to 5-feet long can be used for this purpose (Figure 5). Small holes should be bored in the sides of the pipe so water can move easily into
and out of the pipe. This pipe should extend above the ground surface, and the soil should be crowned around the sides and at the top to prevent surface water from running in along the sides of the pipe. If 4-inch diameter pipe is used, a typical toilet bowl float with a wire or small rod will just fit inside the pipe
and can be used to measure the water level.
Figure 5. Observation well used to monitor position of water table on a
controlled drainage or subirrigation system.
The water level should be measured daily throughout the first growing season that the system operates. The wells can be monitored less frequently once (1) experience has been gained, and (2) the response of the water table to rainfall and changes in the control structure level have been observed. At least for the first season of operation, maintain records of rainfall, water table position,
control structure level, pumping rate and crop performance. This information will tell how quickly the system responds and will help managethe system in
future years.
As mentioned earlier, water table management will respond differently for various soils and crops. For this reason, it is impossible to suggest precise
settings and/or operational guidelines that will work at every location. Until experience is gained in operating the system, seek professional advice. The North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service and Soil Conservation Service in each county are available to help with your water management decisions. The
SCS can design the system to satisfy particular water management needs, and they
can provide more specific recommendations based on system capacity and management intensity. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/11541 | Gardening With Heirloom Varieties
Food historian William Woys Weaver has been gardening with heirloom varieties since he was a boy. But finding his grandfather’s rare seed collection in a deep freeze may have been the critical point in determining his unique career path. Today, Weaver’s collection includes over 4,000 varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Read the fascinating story of how he revived his grandfather’s garden.
By William Woys Weaver
Each year, Weaver is gardening with heirloom varieties from his collection, and grows hundreds of varieties of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Photo by Rob Cardillo
Gardening with heirloom varieties. How my grandfather’s nearly lost seed collection led me to a passion for gardening and food history.Gardening With Heirloom VarietiesIt was never my intention to become a seedsman, gardener or food historian, but it happened as one of those turns in life that leads us down an unexpected path into a world of ongoing surprise and pleasure. Closeness to the earth is part of my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, and the knack for botany came from the Quaker side of my clan. But it was my grandfather who brought those threads together. He was born in Lancaster County, married to a Quaker farm girl and was deeply devoted to plants.My grandparents were my early mentors. I remember working beside my grandfather in his large kitchen garden with my own miniature wheelbarrow and tools. I was probably more in his way than a help, but I was also absorbing everything he told me.My grandfather had begun collecting seeds in the late 1920s — mostly from relatives during his extensive genealogical work. That was the founding framework from which the Roughwood Seed Collection (my seed collection that now contains more than 4,000 varieties) evolved. Even before then, his penchant for collecting flowers of intense blue colors was well-established. I still have one of his specially bred tall-stemmed blue columbines, and not long ago realized that the big blue dahlia that used to tower over me as a child was none other than ‘Thomas Edison,’ a showy variety introduced in 1929.
My grandfather had been sickly all his life because of a bad childhood case of rheumatic fever, but gardening was an outlet he could enjoy without wearing himself down. He also kept racing pigeons and bees, and they brought a unique balance to the little world he created. The bees pollinated the plants and made honey, and the pigeons provided delicious squabs for potpies, not to mention rich fertilizer for the garden.My grandfather died unexpectedly in 1956, when I was 9 years old. Manicured flower beds gradually returned to weeds, and the half-acre kitchen garden went back to lawn.As a teenager, I worked summers in West Chester, Pa., and stayed with my grandmother. During one of her high-energy housecleaning forays we discovered — at the bottom of the big deep freezer in the cellar — hundreds of baby food jars meticulously labeled and filled with seeds. Those jars contained the core of my grandfather’s seed collection. Each jar had a story, and my grandmother was quite amused by my persistence in writing down everything she could remember about each one.At the time, I assumed everyone had grandparents who hoarded rare seeds, enjoyed food they grew themselves and dabbled in the kind of connoisseurship that comes from eating only what is fresh and local (especially your own). I was soon to learn that this was not the case and that what we had found in the freezer was a major collection of very rare seeds, very rare indeed.The pepper collection stood out, in part because many of the seeds were still viable. Most of those seeds had come from a local folk artist by the name of Horace Pippin. Mr. Pippin was a good friend of my grandfather, always bringing little gifts when he came to visit. Pippin had injuries from World War I that gave him “miseries” as he called them, so he would visit my grandfather to get stung by his bees, an old-time remedy for arthritis, bursitis and similar ailments.After my graduation from the University of Virginia, I went to work for a New York publisher. Because I had studied architecture, I planned to edit books on that topic. But I ended up editing all kinds of things. I took a special interest in garden books, old herbal guides, and books about flowers and ferns. I seemed to know more about them than anyone else in the office, owing to the basic training I had as a child.One Thing Led to Another: Editing and GardeningI decided to combine that editorial experience with my practical hands-on gardening. I took the whole seed collection out of storage. In 1968, I replanted my grandfather’s kitchen garden and traveled back to Pennsylvania every weekend to plant, weed, water and harvest.Either some seeds were already dead (they had remained in frozen limbo for 15 years or more), or in my clumsy efforts to revive them I lost more than I should have. The peppers came through better than most things. A few tomatoes made it, as did several other things. But most of the collection was lost. If I could do it again today, the endeavor might be more successful.Long before farmers markets regained popularity in New York (this was the 1970s), I was hauling my own fresh produce back to Manhattan and very much enjoying it.Finally, it became obvious that working in New York was costing a lot more than it was worth. So I left my job, moved back to Pennsylvania, and offered my services as a consultant to various museums and historic sites. My architectural training gave me a good basis in historical restoration, and my practical knowledge from the garden brought a unique perspective to my work. Furthermore, many of the vegetables in my grandfather’s collection were the kind known today as heirlooms, and this is exactly what many historic sites were looking for.In 1977, I was invited to present a research paper on historical foodways at a conference in Wales. This forced me to make a decision: Should I devote myself to culinary history full time? This was an entirely new field, one that could be invented as I went, because no one knew how to define it. I had the garden. I had the heirloom vegetables — the real stuff of culinary history — and I had a nice collection of old cookbooks and garden books that I had garnered at local flea markets and farm sales. The subject of income looked bleak, but my grandmother always said, “Live above money; put your heart in front of you and follow it,” echoing the old Quaker saying, “do the duty nearest thee.” So I followed the spirit that beckoned me. Thirty-one years and 14 books later, her advice has stood me well. I am not a rich man, but when it comes to the things that matter most, I have absolutely no regrets. And no one could ever buy the experience my garden has given me.Heirlooms are more beautiful to my eye than modern hybrids. They don’t look plastic, like cookie-cutter, industrial food. They also taste better, and I like the challenge of growing things I’ve seen in old books. When I read a passage in an 18th century garden book describing something unique about an old variety, suddenly I make the connection. I know what it means because I have seen and tasted the same things!The Roughwood Seed Collection became a formal entity when I moved to Devon, Pa., in 1979 and brought with me fruit trees, thousands of plants and the entire seed collection. It took five years to transfer all the plants.My new quarters were not new at all, rather the former Lamb Tavern built in 1805. (It turned out that the man who built the tavern was a relative.)One of my first priorities was to rebuild the Tavern’s kitchen garden, and when I did work for the National Register (the house is now a designated historic site), I discovered the outlines of old gardens from one of the aerial views. The only thing I know about the original kitchen garden is that the tavernkeeper planted parsnips, had an apple orchard and grew Welsh bunching onions, aka the poor man’s leek.I rebuilt the raised beds where they had been and fenced them all. Those 21 beds on about three-quarters of an acre are the core of my garden today. Each year, I grow more than 300 vegetable varieties (potatoes, tomatoes, peas, lettuces, bambaras, ullucos, ocas and more) and tend more than 50 varieties of fruit, including 10 different apples, two pears, some rare cross- species fruits developed in the Ukraine in the 1920s, two types of pawpaws, six varieties of cornelian cherries, 10 varieties of grapes, six varieties of gooseberries, currants, and European strawberries (both red and white).Gardening Expertise EmergesBy the middle 1990s, I had become quite serious about my seed collection and developed elaborate ways to ensure seed purity of the varieties I had already collected, not to mention a program for breeding vegetables of my own. My literary agent was sitting on my terrace one day, and while we chatted over a glass of wine, she noticed my extensive notebooks. These were the records of all the details I need to know about my heirloom plants: flower color, harvest times, date of planting — all the data that is normally missing when one acquires hand-me-down seeds.My agent got it in her head that these notebooks would make a terrific garden book for beginners, but I balked because they were my personal diaries. This was not data I wanted to share with the world. “You need the money, and the book is going to be a classic,” she said. That is how Heirloom Vegetable Gardening was born.I borrowed a greenhouse from the Mennonite Mission in Lancaster County (and later bought it from them) and began work on the book. I planted hundreds of varieties of heirloom seeds and grew everything in huge waves of activity in 1994 and 1995.And my agent was right about the book: In 1998 it won two International Association of Culinary Professionals cookbook awards (for writing and food reference). More important, it earned heirloom vegetables a place of respect on the reference shelves of cookery, and it helped make “heirloom vegetable” a household phrase.I joined Seed Savers Exchange and began offering many of my heirlooms to the members, but I have never listed all 4,000 or so varieties that I maintain. At one point I listed more than 400 vegetables in the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook, and it was indeed a huge amount of work to keep stocks of seed on hand, not knowing from one season to the next who would be asking for what. My seeds are maintained according to organic gardening practices, and they are open-pollinated, one of the requirements of all heirloom varieties.Today I have scaled back, choosing instead to work more closely with historic sites and botanical gardens, and to spend more time breeding my own varieties of lettuce, tomatoes and celery. I also keep a large collection of heirloom dahlias, in part because they are wonderful for attracting pollinators to the garden. They also act as decoys for bumblebees, the source of much unwanted cross-pollination.If you choose heirloom varieties, you will get richer flavors, and often more nutrients, than with modern hybrids. But best of all, heirlooms connect you to literally every corner of the globe and allow you to participate in, and help perpetuate, a global tradition that links us with gardeners across thousands of years of human history.William Woys Weaver is a contributing editor to MOTHER EARTH NEWS and Gourmet. His numerous books include Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania-German Foods and Foodways, The Christmas Cook, Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking, and Country Scrapple: An American Tradition. He also has served as the associate editor and art editor for the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture.Highly Recommended by the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Editors:Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving and Cultural History by William Woys Weaver, now on CD. If you want to explore the fabulous flavors, fascinating history and amazing diversity of vegetables, this is the book to start with. Food historian and MOTHER EARTH NEWS contributing editor Will Weaver profiles 280 heirloom varieties, with authoritative growing advice and incredible recipes. First published in 1997, Heirloom Vegetable Gardening has since been out of print, with used copies selling online for as much as $300. We are proud to present the original text, with color photos, as a digital book on CD-ROM. Order now. 1234 | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/12501 | From sustaining a small desert Kibbutz to global sustainability
By netafim | Categories: Agriculture, Irrigation | on November 7, 2010 Netafim was established in 1965 at our Kibbutz, Hatzerim. Looking back at those days, I could never have imagined that the decision to turn our drip irrigation invention into a business would have such an effect on the global agriculture market and today, global sustainability.
We were a small group of young people and our economy was based mainly on farming, which, in the Negev desert was not an easy task. We faced a limited source of water, saline soil, and poor yields. From the first experiments that we conducted with the new invention we realized that drip irrigation was the answer to our problems as farmers in an arid land. We soon discovered that results improved even further in better farming conditions, where rich soil was available.
Since the establishment of Netafim back in 1965, we always spoke about water scarcity, about food shortage, about shortages of arable land, knowing that drip irrigation can make a difference. Today, this problem has become a worldwide concern that is no longer affecting the developing world alone. Future projections for increasing water stress and scarcity predict that it will soon affect the entire world. Our local concern has become a worldwide phenomenon and we hope that our experience will contribute to the alleviation of this problem on a global scale. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/12530 | Day-O, Day-O
GMOs - genetically modified organisms (foods that have been altered by humans for reasons other than health or nourishment) - are gaining attention as issues of health risks remain unanswered, yet more and more crops are being grown as such, particularly corn and soy. Yet it turns out we've been eating a GMO food for centuries, although they only became popular, and affordable, in the last century or so. Further, the companies that made them available and affordable were monopolistic and vertically integrated (controlling the growing, processing, shipping, and marketing) and manipulated ways to build enclave economies (self-sufficient, pretty much tax-exempt, and contributing little to the general economy). Think Dole, Chiquita - the equivalent in agriculture to the 1% OWS protests against.
A plantain, red banana, Latundan banana, and Cavendish banana.
If you haven't guessed by now, we're talking bananas. This now ubiquitous fruit is actually a giant herb - the largest flowering herb, which can get as tall as trees. They are one of 3 genera in the Musaceae family, which includes plantains. They have no trunks, just long-stemmed leaves which grow from corms, swollen plant stems similar to bulbs and tubers. Fiber is a by-product of the plants.
A banana corm.
Besides humans, various moths and butterflies consume them, as a number of the species are edible. Edible bananas have a complex history of hybridization, mutation, and selection. Most bananas are parthenocarpic, or seedless, and therefore are sterile. Banana botany is difficult to label with Linnean tags, so cultivar names are given instead (a cultivar is a plant whose characteristics are maintained by propagation).
A "Banana Moth" adult and larval case, so named because it feeds on bananas.
Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors. The word "banana" refers to the soft sweet fruit that is generally eaten raw, both popularly and commercially. Plantains are larger, firmer fruits that require cooking. It is unclear where the word comes from, but two options are from the Arabic "banan", meaning finger, or "banaana" from the African language Wolof, spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauretania. The name of the genus - musa - comes from the Arabic word for fruit, "mauz", which is also the same in Persian and Turkish.
Southeast Asian farmers were the first to domesticate bananas. Archaeological evidence from Papua, New Guinea indicates that cultivation goes back at least 5,000 years, possibly even 8,000 years. Researchers think it may have developed simultaneously in different areas of Southeast Asia because of the diversity of types. Africa also has evidence of cultivation but there is debate about when it started. When Madagascar was colonized by Southeast Asian groups circa 400 CE, linguistic evidence reveals that bananas were introduced. Bananas also were grown in various parts of the Middle East. From there they eventually went to Muslim Iberia.
The largest of herbs - banana plants.
They were brought to the Americas by Portuguese sailors. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese colonists developed plantations for growing bananas in the New World. They were not a profitable commodity until the introduction of steamships, railroads, and refrigeration. Most bananas today are cultivated for local markets, India being the leader in this kind of production. Production for the world market is centered in the Caribbean. The cultivar that is most important on the world market is the Cavendish banana, which replaced the Gros Michel banana that now has limited availability due to a fungal disease. The Cavendish today is similiarly threatened. The Cavendish was chosen for mass production because of its shelf life and ease in transportation, rather than its taste.
Cavendish bananas. Image courtesy of Steve Hopkins/Wikipedia.
Each banana is composed of 75% water. They are very high in potassium which makes them slightly radioactive. In fact, scientists refer to a "banana equivalent dose" when attempting to mitigate nuclear danger. Wild bananas have many large, hard seeds, that are inedible. The Cavendish has little dark spots in lieu of seeds.
A wild or "untamed" banana with seeds.
The banana plant has a "heart" where the fruits develop, known as an inflorescence. This is a cluster of flowers on a stem. The female flowers turn into fruit, which hang in cluster of around twenty called tiers. Three to twenty tiers are known as a banana stem, and can weigh anywhere from 60 to 110 pounds. What is commonly referred to as a bunch is a cluster of three to ten fruits. Bananas grow pointing up, not hanging down.
A partially open inflorescence.
Bananas for the world market are picked green and ripened in special rooms once they reach their destination country. These ripening rooms are filled with ethylene gas, which gives them their characteristic yellow color. They are refrigerated during transport at around 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Tree-ripened bananas are greenish-yellow that slightly brown as they ripen. Their taste is superior, but the shelf life is only 7-10 days. Ripe bananas fluoresce when they are exposed to ultraviolet light, but not green ones. This leads scientists to believe that critters who can see ultraviolet light, such as some butterflies and birds, can easily find ripe bananas.
How bananas look under ultraviolet light (right).
Bananas are a staple for some cultures. Depending on the cultivar, they can be sweet or starchy, and both skin and inner part can be eaten raw or cooked. Plantains are used in stews and curries, often like we use potatoes, even mashed or baked. The banana hearts, or flowers, are considered a vegetable in some South and Southeast Asian cuisines. The flavor is said to resemble an artichoke, and like an artichoke the fleshy part of the leaves and the heart are edible. Banana leaves are often used as ecological "plates" or wrappings for food. Banana flowers.
Bananas have become a regular part of the U.S. diet, and it's hard to imagine breakfast, for me at least, without them. Hopefully the disease that is threatening the Cavendish will be halted or controlled before it goes the way of the Gros Michel, and it will remain a staple in our diets.
***************Images courtesy of Wikipedia.*******************************
banana hearts,
bunch,
Cavendish,
corms,
GMO crops,
Gros Michel,
inflorescence,
largest herb,
MUSA,
Musaceae,
plantains,
Repost: Daylight Slaving Time
Fountain of Time Inspired by Poetry
Repost: Zombies! | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/12808 | Is It Safe To Use Compost Made From Treated Human Waste? By editor
May 12, 2013 TweetShareGoogle+Email Originally published on May 15, 2013 9:46 am Any gardener will tell you that compost is "black gold," essential to cultivating vigorous, flavorful crops. But it always feels like there's never enough, and its weight and bulk make it tough stuff to cart around. I belong to a community garden in Washington, D.C., that can't get its hands on enough compost. So you can imagine my delight when I learned that the U.S. Composting Council was connecting community gardeners with free material from local facilities through its Million Tomato Compost Campaign. I signed us up last month, and was promptly contacted by Clara Mills, the environmental coordinator for Spotsylvania County in central Virginia. Mills volunteered to deliver a dump truck full of compost to our garden from her facility, an hour away. It sounded too good to be true. Then one of my fellow gardeners noticed the source of the Spotsylvania compost: biosolids, or human poop that's been treated and transformed into organic fertilizer. About 50 percent of the biosolids produced in the U.S. are returned to farmland through a process that is heavily regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Even so, some people – including the Sierra Club — remain skeptical of the use of this waste product in food production. They worry that heavy metals, pathogens or pharmaceuticals might survive the treatment process and contaminate crops. So what's an urban gardener to do in light of mixed perceptions about whether it's OK to use poop to grow your food? I set out to investigate this, hoping that whatever I learned would help my garden decide whether to accept the donation or not. First, remember that for thousands of years, before the invention of synthetic fertilizer in 1913, many farmers utilized their decomposed sewage, sometimes called "night soil," to replenish the soil with nutrients lost in farming. The Chinese were especially adept at using human waste this way – one historical account notes that in 1908, a contractor paid the city of Shanghai $31,000 in gold for the privilege of collecting 78,000 tons of human waste and carting it off to spread on fields. When growing urban areas required that sewage be piped outside of the city, the practice dropped off and attention turned to improving wastewater treatment to avoid polluting waterways. Raw waste is, of course, nasty stuff until all the dangerous bacteria have been killed off, either by heat or anaerobic digestion. But the sludge was still piling up in landfills, so scientists began testing how to use it in agriculture safely; the waste was a free source of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, afterall. And letting it sit in landfills or incinerating it created its own environmental issues. By the 1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency created strict standards with two tiers for biosolids still in use today. To sell Class A biosolids to farmers and gardeners, facilities have to ensure that there are no dangerous heavy metals or bacteria in the end product. The ick factor, however, has not faded entirely. While plenty of large-scale farms like this one in Kansas City, Mo., use biosolids, they are not officially allowed in organic agriculture. Bowing to public input, the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided in 2000 to prohibit the use of sludge in the National Organic Program. This was in spite of the fact that "there is no current scientific evidence that use of sewage sludge in the production of foods presents unacceptable risks to the environment or human health," USDA spokesman Samuel Jones tells The Salt. A handful of activists have also sounded the alarm on the widespread use of biosolids in conventional agriculture. They allege, among other things, that the EPA-approved treatment of biosolids doesn't address all the possible contaminants in the waste. A National Academy of Sciences report in 2002 also stated that while there have been some anecdotal stories of adverse health effects from exposure to biosolids, there are no studies that prove a causal link. Still, the NAS said that since biosolids may contain substances like chemicals and pharmaceuticals, more epidemiological research was needed to explore possible health effects of using them to grow food. (Currently, the U.S. Geological Survey is investigating exactly what happens to plants when biosolids are applied to soil.) Still, some scientists argue that over the years, the biosolids industry has gotten much better at keeping contaminants out of the final product. "We have systemically looked at all kinds of potential hazards," says Ian Pepper, a professor and director of the Environmental Research Laboratory at the University of Arizona who has been studying biosolids for 30 years. "Invariably we've found that the risks are much lower than those suggested by environmental activists." And other proponents say that it's hard to prove that biosolids are a significant source of contaminants. "These compounds are ubiquitous in the environment – in the soil, water, within our bodies," says Neil Zahradka, who overseas biosolids for the state of Virginia's department of environmental quality. "So the question is: If it's in the biosolids, then is that a problem? None of studies so far have been able to conclusively say that yes there's an issue here." As for the pathogens, Zahradka contends that the composting process, one of a few different treatment methods (and the one used in Spotsylvania County, which offered compost to my garden), eliminates them. Here's how it works: Spotsylvania receives the raw sewage and mixes it with mulch. The carbon in the mulch speeds up the decomposition process, and generates heat. The material reaches 160 plus degrees for 21 days, says Mills. That's enough to kill all harmful bacteria, she says. But the facility also tests the material regularly to be sure the pathogens and dangerous heavy metals are below detectable levels. So will my garden be using these biosolids anytime soon? We'll have to take a vote to decide. In the meantime, it's interesting to see other urban gardeners getting on board with biosolids.Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. TweetShareGoogle+EmailView the discussion thread. © 2016 MTPR | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/14007 | Southern California Strawberries Easter, Mother’s Day provide retail holiday marketing opportunities
By Tom Burfield
Unfavorable winter weather in California and Florida likely will result in tighter strawberry supplies for Valentine’s Day, grower-shippers said. But they’re much more optimistic about volume for Easter, which falls in late April this year. Good news for shippers is that markets, which usually are high around Valentine’s Day anyway, should be even higher this year, following rain and cold weather during December and a freeze in Florida, said Russ Widerburg, sales manager for Boskovich Farms Inc., Oxnard, Calif. He expected supplies out of Southern California to be at least a couple of weeks behind schedule by Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Prices that typically are in the $14-16 per tray range could be as high as $20, he estimated in mid-January.After experiencing very low volume in December, strawberries began to bounce back by January, said Cindy Jewell, director of marketing for California Giant Inc., Watsonville. No one seemed to think that Southern California’s rainy season was over, despite the onslaught of precipitation that the region received during the last few weeks of December. “I would certainly expect that it’s going to rain some more this season, even though we had a ton in December,” said David Cook, sales manager for Deardorff Family Farms in Oxnard. “We are definitely susceptible to weather all the way until spring,” Jewell said. “You hope that (rain) doesn’t happen during the holiday, but invariably it does,” she said. But shippers seem pleased that Easter will be later than usual this year. The April 24 date is good, “in the sense that it … gives us a little more room to get more volume going so everybody can get covered for Easter,” said Craig Casca, vice president and director of sales for Red Blossom Farms, Santa Ynez, Calif. In the end, though, whether the Easter season ends up being a good one in terms of sales will depend on what happens in the markets between March 1 and Easter, he said. Casca also was pleased that Mother’s Day falls just two weeks after Easter this year. “It will keep demand going, and it will keep ads going,” he said, adding, “when there’s ads and demand, it’s good for the growers, and it’s also good for the customers.” Widerburg pointed out there will be a bigger gap than usual between Valentine’s Day and Easter, but he added the region typically has significant weather fluctuations during that time. “As a grower, we would prefer having Easter later so we have a smaller gap between Easter and Mother’s Day,” he said. The narrow window between Easter and Mother’s Day this year should provide the perfect opportunity for retailers and consumers to take advantage of the “great quality and great abundance” of strawberries that should be available this spring, Jewell said. “It will be a perfect time for retailers and consumers to enjoy berries,” she said. Jewell encouraged retailers to “promote, promote, promote.” While most shippers likely will see a sales bump for Easter and for Mother’s Day, that probably won’t be the case for Deardorff Family Farms, Cook said. “I’m not sure how much after Easter we’re going to be able to hang in there, unless the market’s very good,” he said. “We expect to have a lot of our fruit shipped by (Mother’s Day).” Topics:
boskovich farms inc.colorful harvest llc doug rannodriscoll strawberry associatesnaturipe farms llcearthbound farmorange county produceorange county produce a.g. kawamurabeach street far About the Author:
Tom Burfield
, Western Correspondent
Tom Burfield has been Western correspondent for The Packer for more than 20 years, and he also writes for Produce Retailer magazine and has contributed to several other Farm Journal Media publications. View All Posts | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/14097 | Asia Hunger In Focus: Reducing Insects to Increase Crop Yield October 12, 2010 8:00 PM
Jim Stevenson
Scientists check at cassava plantations for signs of pests and diseases at a field in northeastern Thailand.
Two-Thirds of the world's one-billion hungry people live in Asia. Through this series of reports, VOA aims to draw attention to the problems of hunger in Asia as part of World Food Day - 16 October.
Insects have long plagued farmers as they try to grow food for themselves and others. History is filled with tales of crop failures because of pests. Chemicals have been widely used for decades to combat the problem. But the practice is not always friendly to the environment or healthy for those who eat treated produce.
An approach called Integrated Pest Management is helping to address these issues and has successfully increased crop production in Asia and elsewhere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, as an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices.IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment.
Brenda Vander Mey is a professor of Sociology at Clemson University who specializes in social aspects of farming. "Integrated pest management programs thrive in much of Asia," she said. "The integrated pest management has been extremely successful for decades now in Indonesia. Crop rotation is one of the strategies for integrated pest management. It is one of many. But what you cannot do is just continuously work soil and work soil without putting something back, some organic matter."IPM is not a single pest control method but, rather, a series of pest management evaluations, decisions and controls. IPM also varies from organic food growing, which applies many of the same concepts as IPM, but limits the use of pesticides to those that are produced from natural sources.
James Frederick, a professor at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence, South Carolina, explains some of the basic steps used in IPM. "They might be able to plant early. If you know a disease comes in or an insect comes in late in the growing season, so you try to plant early as you can so most of the crop will be made by the time disease or insects come in. You can do crop rotation. It is a good example of a basic practice you can do to help with weed control."Not all insects, weeds, and other living organisms require control. Many organisms are innocuous, and some are even beneficial. IPM programs work to monitor for pests and identify them accurately.
Professor Frederick says farmers also need to know what is best to plant. "Sometimes when you develop a variety resistant to a disease, you will lose a little bit of yield. So normally you would not plant that variety that has that disease resistance unless you have the problem," he said. "If you know you are going to have a problem, then you are going to plant that variety that is resistant to that disease. Then of course the last option is some sort of chemical control. But we try to tell our farmers to use management first and chemicals second," Professor Frederick said.Genetics is also helping to play a role in developing crops that are more resistant to disease and insects. But Professor Brenda Vander Mey says modified crops are not universally welcomed."There is a horrendous debate about the role that biotechnology or engineered foods and foodstuffs could play in decreasing hunger, food insecurity, etc. The big issue has become should it have a role given concerns that people have over genetically engineered food and foodstuffs and their potential impact on environment and people. So the debate just continues in that area, with some countries less comfortable than others with adopting the more genetically engineered germ plasmas, etc. for production."But she adds improvements in plants can be very beneficial. "It could be the engineering is such that it is bringing say more beta carotene into the rice. Or it could be engineered such that the plants are more pest resistant than previously," Vander Mey said. "And on balance, I think that people are far more comfortable with genetically engineered foods that stick within their own category."Integrated Pest Management is a complex pest control process, and specific plans need to be developed to suit specific needs. One IPM definition does not apply to all foods and all areas.
Professor James Frederick says even small farmers can benefit simply by paying attention to their immediate environment. "One basic and easy practice for integrated pest management is to go out there and scout and see what the problems are rather than say 'ok, it is about that time of the year when something should show up. Therefore I am going to go out and spray whether it is out there or not,'" he said.In the United States, food grown using IPM practices is not usually identified in the marketplace similar to organic food. Produce grown using IPM methods do not have a national certification as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed for organic foods.
For over 35 years, Jim Stevenson has been sharing stories with the world on the radio and internet. From both the field and the studio, Jim enjoys telling about specific events and uncovering the interesting periphery every story possesses. His broadcast career has been balanced between music, news, and sports, always blending the serious with the lighter side.
Hunger in Focus: India's Hungry Women and Children Remain a Major Problem
Hunger Report Highlights Africa Food Security Issues
India Formulates Sweeping New Legal Guarantee of Right to Food
WFP: 17 African Countries Have Protracted Food Insecurity
Hunger in Focus: 3 Questions: Hunger and the Financial Crisis | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/14900 | Who is T. L. Mead? (Facebook) Click here for the full Wikipedia entry written by our own history and horticulture volunteer, Dr. Paul Butler.
Theodore Luqueer Mead (February 23, 1852 - May 4, 1936) was an important American naturalist, entomologist and horticulturist. As an entomologist he discovered more than 20 new species of North American butterflies and introduced the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado to the wider scientific world. As a horticulturist, he is best known for his pioneering work on the growing and cross-breeding of orchids, and the creation of new forms of caladium, bromeliad, crinum, amaryllis and hemerocallis (daylily). In addition he introduced many new semi-tropical plants, particularly palm varieties, into North America.
Horticulture in Florida
Mead had first visited Florida in 1869 on a butterfly collecting trip, where he had successfully captured his rarest specimen near Enterprise - a female of Papilio calverleyi; only one other specimen of that type had ever been found before.[1] He considered the climate there ideal for the growing of semi-tropical plants, so after marriage he moved to Eustis, Florida where his father had bought him an orange grove and land to develop and grow other plants. Income would come from citrus and the growing of other cash crops such as pineapples, leaving time for his experiments in horticulture. In 1886 he purchased eighty-five acres in Oviedo, Florida, close to Lake Charm where orange grove land was more fertile, choosing a location next to Edith’s aunt Mary. She had previously married Dr. Henry Foster owner of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium in New York State, and the couple were winter visitors to the Lake Charm area.
At Lake Charm Mead grew many palms from seed and hybridized orchids, bromeliads, crinum and later, caladium, amaryllis and daylilies. He established a strong friendship with Henry Nehrling of Gotha, Florida with whom he collaborated on many plant experiments.
Citrus in central Florida did well until the Great Freeze of 1894-5. Many growers abandoned their groves entirely, but Mead recognized that below ground artesian water at a constant 70 degrees might provide relief from frost and allow citrus trees to survive freezing temperatures. His engineering background led him to postulate that overhead water irrigation of the trees hanging with fruit could keep the fruit protected from damage at 32° within an ice cocoon regardless of how low the mercury fell. He successfully covered an acre of oranges, installed a pump and irrigation system, and proved the concept, the first known description[13] of a technique still used today. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/15313 | Industry 'Clock is ticking' for farm bill
December 18, 2012 | 12:02 pm EST
It’s crunch time for Washington lawmakers as the deadline to pass a five-year farm bill by the end of the year quickly nears. As one congressional aide said to The Hill, this week is "pivotal.”
Passing the farm bill at this point will likely require it to be part of the fiscal cliff deal, but first the legislative agricultural committees must hammer out their differences on two major issues facing the farm bill – food stamps and commodity subsidies. Despite the limited time period, many are hopeful that the pressure to get the farm bill passed in the lame-duck session will push both sides to compromise. “Clock is ticking. We don’t have the much time left,” one source told The Hill.
If all efforts to pass a farm bill fail, House leaders are expected to try to pass a simple extension of the 2008 Farm Bill or extend dairy and livestock programs. However, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has promised to fight a limited extension. Read more from The Hill. Negotiators from both the House and Senate have placed blame on each other for the impasse, according to a Reuters report available here.
The 2008 Farm Bill expired on Sept. 30, and the delay in Congressional action has stirred uncertainty among farmers and ranchers who continue to battle high feed costs, drought and other crucial issues. In California, 100 dairies are expected to close this year, and a hotline has been set up to help the state’s dairy farmers deal with the stresses attributed to this year’s struggles.
Farm bill progress is painfully close for producers. In late October, at the annual meeting of the National Milk Producers Federation, NMPF CEO Jerry Kozak used a football analogy: “...we’re not just in the red zone, we’re first and goal,” Kozak said during the meeting. “But great field position, even with the momentum that comes with a long drive, is not the same thing as putting points on the board. All our hard work, all of our compromises and meticulous planning â none of it matters unless we can finish the job.”
Read ‘We’re first and goal’ with the Farm Bill, says NMPF.
As Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a recent commentary, the aftermath of Congress failing to agree on the farm bill will stretch far beyond agriculture and “slice” through rural America.
“If Congress doesn't act by the end of the year, automatic, across-the-board government cuts will kick in, affecting more than 1,000 federal programs, many of which will impact agriculture,” he wrote. For example, all commodity and many conservation programs would be cut by 7.6 percent next year. And agricultural research, Extension activities, food safety and rural economic development programs are just a few others that would be cut by 8.2 percent in 2013. Crop insurance would survive the first year, but would likely face cuts in year two.”
farm billwashingtoncongress About the Author: | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/15314 | Industry No farm bill leaves uncertainty for farmers
By University of Missouri Extension
October 08, 2012 | 11:37 am EDT
COLUMBIA, Mo.-Congress adjourned until after the November elections without action on a new farm bill. That presents farmers with a great deal of uncertainty moving forward. University of Missouri Extension agricultural economist Scott Brown says that after many months of negotiations and listening sessions, Congress failed to advance new farm policy.
"The Senate did end up passing a farm bill from the floor and although the House did pass a bill out of committee it never reached the House floor, which is the next step in the process," Brown said. "So with Congress not back in session until after the election, we're in a situation where we are not going to know very much until the lame-duck session, and guessing what will happen during that session at this point is pretty tough."
Brown says that the outcome of the election may indicate what option Congress will pursue in regard to the farm bill in the lame-duck session.
"If the Republicans were to take control of both the House and Senate, I certainly think that is a situation where it could be more apt to see a short-term extension and the Republicans restarting the farm bill process going into 2013," Brown said. "If control of the two chambers remains split, then I think we might see them work hard in lame duck to get a farm bill done."
However, finishing a farm bill will still prove to be extremely difficult. Congress was unable to do so during the past two years, and during the lame duck it will only have four weeks. Brown says the commodity titles that came from the Senate floor and through the House Agriculture Committee are not all that different and he doesn't expect it to be that large of an issue to compromise on. Cuts in nutrition may be where a struggle will ensue, as the Senate wanted fewer cuts than many of the more conservative members of the House are asking for.
So far, much of the discussion about the farm bill in the House of Representatives has centered on funding cuts, deficit reduction and tax policy rather than the actual components of a comprehensive farm policy bill.
"There is certainly a lot of difference of opinion when you look at the House side in terms of how far cuts need to go, and I think that's why they're so held up at this point in time," Brown said. "They have to come back following the election and talk about some type of either extension or a new farm bill."
If Congress is unable to take some action, farm policy could revert back to 1949 permanent law. Brown says that the end of the year is critical for either an extension or a farm bill; otherwise, some features of permanent law could start kicking in. He says that implementing permanent law would be a huge undertaking for USDA and he thinks it is still highly unlikely to happen.
"If you think you can take 1949 law and apply it in 2012 without some issues, then you haven't thought very carefully about how agriculture has changed over the last several decades," Brown said.
The cost of a farm bill looking ahead is a concern for Brown. If a short-term extension is passed and the farm bill is reopened in 2013, it will start with a new budget developed by the Congressional Budget Office.
"When I look at what I expect to see there, it is probably less money in the baseline," Brown said. "We're already talking about needing to make cuts. The cuts could seem much deeper because of a different baseline. So this notion that we could extend current law, roll into 2013 and pick up where we left off may not hold if the new baseline against which we're going to measure things has changed a lot."
agriculturefarm billcongress About the Author: | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/15363 | Acumen & Bain launch roadmap for smallholder farmers
Earlier this week Bain & Company and Acumen released the report ‘Growing Prosperity: Developing Repeatable Models to Scale the Adoption of Agricultural Innovations’ that focuses on how smallholder farmers can boost their productivity and contribution to local and regional markets. According to the research, three key steps lie at the heart of a successful strategy. Smallholder farmers should build their approach around the 4 A’s, ensure they obtain the right scale and lastly, collaborate within the agriculture value chain to maximise reach and impact.
Currently, nearly 2.5 billion people – which is 35% of the globe’s population – live off the land. These smallholder farmers survive by farming small plots of land about the size of a football field. Their 500 million farms produce up to 80% of the food supply in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, yet many of the people living on these farms are themselves struggling to survive.
Against this backdrop, Bain & Company and Acumen, with the support of the Gates Foundation, teamed up to make a difference. In their view, the key to success lies in ensuring that smallholder farmers are provided the infrastructure to grow and develop their business in a sustainable manner. To achieve this, the authors believe two fundamental factors should be in place. Firstly, “pioneer companies” – entrepreneurs who are trying, and succeeding in reaching these farmers – should do a better job at demonstrating the value of their products, and secondly, governments, NGOs and private sector investors should bolster the role they play in the success of these companies through their investments, policies and the expertise they can offer.
With these two key fundamentals in place, the authors drafted a 140-page long strategy and approach, in essence providing farmers and other players in the agricultural ecosystem the building blocks to success, accompanied by a roadmap. A summary of the three key steps:
The Four A’s of AdoptionFirst, pioneer firms must systematically ensure that the “Four A’s” (awareness, advantage, affordability and access) are continuously in place for their farmer customers. Adoption starts with an unrelenting focus on the farmer: how to raise his or her awareness of new products and services, how to communicate and reliably deliver on the advantage the farmer will gain by adopting innovations, how to ensure the affordability of these innovations and how to provide easy and timely access to them. While these Four A’s are not revolutionary, we learned from our research that few firms are able to systematically address each of these elements in a sustained way as they grow. This is not surprising, given the structural challenges of serving the base of the economic pyramid and the inherent complexity firms encounter as they try to adapt to rural developing markets with often low levels of infrastructure and value chain development.
The Importance of Repeatable ModelsSecond, pioneer firms must develop Repeatable Models to achieve adoption at scale across villages, regions and countries. This means having the right strategies, processes, teams and supporting systems to drive adoption of their innovation in an adaptive and increasingly efficient and effective manner, while ensuring their own sustained, profitable growth. In short, Repeatable Models help pioneer firms promote “good scale” that endures while avoiding “bad scale” that is unprofitable and unsustainable. In our research, firms pursuing bad scale had introduced costly complexity by prematurely expanding to adjacencies (new customers, products, geographies or capabilities), while those on the path to good scale were implementing aspects of Repeatable Models.
Building Repeatable Models entails, among other things: defining the company’s core market and distinctive competencies; establishing clear operating processes and market entry routines; appropriately hiring, training and managing the performance of employees; and developing and institutionalizing the customer feedback and learning systems that inform management as to whether and how the Four A’s are in place and that guide ongoing efforts for improvement and innovation.
Collaborating for SuccessThird, other actors across the agricultural system should tailor their actions to enhance the Four A’s and help pioneer firms develop and scale their Repeatable Models to bring their products and services to more farmers. Though an understanding of the key factors of adoption and scale are paramount, firms and farmers do not exist in isolation—they operate within a wider market system.
This system can either promote the Four A’s and enable the firm to develop its Repeatable Model or hinder the firm’s success and slow down adoption. There are clearly examples of pioneer firms that, by virtue of their innovation and first-mover nature, disrupt and change part of a failing system; nonetheless, no single firm can rewire an entire system. Further, as the firm begins to reach scale of any significance, its interactions with this system (rules and regulations, infrastructure, access to finance and supporting inputs) and other key players (including competitors) will become more central to its success. Therefore, corporations, foundations and development agencies, impact investors, NGOs, and the government should design investments, interventions and policies that promote the lasting success of pioneer firms and the smallholder farmer customers they serve.
“The agriculture sector requires considerable investment by all sector actors to build a robust and supportive ecosystem, and it needs more capital from investors who take the long view and value social returns. We are encouraged by the ingenuity and perseverance of the many pioneer firms we have studied for this paper, but more must be done to support their work. As many management teams at pioneer firms have told us, the work is consistently challenging and takes a very long time to “get right,” and the rewards, in terms of impact and financial returns, are often uncertain at this early juncture,” says Chris Mitchell, a Manager at Bain & Company in London and co-author of the report.
He adds: “We hope that current and aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as other system actors, will find in this study a clear roadmap for motivating those farmers to adopt innovative, value-creating products and services. If successful, this study will help accelerate results for all involved and, in so doing, contribute to our collective efforts to create growing prosperity.”
Graphs and images come from the report by Bain & Company and Acumen. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/15473 | Study Highlights Campylobacter Risk Factors for Poultry Plant Workers By
Gretchen Goetz | January 9, 2013
A new analysis of Campylobacter infections among workers at a Virginia poultry plant offers hints about which employees more likely to fall ill from the bacteria.
Government researchers examined health data for plant employees from January 2008 through May 2011 and found that 29 Campylobacter cases had been confirmed during that time period.
Their findings reveal three characteristics of workers who were more likely to be sickened:
Recently employed: A full 83 percent of these patients had worked at the plant less than a month before falling ill, suggesting that illness is more common among new employees.
Worked in the live-hang area: Those whose job involved hanging live chickens were far more likely to be infected than those working in other parts of the facility. Of those sickened, 62 percent worked in a live-hang area.
Resided in diversion centers: Almost all the employees who contracted Campylobacter infections (26 out of 29) lived in state-operated diversion centers. The authors say the high illness rate among this group may be due to the fact that diversion center residents are disproportionately assigned to live-hang areas, where they are more likely to be exposed to the bacteria.
The fact that new employees fell ill more frequently than those who had been there more than a month is consistent with findings from other studies, which have suggested that workers develop immunity to the bacteria during the first few weeks of work.
The analysis, conducted by health officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Virginia Department of Health, also revealed that, of the 1,716 employees who visited the plant’s medical office in 2010, 16 percent (273 people) were seen for gastrointestinal symptoms. Between January and September of 2011, that figure was 15 percent.
In actuality, say the researchers, the number of gastrointestinal illnesses and Campylobacter infections among plant employees were likely much higher than these figures suggest.
“The numbers of cases of Campylobacter infection and gastrointestinal illness that we found among plant employees are likely an underestimation of the true numbers,” note the authors. “This may be due to an unwillingness to report illness because of the plant’s lack of paid sick leave and employees’ difficulty in accessing medical care.”
In light of these findings, the authors recommend that poultry processing companies take measures to reduce employee exposure to Campylobacter, especially in live-hang areas. Such steps include improving facility sanitation, modifying ventilation systems and installing hands-free soap dispensers. Management should also train workers in hand hygiene and use of protective equipment, and should review illness records to ensure that Campylobacter cases are detected.
Symptoms of Camplyobacter infection generally appear two to five days after exposure, and include abdominal cramping, fever and diarrhea, which can be accompanied by nausea and vomiting. In most cases, the illness resolves itself in about a week, but infections can be more serious in people with compromised immune systems.
The study will be published in Emerging Infectious Diseases in February. A copy of the early release is available here.
More Headlines from Foodborne Illness Investigations »Tags: Campylobacter, food workers, live poultry, poultry, worker safety
useonceanddestroy
i just started live hanging and i became infected. i reported my symptoms to company medical and was told there was no possible way the turkeys could make me sick. my doctor diagnosed me with campylobacter: probable infection from tje poultry | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/16101 | News Seminar strives to help organic growers export
By Todd Foltz
May 17, 2011 | 9:29 pm EDT
(Nov. 18) SALINAS, Calif. — Europe and Japan could be profitable markets for shippers of organic produce, but it’s critical to understand both their consumers and the countries’ import requirements before trying to open those markets.That was a key thread in the first of eight seminars that are part of the Certified Organic Product Export Strategy Program, or COPES, which is the result of a collaboration between Santa Cruz-based California Certified Organic Farmers and the Monterey Bay International Trade Association.FIRST SESSIONCOPES held its first seminar Nov. 13 at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. Dozens of people interested in finding the best way to export organic produce, wine and other products attended.They heard presentations on everything from how organic products have been affected by the year-old organic certification law to importing and exporting under the threat of terrorism to what the opportunities are in Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany.“Europe is the larger market and Japan a much smaller, but we feel a growing, one,” said Fred Klose, executive director of the California Agricultural Export Council.JAPANJapan, with a population of 127 million people squeezed into an area just slightly larger than California, offers a lot of potential to U.S. organic exporters. Even though its economy has faltered recently, its aging population has a relatively high income and is becoming increasingly interested in healthy eating.“Japan has a historic demand for the highest quality foods,” something that can work to the advantage of organic grower-shippers, Klose said.On the down side, Japan’s economy remains slow, it has confusing definitions for green and organic, and it has stringent phytosanitary standards and packaging labeling much different than what U.S. producers are accustomed to.EUROPEAN UNIONMeanwhile, the European Union offers a single market with more than 370 million people and 10 additional states joining next year, Klose said. Europeans have high incomes, and the EU’s lagging 2003 economy is supposed to strengthen next year.Germany and the United Kingdom are the biggest potential markets for U.S. organic produce in the EU, Klose said. But shipping to the EU brings a whole host of problems, including protectionist tariffs. After all, many of the joining EU members are agricultural countries whose products will get preferential treatment, he said.There are three keys to selling product to the United Kingdom, said Chuck Schreiber, director of international sales for Tanimura & Antle.U.S. organic producers who want to break into the British market must painstakingly comply with all phytosanitary, third-party certification and other regulations, first and foremost, Schreiber said. First, they’ll have to meet EU standards, and then they’ll frequently have to meet company-specific standards because in Britain, the retailers display product in their own brands and try to differentiate themselves by touting safety practices.It’s also critical to establish relationships with the people to whom you want to sell, Schreiber said. Go visit them. And expect them to visit you — several times a year, in fact, he said. It’s important to make customers in the United Kingdom know that you’re accessible to them whenever they want to speak to you.COPES is funded by a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture.Organic grower-shippers that participate in the initiative receive Web-based instruction on a biweekly basis through the program’s Web seminars.They also are included in the COPES product directory, which links California shippers and foreign buyers.In addition to these free services, members will be represented at industry trade shows and other events. COPES officials will bring foreign buyers to the U.S., and California shippers will receive the opportunity to visit markets overseas. About the Author:
Todd Foltz | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/16418 | April 3, 2014 - U.S. Department of Agriculture - FY 2015 The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the largest single life science society with over 39,000 members, wishes to submit the following statement in support of increased funding in FY 2015 for research and education programs at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Funding for USDA research invests in sectors important to public health and the economy, including food safety and food security, production sustainability, bioenergy sources, plant and animal health and the environment. The ASM recommends funding USDA agriculture and science programs to the highest level possible in FY 2015. Agriculture is important to health and the environment and yields broad economic benefits. The range of industries related to agriculture combines for nearly 5 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP). In 2012, over 16 million jobs were related to agriculture, over 9 percent of total employment (2.6 million were direct on the farm employment). In recent years, farm asset values have surged upward, while agriculture exports have reached historical highs. At a time when US global competitiveness is being challenged, agriculture exports embody productivity and innovation in the United States. In FY 2013, exports reached over $140 billion, exceeding the previous record of $137 billion in FY 2011. The average volume of exports has increased by nearly four million tons annually over the past five years. Farm exports also support about one million jobs in the country.
USDA productivity statistics show that total farm production more than doubled between 1948 and 2011, with total output growing at an average annual rate of 1.49 percent. Almost all growth was due to increased productivity, much of it fueled by research. Although USDA research receives considerably less than 5 percent of the USDA budget, USDA’s research support has consistently generated high returns.
USDA Research
USDA research interconnects issues of global food supply and security, climate and energy needs, sustainable use of natural resources, nutrition and childhood obesity, food safety and consumer education. USDA’s Research, Education and Economics Action Plan (REE) focuses on a number of efforts using the microbiological sciences to mitigate animal and plant diseases, to reduce foodborne illnesses, to identify bioenergy sources and to protect the environment. Projects involve both national and international collaborations and research results are regularly shared with producers, regulatory agencies, consumers, industry and commodity organizations. USDA support for research has significant economic consequences. In 2013, the World Organization for Animal Health upgraded the United States’ risk classification for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to negligible risk, expanding market potential (exports of US origin beef and beef products exceed $5 billion). In December, USDA launched its new, unified emergency response framework to address citrus greening disease, also known as Huanglongbing (HLB), a serious threat to the $3 billion plus citrus industry. This will coordinate HLB resources, share information and develop operational strategies on a national scale with multiple stakeholders. USDA science underlies numerous policy and regulatory actions like food recalls or guidelines to food processors, exerting significant economic and societal influence within and beyond the agriculture sector. USDA supports innovation through its intramural research, extramural university research grants, financial awards to small businesses and partnerships with government, academia and industry. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) serves as the in house research agency, with more than 2,200 scientists and a portfolio of about 800 research projects divided among 18 programs. Extramural research is supported by NIFA, while the Economic Research Service and National Agricultural Statistics Service contribute interdisciplinary analyses that guide USDA involvement in agriculture. When Congress created NIFA in 2008, it emphasized the national importance of food and agriculture sciences. NIFA supports research, education and extension programs in the land grant university system, primarily through competitive grants distributed by NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). The ASM urges Congress to fund AFRI with at least $360 million in FY 2015 as part of a sustained commitment to agriculture research. NIFA also administers USDA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which since 1983 has awarded more than 2,000 grants to US owned small businesses. AFRI supports six priority areas: 1) plant health and production; 2) animal health and production; 3) food safety, nutrition and health; 4) renewable energy, natural resources and environment; 5) agriculture systems and technology and 6) agriculture economics and rural communities.
Food Safety and Food Security
USDA contributes to safeguarding the Nation’s food supply and ensuring food security through adequate wholesome foods. Both ARS and NIFA programs fund research to reduce the approximately 48 million foodborne illnesses annually, which cost the economy billions of dollars each year. Working from field offices, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) regulates the supply of meat, poultry and egg products, and is responsible for recalling contaminated foods. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) protects the health of animals and plants that are important to the food supply, public health and economy. Much of this collective effort targets pathogenic microorganisms transmitted through food, by identifying microbial threats, studying basic biology of foodborne pathogens, developing technologies for contaminant detection and devising intervention and prevention strategies along the farm to table continuum.
In 2013, USDA researchers reported on food safety studies that included mapping microbes in cattle feedlot soil, a joint risk assessment conducted with the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate listeriosis in retail delis,and an FSIS developed Salmonella Action Plan that outlines the steps needed against Salmonella bacteria in meat and poultry products, the most pressing problem FSIS faces. Every year, there are an estimated 1.3 million illnesses that can be attributed to Salmonella. In large part through USDA efforts, there has been progress: Salmonella rates in young chickens have dropped over 75 percent since 2006. The listeriosis study, which is the first of its kind, concluded that multiple interventions are required to prevent the often fatal infection by Listeria bacteria and thus reduce the 1,600 illnesses that occur annually.
Last year, APHIS transferred one million doses of Classical Swine Fever (CSF) vaccine to Guatemala’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Safety. ARS scientists also genetically altered the CSF virus toward developing better vaccines and invented a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to detect the virus. Although the United States has been CSF free for over 30 years, these actions recognized the globalization of agriculture products, as well as the crucial role played by science and technology in protecting the public. USDA funded research on animal and plant diseases reported in 2013 includes:
ARS scientists studying foot and mouth disease (FMD) identified a DNA sequence in FMD virus that, when removed, permits pathogens to still multiply in cell culture but the viruses are no longer virulent, suggesting a new approach to vaccine development. Researchers also created a new animal cell line used to rapidly detect FMD virus in field samples, the first capable of identifying all seven FMD serotypes. They incorporated FMD receptor genes cloned from cattle tissue into an established cell line. Using a protein interaction reporter (PIR) technology developed by USDA, for the first time researchers have mapped protein structures known as virions that help plant viruses move from plants to insects, through the insects and back into plants. The new technology could lead to methods disrupting plant disease transmission by insects. More specific testing for Johne’s disease in cattle will be possible with the first discovery of an antibody that binds only to the causative agent, Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). The USDA patented antibody will improve diagnostic testing for a disease that costs the US dairy industry more than $220 million each year. Plant geneticists developed new disease resistant pea plants to protect against common root rot of legumes, a fungal disease caused by Aphanomyces euteiches that can lead to crop losses of 20–100 percent. Others bred a wheat cultivar with innate resistance to multiple fungal diseases. Of particular concern is stripe rust (fungus Puccinia striiformis) which has caused crop losses of up to 40 percent in the Pacific Northwest. Adding nickel and phosphite to an existing fungicide spray regimen improves control of the fungus (Fusicladium effusum) causing pecan scab, the most destructive disease of pecan in the southeastern United States. The new information is timely as the scab fungus is developing resistance to some currently used fungicides. Exposing citrus seedlings to a minimum of 48 hours of temperatures of 104 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit significantly reduces and often eliminates HLB infection, according to USDA field trials. The finding suggests practical measures to slow spread of citrus greening disease. Biocontrol and Bioenergy
In recent years, USDA has intensified its research on renewable energy, natural resources and environmental issues. Microorganisms have been particularly useful in studies of bioenergy and biocontrol, including the following examples:
The fungus Myrothecium verrucaria, which naturally attacks the weed Palmer amaranth, is being studied as a possible biocontrol agent against the weed, which can grow two inches a day and crowd out commercial crops. The southern weed is acquiring resistance to glyphosate herbicides, and the ARS reported research is the first showing the fungus’ bioherbicidal action against a weed species with glyphosate resistance. ARS field trials are assessing effectiveness of spraying avocado trees with foam that contains insect killing fungi against ambrosia beetles, wood boring pests that threaten the nation's $322 million avocado crop. Earlier lab studies used bioassays to genetically confirm the ability of the fungi to infect and kill the beetles. In those tests, more than 95 percent of beetles exposed to the fungi died. Pathogen carrying house flies are being deliberately infected in lab studies with salivary gland hypertrophy virus (SGHV), member of a newly discovered family of viruses called Hytrosaviridae, which stops flies from reproducing. Bioenergy strategies commonly rely upon fuels converted from widely available biomass like grasses, cereal grains or tree cellulose. Agriculture clearly plays an important role in renewable energy and USDA’s biofuels portfolio includes both intramural and extramural projects. In November, for example, USDA awarded nearly $10 million to a consortium of academic, industry and government organizations across several western states, to evaluate insect killed trees in the Rocky Mountains as a bioenergy feedstock. Since 1996, pine and spruce bark beetles have devastated over 42 million acres of western U.S. forests. The consortium will explore use of scalable, on site thermochemical conversion technologies to better access the beetle killed trees. At ARS, molecular biologists recently created a new strain of yeast that can break down and ferment sugars in corn cobs after xylose has been extracted for other commercial uses, previously impossible with yeasts inhibited by processes required. Since 2006, NIFA has collaborated with the Department of Energy in a joint grant program to improve biomass for biofuels, intent on increasing plant yield, quality and adaptability to harsher environments. The ASM encourages Congress to increase the FY 2015 budget to the highest amount possible in support of USDA’s science, research and food safety programs. USDA funded research is critical to the health of our nation’s food and agriculture industries as well as the global economy. USDA science protects human and animal health, prevents crop losses from disease and climate changes, seeks best practices to preserve the environment, encourages innovation in valuable agriculture based products and supports new generations of agriculture scientists and educators. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/18845 | Irrigation Management and Water Quality
Colorado River water delivery Objectives: Design, implement, and evaluate educational and applied research programs in irrigation, water management, soil salinity, water quality, and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) standards related to irrigated agriculture. Situation Statement: Approximately 3.0 million acre-feet of Colorado River water are used every year to irrigate more than 450,000 acres of lands in the Imperial Valley. Surface and subsurface drainage water from irrigated fields enters the Salton Sea which serves as a drainage sink for the Imperial and Coachella Valleys since its formation in 1905. Currently, the salinity of the Sea is over 46,000 ppm or approximately 135% the salinity of the Pacific Ocean. More than 17% of the delivered irrigation water in the Imperial Valley becomes tailwater runoff. This water transports significant amount of chemicals that eventually reach the Salton Sea. Efficient irrigation management practices are needed to improve irrigation efficiency, and to comply with the new sediment/silt and nutrient TMDL standards. Water transfer, Salton Sea, and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) concerns are the issues of major importance to growers and the people of the Imperial Valley. The current water transfer agreement between Imperial Irrigation District (IID) and the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) calls for transfer of up to 200,000 acre-feet annually of Imperial Valley-Colorado River water to San Diego. Most of the water available for transfer will have to come from on-farm water conservation programs. Our research and educational programs are directed toward the development and demonstration of new methods to conserve water and minimize surface runoff. Our current work is focused on field and vegetable crops, specifically alfalfa, sudangrass, wheat, lettuce, broccoli, corn, and watermelons. In 2006, field crops accounted for almost 80% of the 500,000 acres of irrigated land in the Imperial Valley. Alfalfa water use accounts for approximately 35% of the total crop water use in the Imperial Valley. Our educational and applied research activities were geared directly to deal with the current problems discussed above as well as with the expected problems in the future (Salton Sea Nutrient TMDL). The main objective of my educational activities is to extend the knowledge of new irrigation and soil management practices to prevent salinity buildup, improve water use efficiency, and improve water quality in Imperial Valley. For additional information, contact Khaled M. Bali. Home
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2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/19390 | Industry New initiative equips farmers to combat climate change
By Radio Lifeline
Radio Lifeline, a non-profit based in the U.S., announced the launch of the Black Earth Project, a new initiative designed to help farmers mitigate the growing effects of climate change. Radio Lifeline’s partner in this project is re:char, a leading developer of small-scale biochar technologies, based in Kenya. Major funding for the Black Earth Project is being provided by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR), which has its headquartered in Waterbury, Vt.
The Black Earth Project is a two-year research project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of biochar when used as a soil amendment by smallholder coffee and pyrethrum farmers in Rwanda. Biochar is produced through a process called pyrolysis, or the burning of dried biomass in a low or zero oxygen environment. The process prevents combustion and the usual release of carbon dioxide, black carbon and other greenhouse gases associated with traditional charcoal production methods.
“When used as a soil amendment, biochar can increase crop yields, reduce nutrient leaching, help retain moisture, reduce soil acidity and improve surrounding water quality while significantly reducing the need for additional irrigation and fertilizer inputs. Biochar has increasingly been cited as an effective approach to carbon sequestration as it can remain stable in the soil for thousands of years”, said Jason Aramburu, CEO of re:char.
The Black Earth Project will incorporate the use of re:char’s Climate Kiln, making possible a farm-centered approach to biochar production by utilizing various forms of agricultural crop residues, including dried corn stalks, grasses, rice hulls and coffee pulp as well as cow manure and wood chips. A series of test plots will be constructed within Rwanda’s coffee and pyrethrum farming sectors to measure the benefits of using biochar as a soil amendment as compared to traditional petrochemical-based fertilizers. Farmers will be kept abreast of the project’s progress via Radio Lifeline’s weekly farmer-focused programs, broadcast through its network of community radio stations.
“The Black Earth Project could make a significant contribution to GMCR’s continuing efforts to help farmers meet the challenges presented by climate change and food insecurity by helping to increase yields and decrease input costs in coffee producing regions. We are very pleased to support this collaborative and innovative project,” commented Colleen Popkin, GMCR’s coffee community outreach manager.
Peter Kettler, executive director of Radio Lifeline remarked, “This project advances our goal of providing low-tech, locally-appropriate solutions to some of the biggest challenges that farmers in the developing world are facing today, including climate change, increased competition for natural resources, rising input costs and the complex issues related to food security. If successful, the Black Earth Project could eventually lead to the production of the world’s first carbon-negative coffee.”
The Black Earth Project is scheduled to begin construction of test plots and initiate farmer training workshops on March 3 in Butare, Rwanda.
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PRINCETON STUDY SHOWS SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN GLOBAL ANTIBIOTIC USEJul. 15, 2014Feedstuffs magazine reports:
Global use of antibiotics is surging, according to Princeton University researchers who have conducted a broad assessment of antibiotic consumption around the world.
The study, "Global Trends in Antibiotic Consumption, 2000-2010," found that worldwide antibiotic use has risen 36% over those 10 years, with five countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) - responsible for more than three-quarters of that surge, according to study authors Thomas Van Boeckel, Simon Levin, Bryan Grenfell and Ramanan Laxminarayan of Princeton.
Among the 16 groups of antibiotics studied, cephalosporins, broad-spectrum penicillins and fluoroquinolones accounted for more than half of that increase, with consumption rising 55% from 2000 to 2010. Agricultural use was not included in the study.
The study quantifies the growing alarm surrounding antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and a loss of efficacy among antibiotics used to combat the most common illnesses. In addition, the report highlights an increasing resistance to carbapenems and polymixins, two classes of drugs long considered "last resort" antibiotics for illnesses without any other known treatment.
Overall, the study reviewed patterns, seasonality and frequency of use of antibiotics in 71 countries. The findings of the report are featured July 10 in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
There was some good news. The data underscore evidence that more global citizens are able to access and purchase antibiotics. However, that use is not being effectively monitored by health officials, from doctors to hospital workers to clinicians, noted the researchers. Consequently, antibiotic use is both rampant and less targeted.
That reality is driving antibiotic resistance at an unprecedented rate.
"We have to remember that before we had antibiotics, it was pretty easy to die of a bacterial infection," said Laxminarayan, a research scholar with the Princeton Environmental Institute. "And we're choosing to go back into a world where you won't necessarily get better from a bacterial infection. It's not happening at a mass scale, but we're starting to see the beginning of when the antibiotics are not working as well."
The study found that India was the single-largest consumer of antibiotics in the world in 2010, followed by China and the U.S.
The study also found that antibiotic consumption has flattened in the U.S., compared with the five BRICS countries. However, U.S. citizens per capita still account for far more antibiotic consumption than any other population, with a rate of more than twice that of India.
"This paper breaks new ground with the comparative antibiotic consumption data by country of the first decade of the 21st century," said Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England and chief scientific adviser for the Department of Health in London, U.K. "There is a direct relationship between consumption and development of antibiotic resistance, so the data is key for us all developing 'National Action Plans Against Antimicrobial Resistance' as set out in the World Health Assembly Resolution in May."
The study noted that antibiotic use tended to peak at different times of the year, corresponding in almost every case with the onset of the influenza season. In the northern hemisphere, for example, consumption peaked between January and March, while in the southern hemisphere it peaked between July and November. One notable exception was India, for which usage peaked between July and September, correlating with the end of the monsoon season.
"This is a problem at the scale of climate change in terms of urgency," Laxminarayan said. "But we don't have anything close to the architecture of science to look at this problem, to look at solutions, to look at where the problem is the worst."
Laxminarayan and Levin received a grant from Princeton's Grand Challenges Program to study the problem of antibiotic resistance as part of general work on "common property" problems, those areas in which individuals or small groups make decisions - such as on how they use antibiotics - that have national or global consequences.
The research was conducted by Thomas Van Boeckel, Fulbright scholar; Quentin Quadron, postdoctoral researcher; Grenfell, the Kathryn Briger & Sarah Fenton professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School; Levin, the George M. Moffett professor of biology and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Laxminarayan. In addition, two scholars from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in Washington, D.C., were involved.
The data supporting the study results were drawn from IMS Health, a private company that collects sales data on global drug pharmaceuticals.
The research group frames the issue of antibiotic resistance as more than a global health concern. Because the study found a strong correlation between seasonality and antibiotic consumption - for example during flu seasons, for which antibiotic use is "inappropriate" - Levin sees the issue as having a strong environmental component, as well.
"Keep in mind that we're not the primary organism on this planet. It's really bacteria," Levin said. "And we in no way understand bacteria to the degree that we should. Instead, we're just dumping antibiotics on them, and then we think we're winning the war on bugs. There is no winning the war on bugs.
"We're modifying that bacteria, where we dump antibiotics into agriculture, we put them on fruit trees, we prescribe them in outpatient clinics - we have been running this massive experiment for about 50 years without really knowing what it's doing. What are the consequences of that?"
Programs promoting "rational use" of antibiotics should be a national and global priority, said the report's authors. That process has to begin with the BRICS countries, which are experiencing the highest rates of increase in antibiotic consumption.
While the report did not include specific recommendations, Laxminarayan suggested that a universally adopted algorithm for prescribing antibiotics might help assure their appropriate use. Such an algorithm would not require a doctor's authorization, he said. It would merely require a practitioner committed to observing it.
The research was funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the RAPIDD Program, the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center and the Princeton University Grand Challenges Program.Tweet
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2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/19520 | Heinz to close Pocatello plant
H.J. Heinz has announced plans to close its Pocatello, Idaho, plant, along with two other facilities.
By John O’Connell
John O'Connell/Capital Press
Dan Hargraves, with Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative, stands by the entrance sign at the Pocatello H.J. Heinz plant, which the company intends to close in the next six to eight months.
Buy this photo Capital PressPOCATELLO, Idaho — Officials of H.J. Heinz say their Pocatello facility, which employs 410 workers, is among three plants scheduled for closure during the next six to eight months.The company also intends to close a plant in Florence, S.C., which has 200 workers, and a Canadian plant in Learnington, Ontario, which has a workforce of 740.Heinz spokesman Michael Mullen said in a press release that production will shift to other Heinz factories in the U.S. and Canada.“Heinz will continue to invest in improving capacity utilization and will add 470 employees across five existing factories in Ohio, Iowa, California and Canada,” Mullen said. “Once this consolidation is complete, Heinz will employ approximately 6,800 hourly and salaried workers at sites across Canada and the U.S.Heinz will offer the displaced workers severance benefits, outplacement services and other support, Mullen said.“We reached this decision after exploring extensive alternatives and options,” Mullen said. “Heinz fully appreciates and regrets the impact our decision will have on employees and the communities in which these factories are located.”On Feb. 14, Heinz announced its acquisition by an investment consortium comprising an investment fund affiliated with 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway, which is controlled by Warren Buffett.Heinz bought the Pocatello plant from Kraft Foods in 1980. Though Heinz once used the plant for processing its Ore-Ida frozen potato product line, the facility has been used for making frozen meals in recent years.Dan Hargraves, executive director of Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative, said Idaho growers sell millions of hundredweights of potatoes to the Ontario, Ore., Heinz plant, but the Pocatello plant closure shouldn’t affect his growers.“They were using hardly any spuds,” Hargraves said.Matt Hunter, president and CEO of the Pocatello Chamber of Commerce, believes the facility has good rail access and has a good chance of being redeveloped for a new food processing use.“Heinz didn’t pay their chamber dues last month. Now we know why,” Hunter said.Prior to the announcement, Heinz had considered producing a line of deep-fried foods in Pocatello, said John Regetz, executive director of Bannock Development Corp.Regetz has asked the plant manager to provide information about when layoffs will occur and when the building will be available to market to other businesses. Regentz said other companies that have recently moved into Idaho would likely have been a good fit for the facility, and he’s optimistic the plant won’t remain idle. He believes the plant would be especially attractive with processors who finalize their processes with freezing.“It has great capacity. I think it’s very viable,” Regetz said. “Only very specialized food processors with a very specialized niche wouldn’t be able to use it.”Regetz said the Idaho Department of Labor’s rapid response team will assist with assessing the needs of workers, helping them obtain benefits and teaching job-searching skills. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/19521 | Forum to examine use drone technology in agriculture
Upcoming forum examines use of drone technology in agriculture.
By Eric MortensonCapital Press
Published on November 22, 2013 10:36AM
Jeff Lorton believes drone technology is the next big thing in agriculture, and he’s determined to make sure it lands in Yamhill County, the center of Oregon’s world-class wine industry.Lorton, the county’s part-time economic development manager, has organized a Dec. 9 “Precision Farming Forum” to introduce the concept to farmers, vineyard operators and nursery managers. Experts in the field of UAVs – unmanned aerial vehicles – will discuss the possibilities and realities during the all-day session.“There’s an application for nearly every agriculturist coming in the near future,” Lorton said.The forum happens Monday, Dec. 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Leslie Lewis Pavilion of the Yamhill County Fairgrounds, 2070 N.E. Lafayette Ave., McMinnville. Admission is free, but online tickets are necessary for entry. To register, go to www.growyamhillcounty.com and click on the “Events” tab.Enthusiasts believe small, unmanned planes equipped with cameras and other sensors can be of great benefit in agriculture, forestry, wildlife management and law enforcement. In farming, their potential uses include flying over nurseries to do inventory and identifying areas of plant damage, disease or irrigation problems. Larger drones could carry payloads of pesticides or fertilizer, an application now being tested at vineyards in California’s Napa Valley.“It’s a big game changer in agriculture,” Lorton said. “The Holy Grail of it is crop diagnostics.”Lorton believes drone technology will spawn a myriad of economic opportunities for spin-off industries, in addition to luring engineers and software developers. He hopes Yamhill County will become a center for the industry.Speakers at the forum include Oregon State University forestry engineering professor Michael Wing, who is part of OSU’s newly formed Unmanned Vehicle System Research Consortium. In an OSU news release earlier this year, Wing described the state as the perfect spot for UAV testing.“Within about 100 miles you can go from the Pacific Ocean to seashore dunes, coastal mountains, agricultural valleys, rivers, urban areas, many types of forest, volcanoes, lava fields, alpine peaks, canyons and high sagebrush desert,” Wing said in the news release.Other speakers include Ryan Jenson, chief executive of HoneyComb Corp., a fledgling Portland company that has developed a drone specifically intended for agriculture.At 3:30 is a panel discussion on “UAVs and the Oregon Farmer.” | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/19660 | Farmers facing weather crisis 29 Sept 2011
High rainfall throughout late summer and early autumn is leaving many farmers facing a crisis in harvesting their crops. High rainfall throughout late summer and early autumn is leaving many farmers facing a crisis in harvesting their crops.
Among those most affected are potato and grain crops that could face disastrous consequences if the heavy rains don’t subside until they can be saved.The Irish Farmers Association has warned that farmers will face financial implications if grain crops and potatoes are lost due to the usually cold and wet weather in August and September. Farmers say they need another two weeks of the dry weather to save crops. A lot of the grain in the county cannot be harvested yet because it is too wet and potatoes cannot be brought in because the ground is too wet. Some grain crops have already been lost and up to 70% of the crop across the county still has to be harvested.Farmers face the prospect of losing potatoes and grain that they were intending to sell or purchasing extra grain during the winter to feed cattle due to losses.Dairy farmers are also facing extra costs because they have had to bring cattle in a month early due to the wet ground.Chair of the IFA in Donegal PJ McMonagle said farmers in the north west are suffering more because of the weather they have experienced in recent weeks compared to colleagues in the south of the country. “It is the financial implication of the whole thing that is the problem,” he said. “They are depending on getting that crop out to pay bills. If the weather does not pick up we are in serious trouble in this county. There have been three inches of rain in the last fortnight - that is a serious amount of water to fall in a short period of time. Some of it has already been lost and the tillage of grain is going to be down. You normally get 2.5 to 3 tonnes an acre and you could be lucky now to get 2 tonnes an acre.”Wheat and barley are two grain crops Manorcunningham farmer Keith Roulston says have been badly affected by the weather.“It’s really just a case of salvaging now. Some crops aren’t so bad and some people have them saved, but even at best at the moment, there will be losses, with heads in the ground and shedding grain. At best it will be losses and at worst some crops could be completely lost,” he stated. He said many farmers across the county were hoping heavy rainfall would desist for a while so it would give them an opportunity to assess the damage and save remaining crops.“If it were to dry up the barley could be cut but there will be some yield loss. Once you have yield lost you are eating into your so-called profit,” he added.He said he has heard stories from other farmers who have large crop areas where the grain is now lying on the ground and cannot be cut.“To look at it you would think the crop is still standing, but it has got so ripe it has shed the grain and it is all lying on the ground. It’s gone,” he added. Leave your comment | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/20808 | Self-Steered Tractors and UAVs: Future Farming Is (Finally) Now subscribe
Author: Alexis Madrigal.
Alexis Madrigal Science Date of Publication: 10.19.09.
Self-Steered Tractors and UAVs: Future Farming Is (Finally) Now
It was 1903 when Robert Blair’s great-grandfather began farming the dry ridge overlooking the Clearwater River near Lewiston, Idaho. In 2001, when Blair took the reins, the farm’s books were still kept by hand. Now, he has deployed a set of Darpa-like technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles and self-steering tractors.
“In six years, I went from just having a cell phone to my tractor driving itself, and having a small airplane flying and landing itself on a farm,” Blair said.
The new precision farmers are hacking together a way of making food in which the virtual and physical worlds are so tightly bound that having his tractor steered by GPS-guidance with inch-level accuracy is ho-hum. Autosteering of farm machinery has exploded over the past several years, according to an annual survey by Purdue University’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business. In 2004, just 5 percent of agricultural retail outlets offered autosteering. In 2008, more than half did.
In a 2009 issue of Precision Farmer Magazine, Montana wheat farmer Steven Swank described the benefits of a souped-up GPS called “real-time kinematic” (RTK) satellite navigation.
“RTK is so much more relaxing. It allows you to multitask, and that (allows) me to spend more time with my family,” Montana wheat farmer told Steven Swank. “I even watched a DVD in the cab with my daughter recently.”
Blair, at 40, is a leader of this next generation of farmers who are adapting the precision dreams of the ’90s to the realities of the soil and the history of their acreage. People dreamed of vastly reducing pesticide and fertilizer use by applying just the right amount to each plant, but the variable-rate technologies have been only patchily adopted. Instead, a new crop of younger growers has started to use something like augmented reality. Data draped over their land guides their tractors and their decision-making.
“The big story is the generational shift going on right now,” said Joe Russo, president of the agriculture technology company, ZeDX. “The younger people are starting to get ahold of these farms and they have a much different attitude to technology. They Twitter, they got smartphones, they’re always on the computer. Precision ag is gonna ride that wave.”
Farmers have adopted autosteer, especially, because it has made them money. By eliminating the slop-space that even the best farm machinery operators needed, it allows them to put more rows in their fields, effectively increasing their per-acre yields. For high-value crops, it was an obvious technology to adopt.
“The payback was so much more than variable rate ever was that it was a no-brainer,” said Paul Schrimpf, who has been covering precision agriculture for the magazine CropLife.
Blair wants to push further, though. He’s leading a charge to adapt unmanned aerial vehicles — like the Predator Drones zipping across Afghanistan — to the task of crop surveillance. In true maker fashion, he’s not waiting for the technology to be delivered to him. He has founded a company and built a prototype of his UAV that uses an off-the-shelf digital camera to take photos of his farm.
The images it produces aren’t just pretty pictures, they can be converted into data that can be used in water, fertilizer and pesticide decision-making.
Based on the color data captured by the CCD, Blair can obtain a value called the normalized differential vegetative index, which he can use to find patterns in his fields.
“Now we have a numeric value and we can write an algorithm to find different things,” Blair explained. “Is a stressed crop showing a different value than one that’s healthy?”
Farmers like Blair have antecedents in the farmer-scientists of the Green Revolution, but ever-cheaper information technology has let them map the data to their land with ever greater resolution. Blair is slowly turning the vast, uncontrolled experiment that is his farm into a living laboratory that also happens to make money.
Innovating on a farm is tough. Raising living things is not software development: Biology takes time, an iteration takes a year. Being pegged to the cycle of the Earth rotating around the sun makes farmers a little more conservative than those who spend every waking moment bathed in fluorescent light and charged on Mountain Dew. Still, some farmers press ahead trying to use technology to fatten their margins. Blair’s e-mail signature includes the Thomas Jefferson quote, “I am not afraid of new inventions or improvements.”
Here’s how precision agriculture works on Blair’s farm. He has incorporated several pieces of of the overall platform including yield monitors, boom control, variable rate applications and autosteering.
First, he installed yield monitors, which are a kind of real-time scale that records the amount of wheat harvested in small chunks of a field. They’ve become increasingly popular because they quantify the kind of hard-won data that farmers used to spend decades understanding: what parts of their land are the best (and the worst).
“What the technology has allowed us to do is to see where those areas are and define them,” Blair said.
The yield monitors generate maps (as in the small image) that tell Blair which parts of his fields produce 120 bushels of wheat and which just 20. With that resolution, he can manage that land according to what it needs.
To determine the optimal fertilization and chemical inputs for different areas of his farm, Blair conducted tests over a period of five years to figure out how his crops responded to different amounts of nitrogen. Often, he’ll reduce the amount of fertilizer on the poor producing areas of his land because their limiting factor isn’t nitrogen, but some other factor like water or another soil component. Now, his poor land planted with winter wheat might only get 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre instead of the 100 he’d put on the best land.
Beyond variable-rate application like this, Blair also uses automatically controlled sprayers. These booms, pipes with nozzles set into them at regular intervals, are mounted on farm machinery and used to apply chemicals and fertilizers. They tend to spray in large rectangles, even if the farm land isn’t a prefect rectangle. With automatic controls on the booms, they can be programmed to only spray on the farmland, not on adjacent areas. It might not seem like a major area for savings, but the math works.
“Let’s say you have two RoundUp sprayings at $20 a pop. Then insect spray at $30 an acre. That’s $70 an acre,” Blair said. “You’re able to save 10 percent, that’s $7 an acre.” Multiply that by the 1500 acres he farms, and it’s clear how quickly he could be paid back on any four-digit investment.
Lastly, autosteering makes it easier to run the farm and ensures that he doesn’t waste any land because of farm machinery operator mistakes.
“I get on a big field with my autosteer, as soon as I make sure I’m on the track, I’m on my PDA phone checking e-mail,” Blair said. “I’m looking at the internet. What’d the market do today? I’m reading news.”
Everything he does on his farm is devoted to gathering and using data to maximize the efficiency of his farm. “People that have vision of where agriculture is going to go seem to realize that the key is the databases,” Blair told PrecisionAg.com in a video to celebrating his 2009 win for Precision Farmer of the Year.
And it’s the search for more — and more timely — data that led him to developing his own UAV. He wanted to correlate what his fields looked like during the growing season with the yields at harvest time.
Blair’s UAV is hand-launched, which means that he literally runs, jumps and throws it in the air like a javelin. The craft locates itself and flies a predetermined path over his farm, sending back images like the one above.
Piloted fixed-wing aircraft can provide similar resolution, but Blair thinks his company can compete on price and deliver equal or better results. It’s possible to get similar photos from satellites, but the resolution (in time and space) isn’t good enough.
“With what I’ve been able to fly on my own farm, I’m looking at goldfish in a pond,” he said. And he can fly his UAV whenever he wants.
It’s some gee-whiz technology out on the Idaho ridge, but Russo of ZeDX, was skeptical. UAVs are relatively expensive and complex technology.
“There are not many farmers that are going to do that,” Russo said. “It’s not just the machine, but the time and changing your practices. All the backend costs.”
And, for the time being, the Federal Aviation Administration has not come up with rules for UAVs that would allow Blair to actually sell his UAVs or the images they produce. Like so many other precision farming techniques — and technologies more generally — the path from good idea to widespread implementation is likely to be a lot longer and difficult than first anticipated.
The precision farming transformation began in the Midwest in the 1980s.
“You look at ’86, ’87, ’88, I equate it to the moon launch of precision agriculture,” said CropLife’s Schrimpf. “You had guys putting 286 boxes into cabs and using aerial imagery that was shot by a plane and trying to use it to control an applicator.”
It gathered steam amidst the noise and fury of the internet boom, but only now has precision farming spread to the rest of the country and truly begun to impact the lives of farmers. Sixty-eight percent of farmers have tried or use some precision farming technique, according to a Farm Industry News reader survey. Questions remain, though, about how much precision farming is going to change the big picture problems that food system critics like Marion Nestle and Michael Pollan have identified.
Genetic engineering of crops and precision engineering used to be presented as the technological fixes to the agricultural challenges of our era. They were going to keep farming profitable enough to keep people putting out enough food to feed the nearly 7 billion people of the world — while minimizing environmental downsides of industrial farming.
William Booth in a 1999 Wired article breathlessly summarized the promise of precision farming: “If machines and computers can help a farmer apply just the exact amount of disincentive and encouragement, exactly where it is needed, it will not only save billions of dollars and jack up profits, but give the farmland and the surrounding streams and forests a much needed respite from the relentless dousing of nasty and wasteful fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.”
The scientific research on the ability of precision agriculture to reduce chemical usage is somewhat mixed, but on balance, a review by agronomists Jess Lowenberg-Deboer of Purdue University and Rudolfo Bongiovani of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology in Argentina found decided benefits.
“Most of the papers reviewed indicate that PA can contribute in many ways to long-term sustainability of production agriculture, confirming the intuitive idea that PA should reduce environmental loading by applying fertilizers and pesticides only where they are needed, when they are needed,” they wrote in a paper published in a 2004 paper in the journal Precision Agriculture.
“The concepts of precision agriculture (PA) and sustainability are inextricably linked,” they concluded.
But even some precision ag proponents aren’t sure that the technologies will solve the big problems that the globe’s food system faces.
“From a macro perspective, I don’t know that there is a direct correlation between precision farming and massive increases in yield that could help feed the world,” said Nate Taylor, who works with Russo at ZeDX.
Long-time precision farming researcher, John Phillips, who recently retired from his post at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, said much the same about the environmental benefits that precision farming could deliver. Precision farming could be “a big player” in reducing the amount of nitrogen that leaches into groundwater, but it wouldn’t be the primary solution.
“We’d have to see some changes in the rest of the farming system,” Phillips said.
And the economic benefits? Croplife’s Schrimpf said that the profitability — and adoption — of technologies that reduce environmental impacts tend to float on the sea of natural gas prices.
“In years when fertilizer is expensive, dealers can possibly sell precision farming on the fact that you could save fertilizer at the end of the day,” Schrimpf said. “When fertilizer is really cheap, growers don’t necessarily get that benefit.”
Instead of investing in and committing to precision agriculture, they just purchase variable-rate services, say, in some years from specialized companies.
For all those reasons, everyone agrees that precision agriculture hasn’t taken off as quickly as people thought it might. Farming, though, is changing in ways that would be shocking in any industry, let alone human civilization’s oldest and most fundamental one.
In 1903, when Blair’s great-grandfather founded the farm, there was exactly one working airplane and few cars in the entire world. More than 35 percent of the U.S. population farmed for a living. There was no synthetic fertilizer. No hybrid plant varieties. No transistors. Most power on the farm came from human and animal muscles. Change might seem to come slowly to farms. And the many techno-utopian farms imagined in the past never seem to come about, but in just a few generations of a long-lived family, the layers of technology can create astounding change.
“We’ve gone from horses to tractors driving themselves,” Blair concluded.
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2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/22195 | Dairy farmers want labeling changed on soy and rice products
"What's in a name?" California dairy officials are asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Can yogurt by any other name taste as sweet?"
"What's in a name?" California dairy officials are asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Can yogurt by any other name taste as sweet?"Forgive the recasting of a line from "Romeo and Juliet," but it exemplifies the complaint Western United Dairymen recently filed with federal regulators, objecting to the use of the word yogurt when applied to products based on soy, rice and other non-dairy products."The soy product industry's blatant misuse of the term 'milk' and 'yogurt' as part of a coordinated marketing scheme to deceive consumers must be stopped," dairy officials wrote in their complaint. "The explicit strategy ... is an attempt to fraudulently lure customers to their product as a substitute for wholesome, nutritious milk."Federal code defines yogurt as a cultured product using cream, milk or skimmed milk, with the addition of vitamins and flavorings optional.To call a similar product made from soy beans instead of dairy products is simply a fraud, said Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United, a Modesto-based trade group."Under federal standards you cannot call it yogurt; it's not yogurt," he said."That's why you can't call horse meat beef; it's not beef," Marsh said, alluding to the current whoopla in Europe over the widespread appearance of horse meat in products labeled as beef."It's misleading to consumers," he said.And, of course, Marsh wants to protect the interests of his dairy-producer members. They include many dairy operators in San Joaquin County, where milk is the No. 1 most valuable farm commodity, worth an estimated $453 million in 2011."Unfortunately, it costs the dairy producers, because folks think it has the same nutritional value as milk."Of course, products with label names such as soy milk, rice milk and almond milk have been on grocery shelves for years. Marsh said the dairy industry has objected to those as well but has gotten little response from the government.Western United and other industry groups first objected to the misapplication of the word "milk" more than a decade ago."We originally complained to the FDA in the first part of 2001 and we did it again in 2003, and the FDA just didn't respond," he said.An agency spokeswoman did provide a short email response Thursday about the labeling issue."FDA's guidance has been that terms such as 'soymilk,' 'almond milk,' etc. do not meet standards to be identified as milk. This is an active issue that FDA continues to address," wrote Theresa Eisenman, from agency offices in Silver Spring, Md.Despite that claim of action, it's not enough, Marsh said."Unfortunately, because of the FDA not enforcing the laws as Congress intended, we're seeing more and more of these beverages show up in the dairy case," he said. "From these other beverages, you're not getting the same nutrition as you do from milk."Marsh would like to see action such as occurred in an earlier era, restricting the use of the word "butter.""They're making products like I Can't Believe It's Not Butter for the same reason," he said. "They can't call margarine butter, because it's not butter."While the government has not effectively acted on the dairy industry's labeling complaints in recent years, Marsh has hope that recent changes in the Obama administration and a renewed emphasis on consumer protection might help his most recent letter trigger some movement."You might have a chance of them taking a look at this," he said.Contact reporter Reed Fujii at (209) 546-8253 or [email protected]. | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/22210 | Ceres to deliver three year campaign for LEAF
By Staff 28th November 2012
PR LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), the leading organisation delivering sustainable food and farming, has appointed Ceres to deliver a three year trade and consumer PR campaign, following a competitive pitch.
Ceres, will continue to promote LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday, which it has worked on since its launch seven years ago. It will also provide year round PR support for LEAF to reach the food and farming industry.
Open Farm Sunday is recognised as the farming industry’s flagship open day, attracting nearly one million visitors to farms across the UK since its launch in 2006. Ceres will work with LEAF to continue to build on the event’s success, driving further visitors, encouraging more farms to open and extending industry support. In addition to positioning Open Farm Sunday as an opportunity for the public to discover more about how their food is produced, Ceres will be highlighting the vital work farmers do to care for the environment and the positive impact this has on what we eat.
The PR activity for LEAF will highlight LEAF’s role as the leading organisation delivering sustainable food and farming. The campaign will engage with farmers and the wider food industry to position LEAF as the ‘Sustainable Choice’ – helping farmers to farm more sustainably, offering a way for companies to demonstrate their environmental commitment and increasing the availability of sustainably produced food.
Caroline Drummond, chief executive of LEAF said: “We are delighted to be continuing to work with Ceres. They have helped us establish Open Farm Sunday as the high profile campaign it is today and I am sure that, together, we can take it to new heights. The importance of sustainable food production at home and abroad is now more important than ever and LEAF is able to deliver real benefits to the food and farming industry. I am therefore looking forward to continuing to work with Ceres to further raise awareness of the benefits LEAF offers in delivering a more sustainable approach to agriculture.”
Jennifer John, managing director, Ceres, who will lead the campaign added: “Sustainability is a vast and complex issue and the PR campaign will focus on giving LEAF a clear voice in this area and demonstrating its expertise. Although the public is starting to engage more with where its food comes from, there is still a long way to go. LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday is an excellent opportunity to help connect the public with the story behind their food and give them a greater understanding of what sustainability means.” | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/23181 | How Using Antibiotics In Animal Feed Creates Superbugs By Richard Knox
Feb 21, 2012 TweetShareGoogle+Email Many livestock groups say there's no evidence that antibiotics in livestock feed have caused a human health problem, but researchers beg to differ.
Originally published on February 21, 2012 4:19 pm Researchers have nailed down something scientists, government officials and agribusiness proponents have argued about for years: whether antibiotics in livestock feed give rise to antibiotic-resistant germs that can threaten humans. A study in the journal mBio, published by the American Society for Microbiology, shows how an antibiotic-susceptible staph germ passed from humans into pigs, where it became resistant to the antibiotics tetracycline and methicillin. And then the antibiotic-resistant staph learned to jump back into humans. "It's like watching the birth of a superbug," says Lance Price of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, in Flagstaff, Ariz. Price and colleagues in 19 countries did whole-genome analysis on a staph strain called CC398 and 88 closely related variations. CC398 is a so-called MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, that emerged within the past decade in pigs and has since spread widely in cattle and poultry as well as pigs. The genetic analysis allowed the study authors to trace the lineage of the livestock bug back to its antibiotic-susceptible human ancestors. Price says it shows beyond a doubt that the animal bacterium jumped back into humans with close exposure to livestock. This "pig MRSA" has been detected in nearly half of all meat sampled in U.S. commerce, according to the American Society for Microbiology. Most staph found in meat can be eliminated by cooking food well, but it can still pose a risk to consumers if handled unsafely or if it cross-contaminates with other things in the kitchen. Price told The Salt that the new resistant human bug appears to be spreading beyond people with direct exposure to livestock. "Initially we could always trace it back to livestock exposure," Price says. "But now we are starting to see cases of resistant strains that we can't trace back. So we think it may be changing gears, so to speak, and gaining the capacity to be passed from person to person." Price says the new data provide an early warning of what might become a major public health problem. "We're seeing this one coming," he says. "The question is how often will this occur in the future if we don't start controlling antibiotic use?" So far, the proportion of human MRSA infections due to this livestock-derived strain is small. But in some areas of the Netherlands, it's causing as many as 1 in 4 human MRSA cases — suggesting that it has the potential to spread extensively. Paul Keim, another study author, says the report shows that "our inappropriate use of antibiotics ... is now coming back to haunt us." He says the solution is clear — banning antibiotics in livestock feed, as the European Union has done. Most antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to animals, mostly in their feed, where they act as a growth promoter and damp down infection outbreaks in large feedlots. Many livestock groups say there's no evidence that using antibiotics in livestock feed creates a human health problem. "Most informed scientists and public health professionals acknowledge that the problem of antibiotic resistance in humans is overwhelmingly an issue related to human antibiotic use," the American Meat Institute says. The new report adds fuel to the long-running debate about antibiotic use for livestock, and the government's responsibility to regulate it. In December, the FDA withdrew a 1977 proposal to remove approvals for two antibiotics, penicillins and tetracyclines, used in livestock and poultry feed. It said it would focus instead on "voluntary reform" by the meat industry to limit use. Then in a partial reversal in January, the agency said it would ban one class of antibiotics called cephalosporins from animal feed.Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. TweetShareGoogle+EmailView the discussion thread. © 2017 KACU 89.5 | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/24116 | Newsletter Videos Subscribe Contact Us Apps Resources Herb to Know: Dame's Rocket
By Betsy Strauch
Worth growing for its delicious fragrance alone, dame’s rocket also offers showy, long-lasting flowers and is as trouble-free an herb as you could ask for. Its multitude of common names attests to centuries of cultivation in gardens and to the high regard in which it has been held. Dame’s or sweet rocket, dame’s or damask violet, rogue’s or queen’s gilliflower, vesper flower, mother-of-the-evening: many of the names allude to its sweet scent—likened to a mixture of clove and violet—and to the time of day when that scent is released into the air. The name damask violet may be an association with the fragrant damask rose (Rosa damascena), or perhaps someone confused “damask” with “dame”. The name gilliflower was originally applied to pinks and carnations (Dianthus spp.), many of which have a clove scent. The generic name, Hesperis, comes from the Greek hesperos, “evening”, and matronalis, is Latin for “of a married woman”.The genus Hesperis consists of about sixty biennial or perennial herbs native to the Mediterranean region and central Asia, of which dame’s rocket is the only species that is cultivated extensively. Its value as an ornamental led to its introduction as a garden flower throughout Europe, where it subsequently naturalized. During the seventeenth century, it arrived in America as a garden flower, escaped, and now grows wild in damp woods, along roadsides, and in fields and waste areas in eastern North America from Newfoundland and Ontario south to Georgia and west to Kansas.Dame’s rocket is an erect, branching plant that may reach 4 feet tall and 18 inches wide. Its roots, according to the English herbalist Gerard, are “slender and threddie”, and its pointed, hairy alternate leaves are “somewhat snipt about the edges”; the lower ones have short stalks and may be as long as 4 inches, while the upper ones are stalkless and smaller. Loose terminal clusters of four-petaled, 3/4-inch-wide lavender, pink, or white flowers bloom in the late spring and early summer. At a casual glance, dame’s rocket may be mistaken for phlox, but phlox’s flowers have five petals. Double-flowered forms are highly prized, but today they are not readily available in the United States. Perhaps that is just as well: the British plantsman Graham Stuart Thomas has described them as “highly temperamental”. The flowers are followed by 4-inch-long, slender seedpods that are filled with pitted oblong brown seeds. The four-petaled flowers and skinny pods are evidence of this herb’s membership in the mustard family.Uses For Dame's RocketDame’s rocket has been used medicinally to induce sweating, promote urination, and loosen a cough, but no scientific evidence confirms its effectiveness. The leaves, which are rich in vitamin C, have also been used to treat or prevent scurvy; however, in A Modern Herbal (1931), Maud Grieve notes that “a strong dose will cause vomiting” and suggests the leaves as a substitute for the emetic ipecac. According to Hilda Leyel, editor of A Modern Herbal and author of Herbal Delights, the seeds were “said to be a most efficacious cure for stings and bites of serpents and they were sometimes mixed with vinegar to cure freckles.”Europeans have enjoyed eating young dame’s rocket leaves in salads for their bitter, piquant tang. (Dame’s rocket is closely related to arugula.) The sprouted seeds—if not needed for serpent stings or freckle control—are also edible. The plant when in flower is rumored to be a “gland stimulant” and an aphrodisiac. In the Victorian “language of flowers”, dame’s rocket symbolized deceit because it is fragrant in the evening but scentless—or nearly so—during the day.Dame’s rocket is a food source for caterpillars as well as a nectar source for butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. The flowers are good for cutting and will lend their welcome perfume to the room in which they are placed.In The LandscapeThis old-fashioned flower is at home in cottage gardens and other informal settings, perhaps naturalized with ferns and other shade lovers at the edge of a woodland. White forms are wonderful in a white or moonlight garden and show up well in shaded beds, while dappled shade brings out the hues of the colored forms. Place them toward the middle or back of the border. Congenial herbal companions include foxglove and clary sage.Dame’s rocket is hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 8 and to Zone 9 in California. In the South, it begins flowering in April and needs a good supply of moisture and deadheading to promote continued flowering. Because plants tend to deteriorate or die after flowering, it is a good idea to have some annuals on hand to fill in the gaps. In the North, the plants are more likely to be perennial, but after two or three years, the older ones will have become woody and less floriferous. Don’t worry! Dame’s rocket self-seeds boisterously and prolifically, so that young replacement plants will be there for you when you have to rip out the older ones. Thin the new plants to at least 18 inches apart.Growing Dame's RocketDame’s rocket prefers moist, well-drained neutral to slightly alkaline soil in full sun or part shade, but the single forms will tolerate poor soil (they are not temperamental!). Sow the seeds indoors in early spring; because they require light to germinate, just press them into the potting medium. Seedlings may flower the first year. You may also sow seeds in a cold frame or directly in the garden in the fall; seedlings from these sowings should flower the following spring. White-flowered cultivars come fairly true from seed, but in a planting of separate colors that are grown close together, mauve eventually may come to predominate. You may propagate favorite plants from basal cuttings taken in the spring or from divisions that are made while the plants are dormant.SourcesAll of the seed sources listed below offer seeds of both white- and purple/violet/mauve-flowered forms.
• Arrowhead Alpines, PO Box 857, Fowlerville, MI 48836. Seed list $2. Seeds.
• Forestfarm, 990 Tetherow Rd., Williams, OR 97544-9599. Catalog $3. Plants (purple).
• J. L. Hudson, Seedsman, Star Route 2, Box 337, La Honda, CA 94020. Catalog $1. Seeds.
• Select Seeds Antique Flowers, 180 Stickney Rd., Union, CT 06076-4617. Catalog $3. Seeds.
• Thompson and Morgan, PO Box 1308, Jackson, NJ 08527-0308. Catalog free. Seeds. 12
Oregano and Health
Herb to Know: Yarrow
Herb to Know: Sweet Violet
Spice Profile: Fenugreek Seeds
Herb Profile: Lemongrass | 农业 |
2017-09/4497/en_head.json.gz/24447 | Tomatoes Mexican tomato interests look to keep agreement
See related story: Commerce Department kills U.S./Mexico tomato agreement.
While some Mexican interests held out hope for preserving a suspension agreement between Mexican tomato growers and the U.S., they also said rocking the trade boat could have severe consequences.
A day after the Commerce Department announced a preliminary decision to end the agreement, Mexican tomato interests met Sept. 28 with officials from the department to discuss renegotiating the agreement, said Robert LaRussa, lawyer with Shearman & Sterling, Washington, D.C., the counsel for Mexican tomato growers.
“This supposed to be a 270-day process, and we expect a 270-day process,” he said. “If they rush it, there can’t be any other reason to rush it except for political reasons,” he said.
The meeting was cordial, said Eric Viramontes, director general and chief executive officer of AMHPAC, the Mexican association of protected horticulture, Culiacan, Sinaloa.
“We are concerned about the preliminary outcome, but we did have our meeting with Commerce and we were able to talk about our proposal and it was well taken,” he said.
Mexican interests also warned of potentially severe trade repercussions if the suspension agreement falls away.
Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Embassy of Mexico in the U.S., said it seems the decision is “dictated by politics rather sound policy.”
“If our interests end up being impacted we will respond, and there is plenty of evidences of how we can respond if you take a look at the trucking dispute we had with the U.S. for a number of years,” he said. “That might serve as an example of a line of action we might take if it comes to that.”
In 2009, Mexico enacted tariffs of 10% to 45% on grapes, pears, onions, apricots, cherries, strawberries, dates and head lettuce as a result of a cross-border trucking dispute. The tariffs have since been lifted with the resumption of the pilot trucking program.
LaRussa said if the Commerce Department lifts the suspension agreement, U.S. tomato interests would likely file an anti-dumping case days after.
“Their whole goal in this process is to get a higher degree of protection and to do it in a political year, so that’s what they are doing,” he said.
If the Commerce Department levies anti-dumping duties again, that would have an immediate chilling effect on importers, LaRussa said, because preliminary duties can be set initially at one level but later be raised retroactively by the Commerce Department.
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Agriculture and Agri-FoodOral Questions
Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Grain Commission has built up a surplus of $100 million by charging farmers extensive user fees. The commission is supposed to be a cost-recovery operation and not making a profit off the backs of farmers. Has the agriculture minister instructed the chief commissioner to reduce these fees and to immediately return this surplus to grain farmers?
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is of course fully aware of who set the fees to provide this amount of money in the fund. It was his former government that set the fees. I have met with the commissioners and this issue will be dealt with fairly, to make sure the grain farmers in this country are treated fairly.
Kelly Block
Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Mr. Speaker, prairie grain farmers have some of the longest hauls in the world to get their product to market, so when the cost of transport increases, farmers immediately feel the pinch. The carbon tax could be renamed “the farm tax” for the overwhelmingly negative impact it will have on our producers. Does the minister understand the impact this new tax will have on agriculture? Has she met a prairie farmer who supports this new tax?
Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased that we worked with the provinces and territories so that we could bring in a carbon pricing plan that works for Canadians. We are working with provinces and territories. Our government is committed to returning all the revenues to the provinces and territories and it is up to them to determine how to address the situation in their provinces. They can make it revenue-neutral and return the revenues to farmers and to different groups.
We believe it is very important that we move forward, that we tackle climate change, and that we position ourselves for the future clean economy.
Doug Eyolfson
Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Mr. Speaker, today is Canada's Agriculture Day and there is no better day to emphasize how much our government supports our world-class Canadian farmers, ranchers, and growers from coast to coast to coast. Our government's support for our farmers helps them with market development, research, and advocacy and it puts more money in the pockets of farmers. Can the Minister of Agriculture tell us about his recent announcement in Winnipeg at the CropConnect conference?
Mr. Speaker, on Canada's Agriculture Day and every day, this government is extremely proud to support our farmers across this country. Canadian farmers produce the best products in the world, and our government is committed to helping them develop new markets, both at home and abroad.
Not only did we pass CETA this week, but yesterday at the CropConnect conference I was proud to announce more than $2 million in funding for the crop sector, which will put more money in the pockets of farmers, create new jobs, and help grow the middle class.
TransportationOral Questions
Luc Berthold
Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Mr. Speaker, in January, when he was in Sherbrooke, the Prime Minister told the people of Lac-Mégantic, “Together with the Minister [of Transport], I am committed to expediting the process to the extent possible in order to help you.” Yesterday, one month later in the House, the Minister of Transport said, “it is important to expedite the process, and we are working as a team to figure out how to do that.”
We do not need a study to expedite the study. With all the resources available to Transport Canada, can the minister perhaps tell us why he has not yet found a way to move more quickly?
Mr. Speaker, as I said, and the member did quote me properly at the beginning, this work is done together with the Province of Quebec; AECOM, the company that conducted the study; and also with the town of Lac-Mégantic and Mayor Cloutier. We have begun this work. We want to do it in a responsible manner.
We understand the situation in Lac-Mégantic. I visited the town three times. We want to expedite the process and we are doing everything we can to do so.
International DevelopmentOral Questions
Robert Aubin
Trois-Rivières, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are nowhere near the head of the class when it comes to international aid.
The government keeps saying that it is overly ambitious to dedicate 0.7% of our GDP to development aid, even over 10 years.
However, all stakeholders expect the federal government to increase funding for international assistance in order to give Canada some credibility in meeting sustainable development goals. Will the minister show some ambition and commit to increasing international aid investments in budget 2017?
Compton—Stanstead
Marie-Claude Bibeau
Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his interest in international development.
As everyone knows, my mandate involves refocusing Canada's development assistance on helping the poorest, the most vulnerable, and fragile states. We conducted extensive consultations with 15,000 people from 65 countries. I can assure the House that we are going to have a policy that leverages Canada's strengths and focuses on areas where we can make a real difference. Canadians' money will be put to good use and will provide leverage to seek out additional partnerships. We will engage in development innovation and we will make a big difference while provide meaningful leadership.
Rail TransportationOral Questions
February 16th, 2017 / 3 p.m.
Mark Gerretsen
Kingston and the Islands, ON
Mr. Speaker, having the fifth busiest VIA station in Canada, the constituents of my riding of Kingston and the Islands value the passenger service VIA Rail provides in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor and want to make sure that it is properly maintained.
Could the Minister of Transport please explain what the government is doing in helping VIA Rail's corridor infrastructure remain safe and secure while improving the passenger experience by making it more accessible and efficient for everyday Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, we in this government are committed to improving passenger rail service to make it safe, secure, efficient, and reliable. That is why we are investing in infrastructure for VIA Rail, like $1.6 million for Kingston station, where my hon. colleague comes from, $2.5 million for the train stations in Sarnia and London, $15 million for the maintenance centres in Toronto and Montreal. Anybody who goes to the Ottawa train station, where I take the train every week, will see that there is—
Tom Kmiec
Calgary Shepard, AB
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals believe it is more fun to spend someone else's money than their own.
I was shocked to learn in an email from the Minister of International Development that as part of refocusing international assistance, the Liberals consulted very few Canadians. They hosted more than 300 consultations in 65 countries but they only met with Canadians on nine occasions in five locations across our country.
Why is the Minister of International Development prioritizing the views of non-Canadians on how to spend our international aid money when it is Canadians who are paying the bill?
Mr. Speaker, 15,000 people participated in those consultations and most of them were Canadian. I personally participated in nine consultation sessions and round tables here in Canada. I had help from my parliamentary secretary. Many department officials participated in the round tables. All of our partner organizations participated and contributed. They submitted hundreds of briefs. We mostly heard from Canadians. I am pleased to tell the House that women and girls are going to be the focus of our new policy.
Religious FreedomOral Questions
Mario Beaulieu
La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC
Mr. Speaker, Motion No. 103 suggests that a climate of hatred and fear now permeates Quebec society. To suggest such a thing is to engage in overblown rhetoric and hype. What we witnessed after the tragic attack in Quebec City was solidarity, forgiveness, and love, not hatred and fear.
Does the Minister of Canadian Heritage think that a climate of hatred and fear has pervaded the population? « Prev12...1314151617...2324AllNext » | 农业 |
2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/20359 | 2017 Cotton Producer Tour of Cotton Incorporated Headquarters Apr 14, 2017 Make sure hay donations are properly inspected before moving Apr 19, 2017 John Bradley: Still leading the innovation charge Apr 13, 2017 To weather ag downturn: ‘Keep it simple’ Apr 17, 2017 Regulatory>Legislative The farm bill, food aid and the U.S. shipping sector
International food aid programs could face major changes with new farm bill.
Opponents say time not right for major reform.
Proponents say changes will mean food will reach the hungry quicker, more efficently. David Bennett | Nov 13, 2013
While a handful of issues – chief among them nutrition program funding, regional crop support differences, and dairy policy – are proving difficult to find middle ground on, the ongoing farm bill conference must also deal with international food aid reform. With the humanitarian crises in Syria and the Philippines looming large, everyone in the debate remain keen to feed the world’s hungry but how the United States will do that in the future is in the balance.
Those opposed to the Senate farm bill’s major revisions of the U.S. food aid model – used in the Food for Peace and Food for Progress – say U.S. jobs and military readiness would be affected if proposed changes are included in the new farm bill. Among those against the Senate’s reforms are trade unions and a broad swath of agriculture advocacy groups.
Read a letter from many of the opponents here. Meanwhile, proponents of change point out the savings would mean reaching at least 4 million additional hungry people annually – and would do it quicker than is currently possible. The reason for that is cash and vouchers would be distributed directly to the needy, allowing them to make purchases from local markets.
The idea is to move funds to different accounts – including the International Disaster Assistance Account and the Development Assistance Account -- under the control of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Doing so would allow USAID additional flexibility to make choices depending on the situation.
The Obama administration is pushing for the reforms, as did the Bush administration before it. If adopted, the U.S. flag vessel requirement (where 50 to 75 percent of food aid has to be shipped on U.S. vessels) will be dropped. Currently, only 20 percent of overall U.S. food aid can be in the form of cash vouchers or local purchases.
Proponents of the plan say the requirement has served as a long-time subsidy for the U.S. Merchant Marines.
James Caponiti, executive director of American Maritime Congress, offers an entirely different interpretation. “The merchant marine coalition, it’s fair to say, are generally behind the House (farm) bill in terms of how it treats international food aid. The Senate provisions trouble us.
“We do understand the desire to feed more people. We believe there are things that can be done to improve the efficiency with management of the program. But we also think it’s probably the wrong time to be exporting jobs.
“If we get away from U.S. sourcing in the aid program, it would mean jobs lost – perhaps a permanent loss of jobs. It will have a negative impact on jobs, for sure.
“There are already some emergency programs in place that would allow the flexibility that the Senate (farm) bill is attempting to accomplish. We don’t see the need to permanently change the program from the way it’s currently designed where we use U.S. grain, process it in the United States, send it through our ports and ship it on U.S. flagged ships.”
On the other side of the debate is Eric Munoz, Oxfam America Senior Policy Advisor for Agriculture and Food Security. Asked where the international food aid proposals stand in conference, Munoz says specifics are hard to come by. “The discussions around this issue, as with most others on the farm bill, are being tightly held among a few people.
“There are a few promising signs, though. One is that we’ve heard informally that there’s support (for changes) within the conference.”
In part that’s because California Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with New York Rep. Eliot Engle, ranking member, are both farm bill conferees. Earlier this year, the pair was behind the Royce/Engle amendment that would have allowed up to 45 percent of U.S. food aid dollars to be spent on local sources.
While the amendment did not pass on a narrow vote, Munoz says the duo have been “very supportive of food aid reform over the last couple of months. Having them at the table is an important indicator that all the conferees will hear about the reasons for making changes.”
Read an earlier interview with Munoz here. Transparency
Another argument against making changes centers on the worry that food aid will end up in corrupt, despotic foreign government hands with little recourse.
The current system “is transparent,” says Caponiti. “We know the people running the (aid) programs have the best intent. No one is accusing anyone of not having good intent. But we’re always concerned about the lack of transparency that cash and vouchers could lead to.
“Also, there is talk about ‘local and regional purchases’ but we’re not sure how practical that is in many of the places that are in need.”
Caponiti circles back to the possibility of lost jobs. “The U.S. flag industry views this as cargo that it needs to be viable. There are a couple of different ways we maintain a U.S. flag presence in international trade. (International aid) is one of the ways we do it.”
It is no secret that U.S. flag shipping is more expensive than foreign flagged ships, says Caponiti. “We’re competing against the lowest common denominator in cost and, perhaps, operation. So, this is a source of revenue that our industry depends on. That’s why it’s important to maritime.”
If U.S. jobs are lost will that actually lead to ships being retired?
“A permanent loss of cargo in the food aid program could lead to ships no longer being able to remain under U.S. flag,” says Caponiti. “We are concerned that would be a permanent loss. If we don’t have this (aid) cargo to rely on from year to year, it could result in the loss of ships.”
Opponents to the reform estimate that the current system supports 33,000 jobs in the transportation sector alone.
“We’re not saying that 33,000 jobs would be eliminated by the proposal – but it would have a negative impact if there is less grain originated from the United States,” says Caponiti. “It’s kind of hard to be specific on what the impact would be (with proposed changes). The Senate proposal talks about ‘up to’ this and ‘up to’ that. It depends on what they actually do with it, the degree they might adopt these things.”
Munoz backs the Senate approach to reform. “We stand behind our analysis that the Senate bill provides the basis for the kind of incremental reform that it’s important to achieve given what the (Obama) administration wants to go in. We still believe the House version of the bill isn’t a serious effort at reform.”
The Senate farm bill, says Munoz, takes a number of steps to provide greater flexibility to USAID. “There are administrative steps, steps related to cash for in-kind commodities, for example. The Senate would give USAID more flexibility to decide what kind of response is most appropriate. That particularly true when looking at non-emergency development programs.”
In addition, the Senate would make permanent what was in the 2008 farm bill: a pilot program for the local and regional procurement of food. That is up to $60 million annually and would be administered by the USDA.
“The House bill does not include the flexibility and local and regional procurement,” says Munoz. “In fact, the House bill takes us several steps backwards – particularly in terms of maintaining USAID annual reports touting the benefits of modernization.”
Lastly, there is a significant issue that hasn’t gotten much attention, says Munoz. “That includes funding for the ‘famine early warning system.’ That’s an early-warning, protection and response capacity that USAID employs around the world. The House has a much smaller budget for that line-item than the Senate. That really threatens the viability of that program as it does the overall capacity of the agency to conduct meaningful and rigorous oversight of the programs.”
Lots of grey
One of the problems in approaching the debate, says Caponiti, is the lack of black-and-white answers to many of the posed questions. “There isn’t much ‘if you do X it will absolutely result in Y.’ We just don’t want to see us go away from a very transparent program that uses U.S.-sourced food. You know when a shipment of U.S. grain has reached a foreign port. Cash, vouchers and local and regional purchases get into an area that’s less transparent. This isn’t the time to make these changes.
“Again, the people proposing these new initiatives have good intentions. I want that to be very clear on that. This is just a difference of opinion.”
Then, there is the issue of U.S. flagged ships’ roles in national security.
“It’s important to know that the shipping industry is important to national security,” says Caponiti. “You can’t go to war without ships.
“And even though some of the ships involved in (international aid programs) aren’t militarily useful – and we readily concede that – all the merchant mariners employed on the ships, are. To our thinking, you can’t have a mariner pool that’s large enough because when we go to war, commerce continues.”
The demand on ships accrues “when we’re supporting the military during war,” continues Caponiti. “We need a large enough merchant marine to sustain commerce but also to sustain military movements. That’s true for both commercial ships and government-owned ships. The government-owned ships, when activated, the merchant mariners drive those ships over to the war. Most people don’t know that.”
Asked about the opponents to aid reform, Munoz says he’s often heard the arguments about “very, very large implications for U.S. jobs. Given the overall size of the shipping industry and U.S. food aid programs, we felt those probably aren’t an accurate reflection of the true impact of reform on jobs.
“Having said that, it’s very important to have a real conversation about what the impact potentially could be. We need to figure out what reforms or assistance can be provided to the U.S. shipping industry to offset any losses they would face.”
As OXFAM employees are not experts in maritime economics or the shipping industry, “we can’t come up with those solutions for them although we’re sensitive to the need to help. Up to now, however, the conversation hasn’t been to collectively find good solutions that meet the multiple interests at stake. Instead, the conversation has been to keep from enacting reforms because of some of the implications. That puts us in a place preventing a constructive dialogue with Congress. In fact, it’s been a conversation about them wanting to stop reform in any form.”
If the reforms had been enacted prior to the recent typhoon in the Philippines, aid organizations would theoretically be able to go to India or China or somewhere closer to get aid to victims much quicker?
“Yes,” says Munoz. “I’m not sure where the direct source of aid would come from. There may be places in the Philippines where grain remains available. Indonesia is close, as well.
“I don’t know what the response under such reforms would look like. But it is feasible that with greater flexibility the aid response would be improved.”
Ag news delivered daily to your inbox: Subscribe to Delta Farm Press Daily. The next couple of weeks will be very important in the debate.
“The ongoing situation in Syria and what we now face in the Philippines underscores the need for a more flexible response by USAID for its food security and food aid programming,” says Munoz. “I think that will become part of the discussion among farm bill conferees.”
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2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/20397 | Search in In-Action only
FAO projects
Home > In Action > Decreasing child labour through promoting decent rural employment
Decreasing child labour through promoting decent rural employmentIn its first two years, the FAO programme supported 36 national policies, strategies and programmes in Malawi and Tanzania. Key factsIn Malawi, some 37 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 are involved in labour. Most of them work in agriculture, in areas such as crop production, fisheries and livestock. Much of this work is hazardous and presents both health and safety risks for the children, who often work long hours for little or no pay. In addition to their health, labour also affects the children’s futures because it interferes with their right to receive an education. Many child labourers do not go to school or, if they do, the strenuous work makes them too tired to learn the skills they need to improve their lives. While Malawi does have policies on child labour, these deal more with industrial labour and commercial agriculture and do not adequately address child labour in subsistence agriculture and the informal economy. An FAO programme promoting “decent rural employment” in Malawi and its northern neighbour, the United Republic of Tanzania, helped raise awareness of the impact of child labour on rural development. As a result of this and related work undertaken by FAO with partners, Malawi has developed and endorsed a rich Framework for Action to prevent and reduce child labour in agriculture. Promoting “decent rural employment”, as the name implies, is about more than just creating opportunities for employment. It is about upgrading the quality of existing jobs or creating new ones that empower rural people and lead to decent levels of income and a secure and healthy working environment.
A three-year FAO programme, implemented in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and launched in Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania in 2011, is working at the policy level to raise governments’awareness that providing decent rural employment will pay back in extremely important ways. As people improve their livelihoods and have more secure futures, they will also contribute to improved food security and poverty reduction, and be more able and willing to manage natural resources in a more sustainable manner. These ideas have resonated with policy-makers.
In its first two years, FAO provided technical support to 36 national policies, strategies and programmes, on issues ranging from Malawi’s child labour to its National Youth Employment Creation Programme,and from the United Republic of Tanzania’s National Agriculture Policy to its Fisheries Sector Development Programme. Most of world’s poor live and work in rural areasThe statistics from the rural areas of developing countries underscore the importance of focusing on decent rural employment in any effort to alleviate poverty and improve food security. Consider that rural areas of developing countries are home to 75 percent of the world’s poor, that more than half of them are aged 25 and below, that 86 percent of rural people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, that less than 20 percent of them have access to social protection and, in the majority of cases, that they work in an informal economy.
Governments often fail to recognize that 60 percent of all child labour is in agriculture, mostly unpaid family labour, which is not well-covered by child-labour laws. Regulations to protect workers often focus on industry and factory workers, leaving agricultural workers with less protection. The FAO focus on decent rural employment has raised policy-makers’ awareness of the impact of child labour on a nation’s future and the importance of providing solutions for small-scale producers, trapped in a cycle of poverty and child labour. The cycle begins when poor families put their children to work instead of sending them to school. The children remain unskilled, unable to find jobs, run productive farms or start their own businesses. Less able to provide as adults, they put their own children to work to meet household needs,and the cycle of poverty continues. FAO uses Integrated Country ApproachFAO uses an Integrated Country Approach (ICA) to promote decent rural employment, meaning it brings together government ministries such as agriculture and labour, but also includes farmers’ federations and unions. The goal is to have all of these stakeholders recognize the importance of – and work together to create an enabling environment for providing – decent rural employment. Through this, FAO promotes investment in children as the future pillars of the national labour force.
Recognizing the multifaceted aspects of decent rural employment, FAO pulled together diverse specialists from across the Organization to address the specific needs of stakeholders and partners. Known now as the FAO Decent Rural Employment Team (DRET), experts in areas such as gender, labour rights, child labour and youth employment provide technical advice to Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania for incorporation into their policy frameworks.
With support of DRET and in collaboration with the FAO Fisheries Department, Malawi has designed a new National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy (2013-2018) that recognizes social development and decent work as essential to ensuring sustainable livelihoods in the fisheries sector. It also calls for a reduction in the number of child labourers engaged in hazardous work. The team provided technical support to the government in creating a corresponding implementation plan. In Malawi, the team’s work with the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture led to the endorsement of a rich Framework for Action, which marked a significant breakthrough in having the highest level of political support for broad steps to prevent and reduce child labour in agriculture.In-DepthPreventing harzardous child labour in agriculture International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture
At a glanceWorking for rural and agricultural workers, including child labourersWorking to mainstream decent rural employment into national policy frameworksWorking With Governments of Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania, and ILOWorking thanks to SwedenPublicationsPartnering for ResultsReducing Child Labour in Agriculture through good agricultural practices: FAO experiences Guidance on addressing child labour in fisheries and aquaculture (FAO ILO, 2013)Promoting Decent Rural Employment through FAO’s Integrated Country Approach in Malawi and Tanzania Video
Say NO to child labour in agriculture | 农业 |
2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/20886 | Maple sugar makers point to snow, temps | New Hampshire Contact us
Maple tapping at The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem last season, New Hampshire sugarmakers are predicting this year's maple season will likely be even better than last due to the prolonged winter weather. (COURTESY)
Maple sugar makers point to snow, temps
By MEGHAN PIERCENew Hampshire Union Leader
Maple syrup makers say conditions are ripe for a great season."We never know until the season is over, but so far the signs are good," said Lucien Blais, who owns Bisson's Sugar House in Berlin with his wife, Muriel Blais."We've had a good amount of snow, but not too much," he said. "Usually by the end of March is the peak of our season."A good season will last four to six week and relies on temperatures in the 20s at night and the 40s during the day. Last year's sugar season seemed to start off well, but ended in only two weeks when temperatures soared to the 80s in March."Last year by the end of March, the season was pretty much over," said Blais, who has 2,800 taps.New Hampshire Maple Syrup Producers Association Promotions Director Brad Presby is optimistic about this year."We've had good snow coverage for much of the winter, which results in a later start of maple flow and a longer duration of the yield," he said Monday in a written statement. "Last year, most maple producers were down by about 50 percent. This year, we hope to not only get back up to 100 percent, but surpass that; and in fact, many sugar shacks have expanded their operations this season."So far up north, the sap isn't running yet said Blais and Stephen Tilton of Tilton's SugarHouse in Groveton. "We're hoping it's going to be a good season. Snowing up here right now, matter of fact," Tilton said. "It could be a very good year with the weather we're getting, but it's hard to say right now."Dave Fuller of Fuller's Sugar House in Lancaster taps more than 9,500 trees, boils more than 160,000 gallons of maple sap to produce more than 4,000 gallons of maple syrup a season. He is predicting the sap is going to start running up north by the end of the week, Tilton said.In southern New Hampshire, the sap is already flowing.Dave Richards of Grant Family Pond View Maples in Weare said since he started tapping on Feb. 21, he has already produced half of what the 112-year-old family business did during last year's season."It's looking good right now down here; we've got plenty of snow. I'd really like to see some colder temperatures at night," he said.Tilton is hoping to increase his taps from 1,150 to 4,000, he said."We started back in 2000 just outside in the back yard with fifty pails - me and my father - and over the years it just gets more and more and more," Tilton said.Like most small operations, Tilton works during the day and boils sap in his sugar house to make the syrup at night. The purchase of a reverse osmosis machine a few years ago has reduced boiling time about 75 percent, so he can get some sleep during the sugaring season."Technology has completely revolutionized the maple industry; the changes in the last 25 years are just incredible," Blais said.His 92-year-old, third-generation family business uses a reverse osmosis machine as well as vacuum taps that keep the sap flowing through freezes and thaws, and can help a sugar operation survive a bad season like last year."Vacuum has done for maple syruping what manmade snow did for skiing," Blais said.This year's 18th annual New Hampshire Maple Weekend is March 23 and [email protected] | 农业 |
2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/21615 | A Guide to the 2012 Farm Bill (and What it Means to You)
By Kristen Demaline |
Tweet tractor from Shutterstock.com
Today, Ecocentric dives into the 2012 Farm Bill. We're providing this overview of the bill for interested readers. Hopefully it is helpful for those of you following this long – and critical – process. Join us!
Where is the Farm Bill in the overall legislative process?
The Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, a/k/a the Farm Bill has been passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee and is currently being worked on in subcommittees of the House of Representatives. It will come to the Senate floor for a full vote of all members, after which it must be reconciled with the House version.
What is the Farm Bill?
Perhaps more aptly named the Food Bill, it’s the biggest farm policy tool in the U.S., but this really concerns all food. Almost everywhere.
Every five years, Congress must approve the bill so that it can fund programs concerning farmers, crop production, rural development, energy conservation and international food aid. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the Senate’s proposed bill and projects it will cost some $969 billion during the 2013-2022 period, which includes some $23.6 billion in cuts.
The largest section of the nutrition title (title = chapter in legislative-ese) – 70% of all Farm Bill funding – goes to the food stamp program, now formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP is 100% federally funded, but benefits are administered by each state.
Who’s Rocking C-SPAN?
Senate Agriculture Committee: Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), chair; Pat Roberts (R-KS), ranking member
House Agriculture Committee: Frank Lucas (R-OK), chair; Collin Peterson (D-MN), ranking member
Debbie Stabenow is being praised by industry while coming under fire by observers since much of the committee’s business has taken place behind closed doors. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) voted “no” on the Bill in committee, citing opposition to SNAP cuts; four Southern senators joined in, pushing back on other provisions they claim disproportionally affect rice and peanut farmers.
In the House, the Farm Bill continues to be assembled via various subcommittees.
What’s Up This Year? The Political Landscape
The House Agriculture committee has proposed $33 billion in SNAP cuts. Combined with a House Budget Committee proposal to cut SNAP funding by $133 billion over the next decade and convert it to a block grant, resulting cuts would affect every SNAP recipient. (This is modeled on 1996’s welfare reform enacted during President Clinton’s administration. SNAP would no longer be funded to pay whoever is financially eligible; one capped block of money would have to fund all recipients.) 280,000 children would lose free school lunches as their eligibility is tied to SNAP status.
Is this necessary? That depends on your political priorities.
Right now, the House has genuine difficulty in passing legislation or doing business. (Though like all politicians, they seem to get to talk shows and fundraisers just fine.) Members of the Democratic and Republican parties are so firmly entrenched in opposing ideological and political positions that reaching compromise is difficult. Budgets and “austerity” politics rule the day right now. The Farm Bill will be no exception. About a week ago, Rep. Lucas said that “There is a high probability one way or another that we'll see an extension of the 2008 Farm Bill.” You see, if Congress can’t pass a new one, they could simply extend the old bill, but many programs are scheduled to expire at the end of 2012 unless they're properly rolled into a new bill.
Rep. Lucas also predicted a “wild ride.”
Expect to see a huge push for SNAP cuts and elimination of direct subsidy payments to farmers, although those payments will be replaced by other programs. What’s to be determined: the depth of the cuts.
Food Stamps are in the Farm Bill?
Well, yes. It’s a long story. SNAP is credited with reducing the poverty rate by nearly eight percent in 2009, the most recent year included in a new USDA study. Sadly, you probably know at least one or two people who lost their job during the recession; 20 percent of those unemployed for more than six months during fiscal year 2011 received SNAP benefits. Overall, SNAP achieved a 4.4 percent decline in poverty from 2000-09. In 2011, the program served 44.7 million – or one in seven – Americans. Children, seniors and those with disabilities are the majority of those receiving SNAP benefits. According to testimony by Brookings Institution analyst Ron Haskins during House subcommittee hearings, “the average income (not counting the SNAP benefit) of families receiving SNAP is less than $9,000 per year.”
By the way, the current upper threshold for a family of four to be eligible for SNAP? An annual income under $23,050.
Why Should I Care About This?
Those extra-value meals don’t pay for themselves! We know ya'll want everyone to be able eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, so why can’t we make them more affordable? The Farm Bill will continue to profoundly impact the nation’s diet (and therefore public health), the quality of the environment and the efficacy of our efforts to address food insecurity.
Some of the specific government programs serving policy goals proposed by the Senate include:
Nutrition assistance In the Senate bill, cuts to “heat and eat” programs would result in reduced SNAP benefits. (Funds to help low-income Americans with utility bills could count as additional income.) For some, this could result in making a choice: to pay for food or heat?Subsidies encourage farmers to grow some crops (especially corn, soy, rice and cotton) more than others (especially “specialty crops” like vegetables), or in certain amounts, in certain places. Remember, industrial livestock production depends on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) which in turn depend on cheap feed. Such as corn and soy. Lots of corn also becomes lots of high fructose corn syrup.Conservation programs protect land held in trust by the government and help farmers install environmentally friendly applications like drip irrigation. Also, by protecting lands from soil erosion, we safeguard fertile land so that it can still be farmed.International food aid partly refers to food aid commodities (rice, soy, wheat, corn etc.) but also funds technical assistance lent to farmers around the world.Water management by prioritizing funding for rural communities with fewer than 5,500 people. This proposal does not include more strict regulations of farm runoff, which ultimately pollutes watersheds. (Maryland has already done so.)Research and development, which funds work at land-grant universities (such as Texas A&M or the University of California system) and labs. Government funding enables independent research. Agribusiness prefers research that produces favorable results and affirms its own awesomeness, so Monsanto and their ilk are happy to step in if the Farm Bill doesn’t. As a researcher, if all you're directed or have funding to study is one Big Ag firm’s seeds, all you can responsibly study are those seeds.Energy will continue to fund biofuels programs after an $800 million amendment was attached to the Senate bill.Who Else Cares About This?
Between industrial food – from growers to distributors – and activists in the sustainable food movement, there is involvement along the entire political spectrum. Involvement = lobbying for those who can afford it (how ya doin Big Ag!) That said it’s important to bear in mind that “good food” advocates are also focused on education and are not as well-funded or cohesive as are industry lobbyists.
Sustainable food advocates are not the Farm Bureau, but they're certainly community-building amidst the explosion of public interest in food and agriculture.
Since a SNAP fight features so prominently this time, anti-poverty and hunger organizations (some of which are tied closely to industrial food), a range of activists and think tanks that work on public policy, poverty and food security issues are also big players.
To see some takes on the big issues this time around, please visit:
From good food advocates:
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
From an industry (and government) perspective, please see:
Croplife
For SNAP and budget-reduction perspectives, please see:
Brookings Institution testimony to House Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture
Food Research and Action Center
Other Big Farming Issues
Crop Insurance and Commodities Eliminating direct payments to farmers, the new Farm Bill creates a replacement program, crop insurance, for farmers: Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC). The Senate markup on the Commodities title incentivizes farmers to only grow crops supported by the new ARC program.
ARC payments will take place only when revenues fall below a moving market average.
In English: no more automatic payments. Payments are capped, but if married, you can receive twice the single rate. That’s a carryover from the old law. Growing peanuts also earns twice the usual rate. This is an example of the political compromises you'll be seeing more of in the coming months, as the old payment system is favored by peanut and rice farmers in the South more than their Midwestern counterparts. According to IATP, the recent uptick in commodity prices is driving farm commodity program reforms (for crops like corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton).
Conservation In a word, this title is “streamlining.” This is another set of programs being substantively cut—by 10 percent—and policies trimmed back in terms of reach. Further, the title continues to favor larger-acre operations, which by default tend to be in the West.
What Might Have Been: The Pingree/Brown Bill
Introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the Local Farms, Food and Jobs bill incorporated measures to tackle food hubs, provide funds to schools so that they could buy more local food rather than solely subsidizing purchases via USDA commodity programs, and create block grants to fund specialty crops (organic and/or diversified operations). Some elements were woven into the Senate version (of course, the House version is still pending). Local Foods? Sustainability? Not much here. $20 million was written into the Senate bill to promote local food with an additional $20 million to improve SNAP access at farmers' markets ($40 million, if you hadn’t guessed, is barely a drop in the Farm Bill bucket.) Assuming there are reductions in SNAP benefits, this may have less impact than we'd hope in the effort to make fresh, local food more affordable and accessible.
It looks like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will introduce the bill on the Senate floor during the first week of June. Chairwoman Stabenow would not ask him to do so unless she knew she had sufficient votes to pass the Senate version, so we may not see much action on the floor when that happens.
We'll be following this bill along its merry way over the next few months, and will report back when we know more about what the respective houses of Congress are up to! © 2012 GRACE Communications Foundation
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2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/24062 | Weather report: Cool and dry on the northern Plains
By Brad Rippey, Agricultural Meteorologist
June 17, 2013 | 9:48 am EDT
In the West, warm, mostly dry weather prevails, except for cool conditions along the immediate Pacific Coast. On Sunday, rain showers occurred over some of the wildfires in the central and southern Rockies, aiding containment efforts. The Black Forest fire, which has destroyed more than 500 structures in El Paso County, Colorado, is approximately two-thirds contained. On the Plains, an active weather pattern prevails across southern areas. A line of thunderstorms, which earlier produced local wind and hail damage, is moving across northeastern Texas and eastern portions of Kansas and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, cool but dry weather favors late-season planting efforts on the northern Plains. In the Corn Belt, cool weather covers the northern tier of the region, in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Elsewhere, mild, dry weather is promoting fieldwork, including soybean planting efforts. In the South, warm, humid weather accompanies scattered showers. Although the rain is slowing fieldwork, soil moisture remains mostly adequate for pastures and summer crops. Outlook: During the next several days, showery weather will persist across the nation’s southeastern quadrant. Five-day rainfall totals could reach 1 to 3 inches from the Mid-South into the Southeast. Farther west, showers and thunderstorms will linger through Tuesday on the southern Plains, resulting in local drought relief. Late in the week, a developing storm will result in the development of widespread showers from the Northwest into the upper Midwest. Heat will build across the nation’s mid-section in advance of the late-week storm. Meanwhile, dry weather will continue through week’s end from California to the Four Corners region. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for June 22-26 calls for near- to above-normal temperatures nationwide. Meanwhile, wetter-than-normal weather in the Dakotas, Pacific Northwest, and from the Mississippi Valley to the East Coast will contrast with below-normal rainfall in the south-central U.S. and from California to the High Plains
weatherweather report About the Author:
Brad Rippey, Agricultural Meteorologist | 农业 |
2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/24229 | 2017 Cotton Producer Tour of Cotton Incorporated Headquarters Apr 14, 2017 Make sure hay donations are properly inspected before moving Apr 19, 2017 John Bradley: Still leading the innovation charge Apr 13, 2017 To weather ag downturn: ‘Keep it simple’ Apr 17, 2017 Senate passes $6 billion disaster package
Forrest Laws | Sep 10, 2002
Proponents of the measure, an amendment to the Interior appropriations bill, defied an administration request to defeat “this amendment and any agriculture spending in excess of the $180 billion in spending provided in the new farm bill earlier this year.” NOTE:The Senate voted 79-16 for a budget waiver and then passed the disaster assistance amendment by a voice vote. The amendment, which was proposed by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, had five Republicans among its 28 co-sponsors. Despite the large margin of approval in the Senate, Washington sources say the proposal faces an uncertain future in the House. Prior to the vote, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman had written Senate leaders to advise them of the Bush administration unhappiness with the Senate amendment that would provide disaster payments above the spending levels authorized in the 2002 farm bill. “The administration strongly opposes this amendment and any agriculture spending in excess of the $180 billion in spending provided earlier this year,” Veneman said in the letter. “This proposal would add $6 billion on top of the already generous farm bill only a few months after the bill was enacted. This is unacceptable,” he said. “The needs for the current drought must be met within the additional resources provided for in the Farm Bill.” The Bush administration has been on record as saying that disaster assistance for the 2001 and 2002 crops must be funded through “offsets” in budget authority for the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Veneman’s letter was the first direct statement of opposition to such spending, however. In it, the secretary defended the administration’s efforts to help farmers suffering from the 2002 drought. “As you know, the administration continues to take all action allowable under current law to assist struggling farmers and ranchers,” she said. “This includes expediting emergency declarations and making emergency loans available to producers, the recent release of CCC-owned milk powder in order to provide a low cost feed supplement for cow and calf operations, and the opening of all CRP lands nationwide for haying and grazing. “The President has consistently stated his support for additional drought relief provided it does not increase the deficit.” She said Congress has already provided the tools for drought relief for crop farmers through the heavily subsidized Federal Crop Insurance Program, noting the crop insurance subsidy was increased dramatically in 2000 to avoid the need for disaster payments. “The vast majority of the crop acreage in the drought regions is covered by crop insurance,” she said. “Over 70 percent of the acreage in the U.S. is covered and over 80 percent in South Dakota. Our goal should be to maximize participation in the program.” But she also said USDA does recognize that ranchers and livestock producers who have been severely impacted by this drought do not benefit from the same risk management tools available to other farmers. “The recently enacted Farm Bill provides $180 billion, an increase of $82 billion above the baseline,” she said. “This $180 billion can accommodate funding for emergencies, economic assistance, rural development, and other purposes. One of the greatest benefits of the Farm Bill is that it ensures farmers have the resources they need.” Farm organizations, including the National Cotton Council, had argued that taking money from the new farm bill authorization would reduce the amount of assistance that had been promised to help them recover from four years of disastrously low prices. Other groups applauded the Senate for its willingness to go to bat for farmers at a time of turmoil in both agriculture and the national economy. “We applaud the Senate for passing this essential assistance,” said Dave Frederickson, president of the National Farmers Union. “Farmers Union has worked hard for this first step toward certainty for farmers and ranchers devastated by drought, floods, insects and disease. We encourage the House to follow quickly with similar legislation and urge the administration to support this bipartisan effort to assist rural America.” The Daschle amendment was similar to bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D. for earlier farm bill and supplemental spending measures. e-mail: [email protected] | 农业 |
2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/24750 | World Wheat Whereabouts
Pakistan is the world’s sixth largest producer of wheat, according to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, with an annual production of over 21 million metric tonnes (MT). The US Department of Agriculture estimates Pakistan’s rice consumption to be over 2.5 million MT. With exports of about the same quantity, Pakistan is capable of feeding its own population. Faced with such positive facts, we all wonder about the exact reasons for the prevailing wheat crises, which has existed in varied degrees for over a year now.
The Pakistan Government Wheat Policy
Before delving into the crisis, it is important to present an overview of the prevailing Government wheat policy (also known as Food Security policy).
The Government is obliged under the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the provision of essential food at affordable prices to the population throughout the country (please hold back that snicker and eye-roll).
To fulfill this responsibility, provincial governments have setup food departments for the purchase and storing of wheat stocks at government silos, which are then released to flourmills so as to keep wheat and wheat flour available at an affordable price throughout the year.
Procurement and storage of wheat by the Government is necessitated due to the peculiar nature of agriculture produce: wheat is harvested once a year during April-May. Thus, there is a glut of wheat inherent within the system. In the commodity markets every cultivator is anxious to sell his produce and clear liabilities (such as fertilizers, seeds) and take any well-deserved profit back home.
However, arrival of the crop creates disequilibrium in the market benefiting the purchaser who tries to bring the prices down. The notorious middlemen enter here. Thus the government also enters the market with an announced minimum price and ready to buy all the wheat being offered. This sets a floor price for wheat in the time of plenty and curtails possible exploitation of the farmer, thus influencing cultivator’s decision to grow wheat again, since it is profitable. Wheat storage is a costly business in terms of the opportunity cost of investment, storage, fumigation and transportation charges.
Thus, as months pass, overheads on wheat stocks result in an increase in prices and the private sector brings its wheat in the market based on their comparative holding power. Moreover, the government also sets its own release price for wheat, which only partially offsets overhead costs on storage. This price serves as the ceiling price in the wheat market and private traders clear off their stocks before this limit is reached. This policy is in operation with relative success for the last 25 years except for the times when the wheat crop in Pakistan has failed.
Why the Crises?
Why has there been a crisis in the supply of wheat and a spike in prices since last July, when in fact Pakistan produced wheat comparable to its requirements and imported 1.8 millions MT of wheat during December 2007?
Different quarters have given different alibis including misrepresentation of crop size by Government to boost GDP growth figures and concurrent permission to export wheat (700,000 MT was exported in May-June 2007) which later adversely affected market sentiments causing panic buying by public and hoarding by traders.
Another version blames the Government for failure in assessing changes in the local and international situation; increased wheat requirements as poultry feed (due to corn crop failure) rising to 1500,000 MT as per estimates of experts.
Another postulates that people are switching to wheat as rice prices sky rocketed due to extensive export of the commodity.
A fourth proposed reason is the increase in international wheat prices peaking at an unprecedented $550/MT, according to the Chicago Board of Trade.
Unrealistic agriculture-related public policy also came under criticism. An increase in the cost of production, due to the doubling of fertilizer costs and increased petroleum prices, also played a role in disrupting the tested Government wheat policy as purchase prices set by the government did not cover the cost of production, thus incentivising the growers to: either retain their crops or try selling them at higher prices to private traders if possible.
While all the above arguments hold, we are still at a loss to explain fully the current happenings in the local wheat sector.
The world wheat situation has improved this year. World net wheat production is estimated to be 8 percent higher this year than last year. Estimated in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at a record 656 million MT for 2008-09 against total consumption of 642 million MT world wheat stocks grew from 110 million MT to 124 million. MT. There has been record production in Canada, EU, U.S. and Russia. Australian produce is estimated to double (from 12 to 24 million MT) after consecutive crop failures in the last two years. India, with 76 million MT of home-grown wheat, has made it clear that it will not import wheat this year.
Apart from Pakistan, which has announced its intention to import 2.5 million MT of wheat during 2008-2009, there is no non-traditional buyer in international markets for wheat to pump wheat prices up.
All factors point at easing of international wheat prices in the coming months. Thus, the present wheat situation in Pakistan is not due to the global wheat scene as is oft-attributed by seemingly guilty quarters.
Current Wheat Situation in Pakistan
The Pakistan Government increased the minimum price for procurement of wheat by almost 38 percent in 2008. The aim was to offset price escalations in agricultural inputs and increase returns for the growers.
This is the single largest increase the Government has initiated in the minimum procurement price of wheat in the past twenty five years.
Despite reservations shown by several growers’ organizations, experts are of the opinion that increase in the procurement has benefited the growers by increasing the returns on their produce.
However, in light of the prevailing situation, private traders are buying wheat at rates much higher than those set by the government. Flourmills are finding it difficult to buy wheat from open markets immediately after harvesting season. Field evidence suggests that bigger growers are also retaining (read: hoarding) their produce in the criminal hope of better prices in the future. The situation is an aberration to normal market dynamics and it is evidence that the government’s efforts and its policy on wheat are not effective. The world wheat situation has negligible bearing, if any.
This change, where open market wheat prices do not correspond to the arrival of new harvests, has been witnessed since 2007.
The government picks up 30 percent of the country’s total marketable wheat (that is, 50 percent of total crop as per APCOMS estimate). For 2008-2009 this comes to Rs. 102 billion at a fixed purchase price of Rs. 15,630 per MT. Until May 20, 2008, total credit received by private traders from the banking system for wheat purchases in only Rs. 210 million.
Food Departments of two provinces (Sindh and Punjab) complain of hoarding of wheat by big farmers and traders who, according to them, until a few years back, could not retain big quantities of wheat even for a couple of months. This shift in the market situation points to the fact that new or non-traditional players have entered wheat market with huge funds at their disposal which they can park for a much longer time, for larger gains. While it is quite difficult to estimate actual amounts belonging to local investors which have left Pakistan bourses since February 2008, it is a substantive amount (KSE 100 has lost more than 3000 points since mid- April). With no substantive increases in the call and time accounts of our banking sector, it is quite plausible that this money has found better avenues and high returns in commodities sector (of which wheat is the biggest). Wheat, with its highly inelastic demand makes it a very suitable target for highest gains in the shortest time period, especially when the structural constraint of the wheat crop size, which is just enough to fulfill the national demands, lacks any cushion to ward off speculative trading in wheat.
The bottomline: regulatory bodies must shape up and step up. Commodity trading has a very real, direct human element and questionable business practices must be curbed to avoid myopic monetary gains at the cost of mass-scale manipulation and suffering of who it all boils down to: real people.
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Posted by: Ahsan Ali Mangi
Ahsan Ali Mangi is Director Planning (Education) at Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and former Director Food, Sindh. His research interests include causes of inequality between and within nations and its impact on human well-being and the political economy of Food. He holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in International Development from the UK.
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2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/24781 | Industry Export opportunities open up in Taiwan, other countries
By Andy Nelson
Export markets continue to play an important role in the Washington and Oregon fresh potato industries.While challenges in Mexico and other markets remain, grower-shippers and officials are optimistic about opening doors to Northwest spuds wider throughout the world.In 2008, the Portland-based Oregon Potato Commission received a $22,000 specialty crops state block grant to expand export opportunities in Taiwan for Beaver State spud grower-shippers, said Bill Brewer, executive director.When matching funds are added, the total will be closer to $50,000, Brewer said. The commission will use the money for a trade mission to Taiwan in October or November, he said.Taiwan already is a good market for the Oregon potato industry, Brewer said. With this grant, he hopes to make it an even better one.“A very high percentage of potatoes that go to Taiwan come from the Northwest,” he said.To make that percentage even higher, the commission’s delegation will aim to convince Taiwanese chefs to use more potatoes, including new varieties they may not have tried, Brewer said.Foodservice, and in particular high-end restaurants, will be the focus of the trade mission’s efforts, he said. Joining Brewer on the trade mission will be Leif Benson, executive chef at the historic Timberline Lodge on Oregon’s Mount Hood; and Brian Charlton, a professor specializing in potatoes at Oregon State University.Three and possibly four Oregon grower-shippers also will come, paying their own way, Brewer said.The commission also hopes to expand trade opportunities in other southeastern Asia countries in the near future, Brewer said.Of course, Oregon also has export markets considerably closer to home.“Mexico is a very important market for us,” Brewer said.The only problem with Mexico is U.S. shippers can’t send spuds further than 16 miles south of the border, he said.And the prospects of expanding that area aren’t exactly bright at the moment.“We’re hoping,” he said. “It’s part of NAFTA. Right now, there’s no date. There’s reluctance in Mexico because of their potato industry.”The recent U.S. trade dispute with Mexico has not been easy to bear for some Washington and Oregon spud shippers.“We’ve been doing a lot with Mexico, but that thing’s been real tough the past month,” said Tony Amstad, president of Amstad Produce Inc., Sherwood, Ore. “I hope they get that resolved in the very near future. We need it.”In March, tariffs ranging from 10% to 45% were levied on seven fresh produce items and 82 other U.S. products, following a reversal on U.S. plans to give Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways under a pilot program.Following Congress' move to stop funding for the Department of Transportation's Cross Border Trucking Pilot Program, Mexico retaliated by reinstating pre-North American Free Trade Agreement tariffs.Amstad Produce also ships some spuds to Taiwan and Canada, Amstad said.Washington and Oregon are old hands at the fresh spud export deal, said Dave Long, chief executive officer of the Othello, Wash.-based United Co-op of Oregon & Washington.“Washington and Oregon, as far as fresh, probably do more than any other states,” he said. “The Pacific Rim and southeastern Asia have been excellent markets.”Still, Long said, the recession has not been limited to the shores of the U.S. — a fact that is being felt in export sales of Oregon and Washington potatoes.“We’ve seen a dip there (in Asia) too,” he said. “Their economies aren’t any better than ours.”Looking ahead, Long has high hopes for the day when the 16-mile export zone in Mexico is widened to take in the entire country.“It’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when. Mexico is the No. 2 customer of Northwest apples, and I think it could be the same for potatoes.”For Harvest Fresh Produce Inc., Othello, Wash., the focus of the company’s export program of the present lies north of the border, while a significant part of the future could lie to the south, said Allen Floyd, president.“We do a lot in Canada now, and Mexico is a real promising market down the road,” he said.China and Russia are among the other markets Harvest Fresh has explored on a more limited basis. And in the future, there could be others as well, Floyd said.“We’re always looking at other markets,” he said.Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada are among the top export markets for Potandon Produce LLC, Idaho Falls, Idaho, said Larry Sieg, general manager of the company’s Pasco, Wash., office.Particularly with the worldwide economic convulsions of late, the volume of exports and the destinations haven’t changed much in recent years, Sieg said.“It hasn’t really varied in the last four or five years,” he said.Potandon exports very few Washington potatoes to Mexico, Sieg said. Topics:
andy nelsonoregonwashingtonpotatoesexports About the Author:
, markets editor
Andy Nelson joined The Packer as a staff writer in 2001. He became the paper's Handling & Distributing editor in 2005 and markets editor in 2006. Before joining Farm Journal Media, Nelson was a staff writer for The Kansas City Star. View All Posts | 农业 |
2017-17/0275/en_head.json.gz/25034 | Ivory Coast patchy rains, sun mixed for cocoa main crop
Share Tweet By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Weather was mixed last week across Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions with some areas receiving showers while others saw dry, hot conditions, farmers and analysts said on Monday. Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is in the dry season, which runs from mid-November to March, but regular showers continued into mid-December on most plantations this year. Meanwhile, an analyst said the dry Harmattan winds, which blow south from the Sahara Desert from December to March, were progressing across the country but had yet to reach the cocoa growing regions. In the western region of Soubre, in the heart of the Ivorian cocoa belt, an analyst reported 112 millimeters of rainfall compared with none the previous week. Farmers said they were optimistic over the main crop outlook as abundant downpours would improve the size of the crop. "The Harmattan isn't yet here and there was a lot of rain. It's extraordinary for December," said Lazare Ake, who farms near Soubre. "All the farmers are happy. Plenty of cocoa is going out and, with these rains, we think that we'll have good quality cocoa after January," he said. Farmers in the southeastern region of Aboisso reported one shower over the week, after the previous week saw no rainfall. "We had a good shower...I think if the Harmattan isn't bad this year, there will be cocoa on the trees," said Aboisso farmer Etienne Yao. A strong Harmattan can dry the soil and prevent cocoa trees from developing new pods, though it tends to improve the quality of beans already harvested and in storage. In the western region of Daloa, responsible for a quarter of Ivory Coast's national output, farmers reported no rainfall for the second consecutive week and very hot temperatures. "It is very hot and we've gone two weeks without rain. It's not good for the cocoa, especially if the Harmattan arrives and it's strong," said Marcel Aka, who farms outside Daloa. "There is a lot of harvesting right now due to the holidays at the end of the year. There are signs that make us think there may be a bean shortage after January in this zone, because there are not enough small pods on the trees," he said. Farmers voiced similar worries in the western region of Bouafle which also received no rain. In the eastern region of Abengourou, an analyst reported 11 mm of rainfall, compared with nil the week before. "There was a little bit if rain. The cocoa is doing well. It's cool in the mornings and there is lots of fog. We get the feeling the Harmattan will arrive in the next days," said farmer Joseph Amani. In the coastal region of Sassandra, another analyst reported 13.6 mm last week, down from 27.8 mm the previous week. "There are lots of flowers and small pods on the trees here, because the rains for the beginning of the season came late. With these rains, the main crop will be long and abundant," said Sassandra farmer Alphonse Lattro. (Editing by Joe Bavier and Alison Birrane) | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/24 | Home Community Forum: Vt. dairy industry built on strengths of farmers, needs multi-sector problem-solving to remain strong strict warning: Non-static method view::load() should not be called statically in /home/addison/public_html/sites/all/modules/views/views.module on line 1118.
Posted on March 16, 2017 | Opinion
By Roger Allbee
This week’s writer is Roger Allbee, a former Vermont Secretary of Agriculture and former executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency for Vermont who has served in many positions relating to the regional and national farming industry.
Since the mid-1800s dairy farming has been Vermont’s major agricultural enterprise. It is today. Dairy farming has never been easy due to the many changes on the farm, in the markets, and in the public policy arena over the years. At one time, after the demise of the position as the leading merino sheep state, Vermont became the butter capital of the world, winning prizes in international competitions. Starting in 1854, an iced butter train left St. Alban’s for Boston once per week.
By 1899, Vermont was producing 35 million pounds of butter. Whole support industries like the Bellows Falls Machinery Company (maker of butter churns and equipment), and the Montgomery butter box firm, existed to support this trade. Eventually the butter trade, as well as the businesses that supported it, largely disappeared. This was due to competition from the West (cheaper to bring butter into New York from Chicago than from Vermont, it is recorded).
Other events that led to its decline included the introduction of margarine, and the increasing demand for fluid milk from cities like Boston. Becoming a fluid milk producing state had its challenges too. These included fair pricing from buyers, shipping rates and fees, sanitary regulations with interstate shipments, management on the farm and better animal genetics. Due to the concerns, relative to fair pricing, numerous studies were conducted.
For example, in 1915 the Boston Chamber of Commerce did a thorough analysis of the marketing constraints faced by Vermont dairy farmers, and recommended that farmer cooperatives be formed to guarantee better pricing for farmers. Federal legislation to include Capper-Volstead Act in 1922 gave these farmer cooperatives limited anti-trust protection against price fixing. In 1927, thirty percent of Vermont’s population was engaged in farming, and there were 27,000 farms in the state.
By this time, Vermont was a major supplier of fluid milk to the Boston Market. The depression, however, brought a period of great economic turmoil to agriculture in Vermont as well as nationally. With the passage of the federal Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1937, marketing orders were established and dairy farmers in Vermont, New England and elsewhere voted for federal control of pricing through these orders.
After World War II, a parity system was instituted to provide better pricing to dairy farmers that equated to the period 1910-1914. This was considered one of the better times in the farm economy. The pricing system was advocated and supported by dairy cooperatives throughout the United States. Since 1982, and the elimination of the parity concept, dairy pricing in the United States has moved toward more market orientation and greater pricing unpredictability.
While there have been several attempts since 1982 to better control or influence pricing (a national whole herd buyout, and followed by the Northeast Dairy Compact), today greater pricing unpredictability and volatility exists for the conventional dairy farmers in Vermont and elsewhere. Vermont and other Northeast conventional dairy farmers are faced with an unstable and unpredictable demand for dairy products in international markets; a declining demand for fluid milk in regional markets and its depressing impact on the Marketing Order pricing; a Westward migration of U.S. milk production; and finally, increased costs associated with water quality environmental compliance.
The early leaders of Vermont agriculture stated in the 1894-95 Report of the State Board of Agriculture that “our own state has seen one industry after another go down under the fierce competition of cheap western land. Our sheep, beef and grain production have all been borne down through this course, and today our dairymen are contesting the ground with these same forces.” Yes, time and technologies do change, but as others recently have concluded, while our advantage in Vermont and the Northeast is being near large markets, it is an advantage that will continue to erode without an aggressive strategy.
U.S. milk production will continue its shift to large dairies in the West. It is known that dairy product manufacturers look to where production is growing and not declining in siting facilities. While there continues to be debate over the direction of Vermont’s valued dairy sector, I believe it is understood by many that the strength of Vermont agriculture is the entrepreneurial ability of farmers to solve problems.
However, the magnitude of the problems faced today requires that there be informed dialogue among and between farmers, and their cooperatives, consumers, processors, environmentalists, policy officials and others to consider and debate feasible options for the longer-term sustainability of the dairy sector in Vermont. It is too important an industry to do otherwise as the market will likely to continue to erode Vermont’s position as a valued milk producing state if action is not taken soon. View the discussion thread. Permalink | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/304 | You are here: Home > Meet Our Growers > Fitzgerald Fruit Farms Fitzgerald Fruit Farms
Fitzgerald Fruit Farms Sean is a first generation American and first generation peach farmer, whose parents emigrated from Europe in the 1970s. As a child, Sean was highly motivated and had an inquisitive nature. In his teens, he began working on a local peach farm during summers to save money for college. It was during this time that he discovered his affinity for farming. For most teenagers, picking and packing peaches in the Georgia heat would have been miserable, but Sean loved it.
After graduating from Georgia College & State University with a degree in biology, Sean was offered a graduate assistantship researching peaches at Clemson University. His studies involved ways to ensure pesticide residues were kept at minimal levels in processing peaches. It was during this time that Sean decided to plant his first orchard. After receiving his Master’s in Horticulture, Sean returned home to farm full time. Over the past few years, Sean’s farming operation has grown nearly 45,000 peach trees on 400 acres in Meriwether County, with plans to double in the next five years.
Visit their site at http://www.fitzgeraldfruitfarms.com/ | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/362 | Onderstaand artikel is gepubliceerd in / Published in: Hindustan Times, 15-3-1986 EEC dairy aid eroding self-reliance efforts
Anjali Bhattacharya
It is a strange paradox that while we talk or self-sufficiency and even surplus in foodgrains, millions of people below the poverty line are starving. In the ever expanding draught-hit areas of Orissa, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, human beings are sold for a pittance to ward off hunger. Similarly, despite the tall claims of self-sufficiency in milk production by 1985 by Operation Flood, there is great scarcity of milk. Most of the milk that we are getting in cities is a mixture of imported milk powder and butter-oil, mainly from the European Economic Community countries, because we are destroying our own source of milk - the cattle. In villages, the situation is even worse. A recent survey in Haryana villages showed that in the cattle rich State, people were getting only black tea and no milk.
For the last 15 years, the EEC is supplying India with large amounts of dairy aid for the National Dairy Development Programme called Operation Flood. The official aim of this programme is to make the country self-sufficient in milk production. Instead of it the country is now more dependent on imports than ever before. India is exporting large amounts of highly nutritive concentrate feed to the EEC, while there is a serious shortage within the country itself. With this feed India could produce many times the amount of milk that it has received as dairy aid for Operation Flood. The dairy aid has brought down local milk price while export are shooting up the price of feed concentrates. Though as part of Operation Flood, a cross breeding programme of Indian cows with western dairy animals is being implemented, the programme will lead to a reduced availability of coarse food grains, concentrate feed, and animal draught power.
The donated milk powder and butter oil is processed into milk and sold in cities, at prices beyond the reach of the majority of the poor and in the rural areas, even this is not available. The proceeds of this are being used for building dairy and cattle feed plants, transporting milk to the cities and building large dairy co-operative farms. Only the big and rich farmers generally benefit from such large co-operative farms to the detriment of small farmers as the latter lack the resources of animal feed etc. Food aid is criticised by the European Commission and particularly by the European Parliament, as harmful in the sense that new consumer habits are generated that would lead to commercial imports in future and, eroding self reliance. Therefore, the following measures are recommended by the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN).
One of fhe main objectives of Operation Flood II was to create a self sustaining dairy industry by 1985. Instead India is now more dependent on imports than ever. 55 per cent of the total milk output of Operation Flood dairy plants in New Delhi are made up from skimmed milk powder and butter oil. In Calcutta this is 74 per cent. Between 1979 and 1985 India received 20,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder (SMP) in excess of the earlier agreed amount. In 1984, India imported more than 25,000 tonnes of SMP from the US. More than three quarters of this were commercial imports at dumping prices and the rest was donated.
The EEC is now in the process of reducing its dairy surplus. Five more years of unconditional dairy aid will probably confront India with a situation in which dependency on dairy aid will be increased with no more dairy aid available and world market price of dairy products rising heavily.
Dairy aid for manufacturing expensive baby foods, chocolates, ice creams and other exotic food should he discouraged in a country like India, where majority of the rural poor are victims of malnutrition due to non-availability of milk.
One of the main objectives of Operation Flood is rearing a National Milk Herd by 1990 of about 15 million cows and buffaloes with a high milk production potential. It will have far reaching consequences for small farmers in particular. Indian cows and buffaloes are very well adapted to the heat and humidity of most regions in India. Cross-bred cows are much less suited to Indian conditions. They need good shelter, a lot of clean water and are susceptible to tropical diseases.
Research also shows that a cross-bred milk animal is a risky and hardly profitable investment for a small farmer or a landless labourer. The cross-breeding programme, if fully executed, will cause a considerable reduction in the number of suitable (male) draught animals. The male progeny of cross-breed cows are generally less fit as draught animals and need 50 per cent more feed.
A number of organisations and scientists in India have sharply criticised the cross-breeding programme. In spite of this cross-breeding programme is going on, aided by the Dutch Ministry of Development Co-operation.
Tndia must stop feed export mainly to the EEC countries, because of its scarcity in the country and its consequent high price which is especially detrimental to the small farmer or landless labourer, who have very little or no crop residues.
An appropriate dairy policy for India would be one where animal husbandry (including dairying) and food crop production supplement each other and do not compete for land and other means of production. More attention should be given to the breeding of "dual purpose cattle" suitable as draught animals and more productive milk animals. LIW IN 'T NIEUWS
Landelijke India Werkgroep - 5 april 2005 | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/898 | Grain yields in Morgan County are expected to be less this year than last year due to the drought.
The yield from the local fall harvest is looking fair to good and prices for commodities are good, but the cost of feed for livestock is prohibitively high. The Morgan County corn harvest is almost done, with 95 percent of that harvest done, said Tim Urban, grain superintendent for M and M Cooperative in Brush. Individual fields were "hit and miss" in terms of conditions, and dryland corn was essentially a bust this year, he said. That means the cooperative expects less grain this year, Urban said. However, the prices are holding at about $7.40 a bushel, so those who had water are doing pretty well. The Western Sugar Cooperative has seen good yields at about 32 tons of sugar beets per acre, and only about 60 to 70 acres still need to be harvested, said Mike Otto, senior agriculturist for the co-op. That is a pretty good yield, since it has averaged about 28 tons per acre the last couple of years, he said. The crop had enough water in the spring to get started, and the sunshine supported good growth, Otto said. Sugar content is good, too, at about 16.5 percent, which is about the same as the last couple of years, he said. It does not look like Western Sugar will have a surplus. Co-op officials had considered feeding any surplus to livestock, but that will not be necessary, Otto said. Statewide, about 90 percent of the corn was harvested by the end of last week, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. That was 18 percentage points above the five-year average -- again due to the many days of strong sunshine this summer.Advertisement
The sugar beet harvest was about 93 percent done across the state at the end of last week. The sunflower crop was about 74 percent complete. While the area has seen precipitation recently, soil moisture ratings continue to show extremely dry conditions in most fields. Only 32 percent of fields are reported to have adequate topsoil moisture, and only 9 percent reported having adequate subsoil moisture. That means the effects of the summer drought continue, which is bad news for winter wheat planters. It is very expensive for livestock producers to feed their animals, with alfalfa commanding up to $300 a ton. Only a few years ago, the price was under $100 a ton. That makes it hard on dairies, too. NASS says stored feed supplies continue to be rated as short for this time of year. -- Contact Dan Barker at [email protected] Email Font ResizeReturn to Top RELATED | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/1822 | Field Crops Research
A.J. Hall
Editors-in-Chief, Field Crops Research
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Co-Editor in Chief of Field Crops Research, Professor Emeritus at the University of Buenos Aires, and Researcher Emeritus at CONICET (Argentine National Research Council). Formerly, Director of the Graduate School and of the Agricultural Plant Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA) at the Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires. Has been visiting scholar at the Universities of Melbourne, Michigan State, Córdoba (Spain), Lleida, and North Carolina State, and a member of a Program review team for ICRISAT. Together with students and colleagues he has made significant contributions to the ecophysiology of sunflower, maize, wheat, quinoa and olive; and has authored or co-authored 89 papers published in journals or as book chapters.
Send an email to A.J. Hall
To send an email to A.J. Hall please complete the short form below. Please note that all enquiries should relate specifically to Field Crops Research. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/5281 | COTTON SPIN: Will the boom in U.S. cotton exports continue? Apr 21, 2017 USDA announces 2017 cotton loan rate differentials Apr 18, 2017 With new farm bill looming, next agriculture census critically important Apr 17, 2017 2020 Strategic Plan Positions Peanuts for Optimistic Future Apr 19, 2017 Crops>Corn Program prepares rice industry leaders
Business management and communications practices are changing at a rate that necessitates continuous education and fresh skills to become fully successful.
Since 1989, the Rice Leadership Development Program has equipped more than 140 young men and women for rice industry leadership roles at the local, state and national level.
John Deere Company, RiceTec, Inc., and American Commodity Company sponsor the program through a grant to the Rice Foundation, the research and education arm of the rice industry. The USA Rice Federation administers it.
The program provides future leaders with an understanding of the rice industry, with an emphasis on personal development and communications skills. Rob Yunich, USA Rice Federation | Feb 28, 2011
Many of today’s farmers inherited agricultural production as a profession — becoming the second- or third-generation to pursue farming as career.
But even with the accumulated knowledge passed on to the new generation of farmers, modern business management and communications practices are changing at a rate that necessitates continuous education and fresh skills to become fully successful — and it’s important not just for producers, but for all segments working in agriculture.
The program provides future leaders with a comprehensive understanding of the rice industry, with an emphasis on personal development and communications skills.
During a two-year period, seven class members — five producers and two industry-related professionals selected from rice-producing states — attend four one-week sessions designed to strengthen leadership through studies of all aspects of the rice industry.
The hands-on sessions take participants through instructional visits with producers, processors, millers, as well as legislative and regulatory representatives. In addition, class members visit water management specialists, wildlife conservation organizations, trade associations, and the Chicago Board of Trade, a key entity in the marketing of U.S.-grown rice. The group also tours the world headquarters of John Deere in Moline, Ill.
In addition to the guidance from industry segments, the group receives communication skills development preparation, including public speaking and media training. Many of the graduates of the leadership program are now serving on various committees and boards on a local, state and national level.
“The opportunity to meet people who work in the U.S. rice industry has meant so much to me,” said program alumna and Arkansas rice grower Jennifer James, chairman of the USA Rice Federation Communications Committee and Sustainability Task Force. “It has given me the opportunity to ask questions and continue to learn about the industry and gave me the confidence to serve in leadership capacities within the rice industry.”
“The program gives individuals the tools to hone their leadership skills so they can be strong, well-versed, knowledgeable representatives of the U.S. rice industry,” said Chuck Wilson, director of The Rice Foundation. “I have always said that an industry is only as strong as its leaders. The program helps build a base of strong, young leaders.”
Each year, a new leadership class is announced during the USA Rice Outlook Conference in December and the completion of their two-year training program is marked with a special graduation ceremony at the USA Rice Government Affairs Conference in February. This continuous effort to train and inspire participants increases the likelihood that the rice industry will have strong representation in the future.
“I am looking forward to sharing ideas and visions with other leaders in the rice industry and working together to make a difference,” said Brendan O’Donnell, sales manager at Bunge Milling and a member of the 2011 program class.
Going Overseas
A new element of the leadership program is an international session, added in 2009 after RiceTec, Inc., became a sponsor. The session enables participants to study a specific country’s rice market and observe its rice import and distribution systems as well as review industry marketing activities in the region.
Participants also meet with key U.S. agriculture and government officials responsible for importing food and providing food security. The international session is available to graduates of the program who have, since graduation, applied their leadership skills to industry service.
International session participants recently traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. During the weeklong visit, the group met with executives from Akel Company, a major U.S. rice importer and Turkey’s rice market leader, and Pakder, the Turkish Rice and Pulses Packers Association that has more than 70 members. Participants also met with executives of Tugider, the Turkish Food Foreign Trade Association, which works closely with USA Rice to ease import restrictions and address import bans; and Samet Serttas, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service representative.
Turkey was chosen as the destination for the session because of its growing importance to the U.S. rice industry. Turkey purchased $151.9 million (342,097 metric tons) in U.S.-grown rice from January through November 2010 and is the third-largest export market by volume for U.S. rice exports over the same time span.
The program’s success is based on the principle of giving back — from the corporate sponsors who make the program possible to the producer and industry members who give generously of their time and expertise to make each session productive and rewarding. It’s an opportunity for the industry to impart in-depth knowledge, training and experience that reaps rewards when class members use their leadership skills to benefit the U.S. rice industry.
“When there are issues in the industry, I try to think about how it affects all segments — producers, merchants, millers, and end users of rice,” James said. “The program showed me that each segment relies on the other and that we must work together to keep U.S. rice industry a thriving part of our economy.”
TAGS: Management 0 comments Hide comments | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/5668 | You are in Home > Stories > Urban Gardens, Up to the Sky
Urban Gardens, Up to the Sky
From vertical farming to rooftop gardens, from the USA to Asia, how the "farm to table" trend has become worldwide stronger.
Monica Rossi
We all nurture a mental picture of famous chefs going to the market early in the morning to select their ingredients. We like to think this is the case for some small yet acclaimed restaurants and eateries on their way to a glorious future, but what about the vast majority? Teasing aside, where should chefs source their produce if they intend to satisfy a clientele that is increasingly demanding when it comes to organic and eco-sustainable food? Some may be inclined to tell you a “tall story” while others...
Freshly picked... at the Cash&Carry!
The latest novelty in the ambit of locally grown produce is surprisingly that of supermarkets. Vegetables can now be grown in special vertical glasshouses actually positioned in the fruit and vegetable departments of supermarkets and hypermarkets. A Metro cash&carry store of Berlin was the first to implement the idea of between-the-aisle farming, based on a project by Infarm. The indoor high-tech concept whereby vegetables are grown thanks to the hydroponic culture technique is encountering the favour of trade operators. Its widespread launch is just around the corner, for the joy of all those who will soon be able to count on spanking fresh products for their menus, obtained with zero or close to zero environmental impact. In actual fact, this is no real novelty since it is simply a smaller scale version of an existing phenomenon.
Vertical farming: a fashion trend or a real need?
Whether indoors or out, for some time now, we have been hearing a lot of talk about vertical farming as the answer to the dreaded lack of farmable land. According to FAO and NASA sources, over 80% of farmable land is already being cultivated and from now to 2050 the world population will grow exponentially. How are we going to bridge the ever widening and alarming gap between demand and supply? In this respect, we have already heard of some amazing projects in terms of volume and innovation: to quote just a couple, consider the cases already featured on Fine Dining Lovers of Singapore or Chicago. It still has to be proved, however, that the future of farming points upwards and that it implies nothing but advantages: the experts are in fact in the process of evaluating the pros and cons. But, in the meantime, there is another trend in full swing, that of roof farming.
Who are the new urrban farmers?
It is a widespread opinion that the "farm to table" phenomenon is rapidly evolving. Nevertheless, those living in densely populated urban areas have a hard time finding products that come up to their expectations. Chefs also encounter the same problem and, in their search for a solution, have not even left the premises. In New York, for instance, from Brooklyn to Broadway, from West Village to Midtown, the "farm to table" trend has been upgraded to "roof to table". Who hasn’t heard of the Abc Kitchen or Rosemary's, not to mention the Waldorf Astoria, an authentic garden of Eden in the heart of the Big Apple.
The trend is soaring to such an extent that those intent on opening a venue, carefully consider the advantage of finding a location which allows for the roof to be converted into a convenient vegetable garden. A recent report published by Restaurant Hospitality states that the business potential has not only been grasped by restaurateurs but by the real estate market in general. For example, a giant player on the United States property market, the Federal Realty Investment Trust, has recently implemented a colossal project: Bethesda Row just outside Washington DC, which forecasts a harvest for the year in course of over 4.5 tons of vegetables in a single area. Ready to reap the benefits are the restaurateurs contractually bound to the real estate colossal, such as Jose Andres from Jaleo, Mussel Bar & Grille, for instance, or the restaurant chain Sweetgreen specialized in salads.
And who are the gardeners behind this abundance of fresh produce? In the case of smaller operators, it is still strictly a do-it-yourself job, while large projects such as that of Bethesda Row in Washington call in a third player: Up to Acres, a company that has made rooftop farming its core business.
And elsewhere? Washington has given the cue to Seattle, where the Urban Farm Company operates, but also to Boston with its Green City Growers or Los Angeles with Farmscape. Not forgetting New York and Chicago with Gotham Green, soon to hit the news if it is true that the company is on the verge of developing a project for producing tons of vegetables (10 million lettuces, for instance) on a yearly basis! Neither are the States an isolated case: at all latitudes, from Tokyo to Caracas via Toronto, you will find people who have converted an otherwise unutilized rooftop into an efficient metropolitan vegetable garden, with increasingly tangible advantages for both restaurant budgets and the ecosystem. At this point, the same question hovers on everyone’s lips.
But is the resulting produce really of high quality? It would appear to be... Or could it be owing to a lack of alternatives or availability that the starred Gramercy Tavern in New York, to name just one, has turned to Gotham Green of Queens for its supplies? We are more inclined to think the quality factor is what dictates the choice. Along with a growing street cred in the eyes of those who care about the future of our planet.
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/5899 | Home>About Us>Our Team Our Teambuysodmin2017-04-13T16:30:08+00:00 Our Team
Charles Harris
[email protected]
An owner of Sandhill Turf in Candor, NC and co-founder of Buy Sod, Inc., Charles Harris has served as Buy Sod’s president since its establishment in 2002. After graduating from college in 1993, Harris began working in sales for Sandhill Turf. In 1996, he moved to Pinehurst and became general manager of the family business and led the company through an expansion from 150 acres to over 800 acres of certified turfgrass production. In 2002, Harris co-founded Buy Sod, Inc., which now has ten company farms and more than 30 retail partner growers distributing sod to thousands of big box retail locations throughout the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest United States.
He has served as president of the North Carolina Sod Producers Association (NCSPA), board member of Turfgrass Council of North Carolina (TCNC) and president and board member of the North Carolina Crop Improvement Association.
Harris is a 1993 graduate of Wake Forest University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications.
David McCart
[email protected]
After working as a golf course superintendent for five years in Virginia, Buy Sod co-founder David McCart established Piedmont Turf Farm in 1998 in Maiden, NC. He served as president of the NC Sod Producers Association from 2002 to 2004 and as a TCNC board member from 2004 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2012. He was named an Outstanding Contributor to Agriculture in Catawba County in 2001, and since 2009, he has served as a member of the Catawba County Agricultural Advisory Board.
McCart is a 1983 graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, with a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy.
Clark Wooten
[email protected]
A co-founder of Buy Sod, Clark Wooten is president of Tri-State Turf Farm, a family-owned sod production farm operating since 1985 in Newton Grove, NC. In He served as president of the NC Crop Improvement Association and president of the NC Sod Producers Association, and he is a former TCNC (Turfgrass Council of North Carolina) board member. In 2003, he also served on the Industry Advisory Board for North Carolina State University’s Center for Turfgrass Environmental Research and Education.
A 1984 graduate of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Wooten completed North Carolina State University’s Turfgrass Short Course in 1999.
Brad Price, C.P.A.
[email protected]
Brad joined Buy Sod in January 2016 as the Chief Financial Officer. Along with the supervision of Buy Sod’s human resources, information technology, accounting and administration functions, Brad’s objective is to help guide the company to achieve scalable growth through strategic structure, systems and human-capital investment.
Brad attended the University of North Carolina Charlotte, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Accounting. Upon graduation, Brad received his CPA and has since served in various financial-management roles in the construction, distribution and manufacturing industries. With experience in both public and private entities, Brad has found that the challenge of working with emerging entities such as Buy Sod provides the most fulfillment to his professional life.
A native of Charlotte, NC, Brad is married to his sweetheart of 30 years, Angela. His pride and joy are his children, Abigail and Ryan, who have both recently graduated from college and have begun their professional careers in the Charlotte area. Brad and Angela have recently relocated to Whispering Pines where they are roommates with Kona (a Boykin spaniel) and Laney (a Corgi rescue).
JP Hayes
[email protected]
JP joined Buy Sod in 2004, and he is currently the Director of Operations. He grew up in his family’s small retail business, where he learned the importance of hard work and making sure that the customer is happy. JP appreciates the challenges of the turf industry and values the friendships he has made with those at Buy Sod and within the industry.
JP is a 2004 graduate of North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Business Management.
JP enjoys watching movies and grilling with his family.
Regional Sales Manager – Western Carolinas
[email protected]
Landon joined Buy Sod in February 2013 in Customer Service, and by June 2013, he was promoted to Western NC Regional Sales Manager. Landon takes pride in never telling the customer “no.” Instead, he wants his customers to know that he genuinely cares for them and their success.
Landon graduated from Clemson in December 2012 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Parks, Recreation Tourism Management and a minor in Business.
Landon was born and raised in Lebanon, TN, and enjoys Tennessee and Clemson football, golf, traveling and spending time with friends and family.
Dixon Albritton
Regional Sales Manager – Central Carolina
[email protected]
Dixon joined Buy Sod in April 2014 and was quickly promoted to Central NC Regional Sales Manager in August 2014. Dixon’s territories include the Triangle, Triad and Sandhills. Dixon takes pride in making sure that the customer is a priority; he will do anything he can to get the sod on site, on time, every time.
Dixon graduated from North Carolina State University in December 2013 with a degree in Agricultural Business Management. Dixon was born and raised in Raleigh and is the youngest of four boys.
He enjoys attending NC State football and basketball games with friends and family. During the summer, he enjoys going to the beach and the lake.
Regional Sales Manager – Eastern NC and Virginia
[email protected]
Phil joined Buy Sod in 2005 and is the Regional Sales Manager for the coastal Carolinas and Virginia. He grew up in eastern North Carolina and has worked and played throughout the Carolinas during his tenure at Belk Department stores and Sports Authority. Phil enjoys partnering with his customers and the friendships he has made in the landscape industry.
Hunter is a 1977 graduate of North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management.
On the weekend, Phil can be found on the golf course or on a boat.
Clay Strickland
Regional Sales Manager – Atlanta Metro
[email protected]
Clay Strickland has been with Buy Sod since May 2016; he is the Atlanta Region Sales Manager. Prior to coming to Buy Sod, he was with The Scotts Miracle-Gro company for 14 years. He has an extensive background in horticulture and customer service. He completed his undergraduate degree in Business Management in 2008 from Kennesaw St. University.
Clay has a wife and one son. His hobbies include football (watching college and pro games), golf (both playing and watching) and spending time with his family.
Sherrie Perry
Executive Administrator
[email protected]
Sherrie joined the Buy Sod team in 2006 and is currently the Executive Administrator.
Sherrie has served in many capacities over the 10-year period. She began as a staff accountant, and as the company grew, she became the Controller for several years, training other staff for the new positions needed. Sherrie also served as the IT contact, HR manager and payroll support, and she wore many other hats as required. She is confident that Buy Sod and its grower partners are the best places ever to work. She hopes to work for them many more years.
Ashley Bruton, MSHR, PHR, SHRM-CP
[email protected]
Ashley joined Buy Sod in April 2016 as the Director of Human Resources. In this role, she makes sure that Buy Sod’s broad spectrum of human-resources programs and services support the company’s business operations and are fully aligned with the company’s strategies and objectives.
She manages all aspects of human resources, including staffing, compensation and benefits, employee relations, employment policies and compliance with federal and state regulations, risk management, training and development, and HR information systems. She is an accomplished HR professional with more than 10 years of experience in both the non-profit and private sectors. Prior to joining Buy Sod, she worked in human resources in both the healthcare and chemical manufacturing industries.
Ashley has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from Meredith College and a Master of Science Degree in Human Resources from Western Carolina University. She is a Certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and is also a Society of Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP). She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Moore County Chamber of Commerce Human Resources Executive Association.
Holly Roberts
[email protected]
Holly joined the Buy Sod team in October 2008 as an accounts payable clerk. In 2010, she was promoted to Accounts Receivable Staff Accountant, and by 2013, she was managing both the accounts payable and accounts receivable functions. In August 2016, she was promoted to Controller. She looks forward to assisting in the growth of the company and continuing to learn from those around her.
Holly earned an Associate’s Degree in Accounting from Richmond Community College in 2008 and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from Gardner-Webb University in 2010.
Amy Koscielniak
Transportation Safety & Compliance Manager
[email protected]
Amy joined Buy Sod in August 2016 in the Logistics department. She was promoted to Transportation Safety & Compliance Manager in December 2016. With 20+ years of manufacturing experience, Amy has a proven track record of continuous improvement and superior customer service with both internal and external customers, and she is committed to safety.
Amy is an avid walker. She loves to garden and spend time with her two Jack Russell terriers (Harley and Scooter).
Van Loftis
[email protected]
Van joined Buy Sod in September 2016 as the Information Technology Manager and is responsible for delivering the short- and long-term vision of the company’s technology needs and goals. His primary duties are to ensure a reliable, safe and secure network infrastructure that adheres to the company’s information-security policy and to ensure a timely and consistent response to the various system and device issues that arise.
Van has more than five years of experience working in the IT environment, ranging from helpdesk support to managing communication systems, server farms and business application support for companies large and small.
Van earned his bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University in 2010.
Bill Lowder
Southeastern Regional Farm Manager
[email protected]
Bill joined Buy Sod in February 2010 and is currently the Southeastern Regional Farm Manger. He is responsible for the oversight and accountability of multiple farm locations across the Southeast, including Kingstree, SC; Leggett, NC; Tryon, NC; Maiden, NC; and Soperton, GA. Bill understands the company vision and successfully manages change across the Southeastern farm locations to help to drive continuous improvement. In coordination with each location’s farm manager, he trains, teaches and coaches associates on a daily basis to ensure the consistent implementation of best practices that drive productivity and optimize efficiency, resulting in the production of top-quality sod for customers.
Bill holds a Turfgrass degree from Horry Georgetown Tech in Conway, SC. After earning his degree in 2000, he spent 10 years working on golf courses; 8 of those years were as the assistant golf superintendent at Wildwood Green in Raleigh, NC.
Outside of work, Bill enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, hunting and fishing on their family farm. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/6025 | 29th March-1st April 2011. The 3rd European Forum on Rural Development was held in Palencia, Spain. This forum was an initiative by the European Commission and EU Presidency with the support of France, Germany, Ireland, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development and CTA. Around 500 experts in rural development form all around the world attended.
The Global Donor Platform is an alliance of 34 donor institutions, including agencies in France, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Germany the European Commission, the World Bank and others. Each agency has a so-called “Focal Point”, a contact who mediates between his own agency and coordinating organs in the Global Donor Platform
Six breakout session (download their programmes here) focussed on:
Institutions and policies for effective governance of rural development
Ecologically efficient agricultural systems for smallholder farmers
Access to land and other natural resources
Food Security and Social Protection
Role of rural women in achieving food security and
Linking smallholder farmers to efficient markets.
Interview with Brian Baldwin. Brian Baldwin is the Vice-Chair of the Global Donor Platform and a Senior Operations Advisor for the International Fund on Agricultural Development (IFAD). In this video he talks about the successes of the Forum – and why it is necessary to involve Parliamentarians into rural development policies.
Interview with Willem Olthof. Willem Olthof is currently tasked with agricultural development issues in DG Development of the European Commission. Besides, he is the Focal Point for the Global Donor Platform, sharing Commission ideas and interests with other members of the platform. In this video he talks about his work as a focal point and his impressions of the Forum.
Besides the breakout session several side events were organised.
At a side event of EIARD, EFARD and AGRINATURA discussed the role of Agricultural Research: a drive of rural development.
Another remarked side event was about Rural financing. Betty Wampfler of CIRAD presented a case study which resulted from the research Organisations professionnelles agricoles et institutions financières rurales. Construire une nouvelle alliance au service de l'agriculture familiale. IFAD organized a side event on the Support to Farmers' Organizations in Africa Programme (SFOAP) with the participation of Elizabeth Atangana, the President PROPAC.
At a side event of the CTA, policy-makers and field experts debated the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in rural development. 80 participants followed panel debates on ICTs policies, promoting extension services to farmers and improving market access for farmers.
Interview with CTA Director Michael Hailu, who chaired the discussions.
One of the side events of the EC presented the “EU Food Facility”. For this facility the Commission unblocked a sum of 1 bn €, to be used in the period from 2008 to 2012. More than half of the funds have been allocated to international organizations like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) for programmes in developing countries. But NGOs and the Commission itself also received some of the funds, said Willem Olthof, responsible for agricultural development issues in DG DEVCO at a side event about the EU Food Facility. The Commission screened a short film about the implementation of EU Food Facility Programmes.
Interview with T.K. Omana of RASTA: the Rural Agency for Social and Technological Advancement. RASTA began in 1984 as a branch of a globally reputed institution, the Barefoot College , the Social Work and Research Center of Tilonia, Rajasthan with the belief that solution to rural problems lie within the community.
RASTA addresses the problems of rural people especially women, indigenous communities, small and marginal farmers related to agriculture deterioration, rural unemployment, food security, technology gaps in rural development, backwardness of women and tribal communities, water and sanitation, conservation of ecosystems, health and decentralized governance.
PROPAC | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/6640 | Mar 06,2009 00:00 by
Bend_Weekly_News_Sources Oregon can boast about having one of the most diverse agriculture industries of all 50 states, with more than 225 commodities being produced within its borders. A look at the most recent US Census of Agriculture shows a number of crops that grow on a handful of Oregon farms, ranging from specialty fruits and vegetables to more common items traditionally grown in other states. It all adds up to nearly $5 billion in agricultural sales for Oregon's economy."We are not a big mono-agriculture state," says Laura Barton, trade manager with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "Midwest states have thousands and thousands of acres planted in two crops- corn and soy beans. In Oregon, we have this wonderful tapestry of different crops."Oregon's climate, soil, and topography allow growers to produce a wide range of commodities. But the state's farmers and ranchers are also responsible for having a mindset that leads to crop diversity."It speaks to the creative outlook of many growers who are willing to take risks or look outside the normal desire to just keep growing what they always have been growing," says Barton. "They are willing to try something new and address consumer trends that often show interest in new things."Some crops listed in the census were never produced in Oregon prior to a couple of years ago. Others have been around, but in such small numbers that most Oregonians would not know about them. Among the emerging commodities is olive production, primarily a California crop."There are a few farms now that have planted olive orchards, primarily for pressing into oil," says Barton. "Olive oil has become quite trendy with the consumer and of interest to people involved with food. There are plantings both in southern Oregon and in Yamhill County."The 2007 Census of Agriculture officially lists eight olive farms covering 13 acres. While California produces about 10 percent of the world's table olives, some Oregon farmers are finding the loamy clay soil and temperate climate to be a reasonable environment for the slow growing olive tree.Another relatively new crop for Oregon is wild rice- already adapted to the upper Midwest states and several Canadian provinces. Two Linn County farms are listed in the census as producing wild rice on a commercial basis.In the last 15 years or so, chestnuts began showing up in local orchards as well as roasting on an open fire, as the song goes. In many cases, diversified growers looked for something different to add to their mix of crops and saw niche opportunities for a commodity that is usually imported to the US. Oregon chestnut production has now grown to more than 333 acres involving 92 farms, 17 of them in Lane County. Oregon growers say demand for domestic chestnuts is increasing, so they are responding.Kiwifruit sounds like something grown Down Under. In fact, New Zealand produces a vast amount of the fruit. But in Oregon, there are now 60 farms producing kiwifruit covering 67 acres, all in the fertile Willamette Valley.
According to the census, there are other lesser-known food crops grown in Oregon. Some are fruits, some are vegetables, others are herbs. They include chicory (one farm listed in Linn County), collards (three farms in the Willamette Valley), okra (four farms located in Jackson, Lane, and Marion counties), ginseng (two farms in Columbia and Lane counties), escarole and endive (two farms in Klamath and Washington counties), horseradish (one farm in Columbia County), and pluots- a cross between a plum and an apricot (nine farms covering five acres).Oregon also offers a home to some limited production oilseed crops. There are four farms growing 69 acres of safflower, used to produce a vegetable oil. One Umatilla County farm reportedly grows dill for oil. A commodity once common in Oregon is now making a reappearance of sorts. Two Malheur County farms produce flaxseed, which is also processed into a vegetable oil. Older generations might remember large scale flax production in Oregon 60 years ago. No fewer than 14 Oregon mills turned flax fibers into linen. Now, efforts are aimed at producing an oil that contains nutritional value and is often used as a dietary supplement.Then there is a new oilseed crop arriving on the scene in Oregon. Camelina has shown promise as a source for biofuel production. As a crop that needs very few inputs such as water or fertilizer, camelina can be grown on marginal farm land unlike many other crops.There may be other commodities being grown in such small amounts in Oregon that the Census of Agriculture does not track them. And while an occasional commodity drops off the Oregon list of 225 or so- there was once a thriving turkey industry in Oregon- it seems more likely that the state will be adding new crops or at least new varieties of existing crops. It makes for a dynamic agriculture industry in Oregon.It all depends on the decisions made by producers. Some have been farming for a long time. Others are new to the industry."You'll see many producers who are part of multi-generation farms looking to get a better return on their crops by trying something new or different," says Barton. "But there are also people who have never been in farming before that are looking to produce something other growers aren't."Once again, the diversity of Oregon agriculture is one of its strengths. Just as a diversified investment portfolio protects against concentrated risk, having a long list of agricultural products often helps the industry avoid an overall drop. When one commodity suffers a bad year, chances are another one is doing well. On balance, the state's value of agricultural production continues to increase every year thanks, in part, to some crops you never knew even grew in Oregon. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/6819 | Farm Collector Blogs
> Looking Back
The Ohio Farmer in August 1858
by Sam Moore
Tags: looking back, sam moore, farm life, I have an issue of the The Ohio Farmer paper from August 14, 1858, in which are some interesting tidbits: “Mr. James Hall, of Atwater, Portage County, sold recently 100 mutton sheep for the sum of $800.” “G.C. Beardsley, of Trumbull County, has sent us a sample of wool from a Spanish buck that he purchased in Vermont in 1856. He writes, ‘the fleece weighed in the dirt, twelve pounds; washed, it weighed ten pounds.’” “The New York State Agricultural Society is offering a $250 premium for a machine that will plow satisfactorily by steam power. One application has been received.” “Accident - On July 29th, Mr. John Bratton, while mowing on the farm of H.C. Belden, in Howland, incautiously stepped in front of the mowing machine, and his leg was cut off just above the ankle. Mr. Bratton is a very industrious, steady young man, and his misfortune is to be regretted.” Dr. M.L. Wright, of Cleveland, advertised his newly patented porcelain false teeth, which he claims are held in place “without the aid of Metallic Plates, Clasps, or Springs.” D.D. Duty, of Cleveland, “takes pleasure in announcing that he can furnish a casket, of his own manufacture, that is highly ornamented, with a thick plate glass running the entire length of the top. A full length view can be had with ease.” “CLEVELAND INFIRMARY. There are in this Institution, as a charge upon the city, a number of boys and girls, including infants, whom the Directors will bind to service until they come of age, with suitable persons, upon their producing testimonials from the Clergyman, Magistrate, or Trustees of their town, that they are suitable persons to have the care of, and bring up such children. Application may be made to: R. Hussey, Acting Director, Cleveland, Ohio.” Wyandts, Putman & Son, from Milton, in Stark County, Ohio, offered the Pitt’s Grain Separator and Thresher, with Carey’s Double Grand Horsepower, which they claimed to manufacture. The ad says: “They will thresh and clean, in the most perfect manner, from 300 to 600 bushels of grain per day, and are without any doubt THE threshing machine of the country.” Under the heading, “Anecdotes and Fun,” are the following gems: “Why is a chicken sitting on a fence like a cent? Answer - The head is on one side and the tail on the other.” “A duel was fought in Mississippi, last month, by S. Knott and A.W. Shott. The result was Knott was shot and Shott was not. In these circumstances, we would rather have been Shott than Knott.” Seth A. Bushnell and William P. Hudson, of Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, advertised themselves as, “Breeders of Durham Cattle, Jacks and Jennets, South Down Sheep, Chester, White and Suffolk Pigs.” On the front page is a letter from a man named James Johnston about conditions he observed as he travelled through Ohio during 1857. Mr. Johnston writes in part: “In travelling through your state last summer, I seldom saw a barn for hay or grain, or even shelter for cattle. This I think very bad economy. There is a very great waste of grain from letting it stand in shocks. I was told it stood thus for months, until the farmers got time to thresh it, and then they generally took the straw away from the machine by horse-rakes, and left it laying in heaps on the fields to rot. “The hay put in barns would be a great deal more profitable to feed than when put into stacks. I think barn hay is worth one-half more than stack hay, but not when put up in such small stacks as I saw in Ohio, the majority containing not over two to three tons. If farmers would put from ten to thirty tons in a stack, there would be much less waste. If the hay was cut earlier, and put in large stacks, it would be much better; but houses for both hay and grain soon pay for their cost. “Their poor cattle and sheep have no shelter in winter, but have to stand out in all storms, and often to lay in snow, with the thermometer at from 20 above to 20 below zero. This is very unprofitable to the owners, and also unmerciful to the dumb brutes. “If they would erect good sheds for their sheep and cattle, and barns for their grain and hay, then they might keep their stock as it should be kept, and make large quantities of valuable manure. I did not see a manure heap in Ohio, only where the cattle had stood and been fed, and the manure left there to waste. “I read in the Cincinnatus, that large sums have been expended in Ohio in building schoolhouses and churches, which is laudable as a state without education and religion cannot prosper. Still, with the temperature at zero, and my cattle and sheep exposed to the pitiless storm, I don’t think I could sit very comfortable in a church, no matter how elegant and warm, even while hearing the most eloquent preacher.” Sounds as though Mr. Johnston wasn’t much impressed by the way farmers in Ohio did things. It doesn’t say, but Johnston was probably from the east, where farmers had had a lot more years to improve their farmsteads with barns and other amenities. In 1858, Ohio was only about five short decades from being a part of the western frontier. I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse of Ohio farm life on the eve of the Civil War. Illustrations: Two new farm implements advertised in the 1858 Ohio Farmer. Older
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/6854 | Georgia Trend / Georgia Trend February 2007 / The Voice Of Experience Email Print Feed
The Voice Of Experience
Teresa Lasseter brings real-world experience to her work with the Farm Service Agency. Patty Rasmussen In the know: Teresa Lasseter USDA Growing up on a farm in Tifton, Teresa Lasseter knew all about long hours. But who knew she’d continue to keep farmer’s hours as administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA)? “I get up at 5 a.m. I’m in my office by 7 and usually don’t leave until close to 7 at night,” Lasseter says. “But there’s limited amount of time for political appointees to get things accomplished in Washington. My goal is to leave a better agency behind when I go.”
Lasseter, 54, has spent most of her career serving in the FSA. She is the agency’s first female administrator, and the first administrator to have worked her way up through the organization’s ranks. “I began working with the FSA in one of their county offices, part time, in Tifton,” she says. “I was just a young mother with two children looking for a temporary job for the summer.” A graduate of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Lasseter had worked for the Georgia Department of Transportation for several years out of college before landing that summer job with the FSA in 1977. She held a variety of positions while traveling the state and familiarizing herself with farm programs on the local level and entered the agency’s management training program before stepping back in 1993 due to family concerns. A political appointment from then-Gov. Zell Miller kept her closer to home. She was executive director of the Georgia Agrirama Development Authority in Tifton, remaining there until 1999. During her “break” from the FSA, Lasseter also chaired the Tifton Chamber of Commerce. She then relocated to Moultrie and settled in, not imagining the career changes yet to come.
President George W. Bush’s election in 2001 signaled Lasseter’s return to the FSA when the chief executive appointed her the (FSA) state executive director for Georgia. She served for one year until 2002 when she was appointed the Associate Administrator for Programs (in the FSA) and asked to move to Washington, DC. Years of FSA experience served Lasseter well. “They wanted someone in that position who knew the agencies and programs,” she says. “Thirteen months later, once the rules and regulations [of the 2002 Farm Bill] were in place, I went back to Moultrie.”
But in August 2005 Lasseter was asked to interview for the administrator’s job. She became chief of the FSA in October 2005. Her work history in the agency was invaluable; an even greater benefit was growing up on a farm. “I have a different appreciation for farmers, ranchers and land owners,” she says. “They need to remain strong and viable. I consider my job to be a tremendous opportunity for public service.”
Knowing she has a limited amount of time to get things done, Lasseter wants to see more FSA reorganization. “Many of our programs have changed and work loads have shifted,” she says. “We need to consolidate more of our county offices, and staff them according to the work load.” She says the agency also needs better training and tools for local staffs with one goal in mind: better service to customers. “Our customers are farmers, ranchers and land owners,” Lasseter says. “We must update our technology to service them more efficiently, quickly and accurately. Communication is vital. Many farmers want to do their FSA work online and we’re in the process of shifting programs to the Web. This saves farmers time and for them, especially, time is money.”
Lasseter says the job, answering legislators’ questions on Capitol Hill, meetings with the secretary of agriculture, and handling a budget of multiple billions, can be overwhelming but she thrives on the challenges. Her husband, Willard, remained in Georgia to run the family’s John Deere dealership, but her daughter, Autumn Veazy, is an attorney in Washington living with her mom in Arlington, Va. “It’s been great living with my daughter again,” says Lasseter, whose son, Zach, is an accountant in Tifton. “It’s the first time we’ve lived together since she was in high school.” Knowing a new administration means new administrators, Lasseter gives herself two more years to accomplish her goals before returning to Georgia. “My work is rewarding, but I love Georgia,” she says. “It will be great to come home again.”
This article appears in the February 2007 issue of Georgia Trend | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/8588 | Industry Bayer CropScience acquires AgraQuest
By Bayer CropScience
July 05, 2012 | 10:22 am EDT
Bayer CropScience has signed an agreement to purchase AgraQuest, Inc. for a purchase price of $425 million (approximately EUR 340 million) plus milestone payments. AgraQuest, based in Davis, Calif., is a global supplier of innovative biological pest management solutions based on natural microorganisms. This acquisition will enable Bayer CropScience to build a leading technology platform for green products and to strengthen its strategically important fruits and vegetables business, while also opening new opportunities in other crops and markets. Green products control a broad spectrum of pests and diseases and offer farmers integrated pest management programs to minimize development of resistance and maximize crop yields. The acquisition is subject to approval by the relevant authorities.
"The growing fruits and vegetables market, which today accounts for more than 25 percent of our sales, is of strategic importance for us. We plan to achieve EUR 3 billion sales in this segment by 2020 and with the acquisition of AgraQuest we are underlining our growth ambitions," said Sandra Peterson, CEO of Bayer CropScience, sending a strong signal to the market. "We are the first in our industry to offer farmers a truly comprehensive range of integrated crop solutions based on seeds, traits and combined chemical crop protection and biological control," she added.
The tailor-made portfolio and promising R&D pipeline of AgraQuest will help Bayer CropScience to build a broad-based technology platform to bring a new generation of innovative products to the market. Furthermore, this acquisition will help to optimally use R&D, manufacturing and market synergies creating value for both Bayer CropScience and its customers. "AgraQuest expands our existing biological pest control portfolio centered on our successful Votivo™ biological nematicide, and it allows us to further leverage the biotechnology platform we have acquired through Athenix Corporation," said Sandra Peterson.
"We are proud to become part of Bayer CropScience," AgraQuest CEO Marcus Meadows-Smith commented. "AgraQuest is ideally positioned as a technology leader in the global biological market and by joining forces with Bayer CropScience we will be able to develop revolutionary, tailor-made biological solutions. Every AgraQuest employee is passionate about developing innovative solutions for better food, and now the products developed through their hard work will be made available to farmers in every corner of the world." AgraQuest has its own sales force in the NAFTA crop protection market, and sells its green products through a network of distributors and partners in other global regions.
The company’s current product portfolio includes well-established product brands such as Serenade®, Rhapsody®, Sonata® and Ballad® fungicides and Requiem® insecticides, which provide effective disease and pest control and will complement Bayer CropScience´s product offering. Bayer CropScience will also leverage AgraQuest's technology platform and its promising pipeline of new biological control agents. Several new pipeline products, which include acaracides, fungicides and nematicides, amongst others, are under development, and have undergone successful early field evaluations. Through the acquisition Bayer CropScience will integrate AgraQuest’s state-of-the-art biopesticides production facility in Tlaxcala, Mexico, as well as the company’s R&D site in Davis. AgraQuest employs a total staff of approximately 250 full-time employees.
AgraQuest products are available today in more than 30 countries including Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil and European countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. They are used in diverse market segments such as fruits and vegetables, broad-acre crops, post-harvest protection, turf, home and garden and animal health.
bayer cropscienceagraquestfruitvegetablesbiological pest control About the Author: | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/8846 | PlantsPerennial Plants & FlowersPerennial Flowers Parts of Anthurium Plants
Parts of Anthurium Plants
Anthurium (Anthurium andraeanum), also known as the flamingo flower or boy flower, is a tropical, slow-growing perennial. It is native to South and Central America, and it also is grown in Hawaii and other tropical areas. All parts of the plant are poisonous.
Anthurium has petiolated, lobed and cordate green leaves of variable sizes, according to the University of the West Indies (UWI). Petiolated means the leaf is attached to the stalk by a stem; lobed means indented margins; cordate means heart-shaped.
The leaves, which have a reticulate venation (a branching vascular system with successively thinner veins) with a prominent midrib, lateral veins and a well-defined leaf margin, are arranged spirally, either clockwise or anticlockwise, according to the UWI.
The anthurium flower stalk or petiole grows from 12 to 24 inches long. The rounded stalk holds up a waxy, modified leaf (spathe), which surrounds the spadix, the fleshy spike that holds the flowers.
Spadix
At the end of the petiole, surrounded by the spathe, is the inflorescence, or flower spadix. The spadix holds the "true flowers," each of which has a pistil surrounded by four stamens. Anthurium flowers come in red, green, white, rose, salmon, brown, cream, lavender or multicoloured.
Geniculum
At the top of the petiole is the geniculum, a slightly swollen organ that lets the leaf rotate to collect sunlight.
The anthurium plant is an underground rhizome with adventitious roots, according to the UWI. Adventitious roots lack buds or nodes. When anthurium grows as an epiphyte (clinging to another plant for support but not depending on it for nutrition), the roots don't need to anchor it to the ground, so they tend to be small and inconsequential.
anthurium, anthurium parts, anthurium flower parts About this Author
Aileen Clarkson has been an award-winning editor and reporter for more than 20 years. Clarkson graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She has worked for several newspapers, including "The Washington Post" and "The Charlotte Observer." New in Perennial Flowers
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/10935 | IRELAND: Minister hammers home marketing message at world's biggest food show
By Press Release | 24 October 2000
Northern Ireland primary producers and food processors looking for export markets for their products must take a serious look at their competition and how they are attracting consumers if they are to succeed in business. This was the keynote message hammered home by Brid Rodgers, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development during a visit today to one of the biggest food exhibitions in the world at Villepinte on the outskirts of the city of Paris. During her visit to the Northern Ireland Exhibit at the Salon International de L'Alimentation (SIAL) Brid Rodgers, who had been invited earlier to see exhibits from some of the 90 countries at the show, stressed the global nature of food marketing. "I will be visiting all nine of the Northern Ireland companies exhibiting at the show and I am pleased that these companies have the confidence and ability to compete against other companies in the international market place. The agri-food sector needs to sell most of its production outside Northern Ireland and it is vital that companies have the necessary marketing capabilities if they are to succeed. "I am pleased to note the co-operation between DARD and the LMC in sponsoring a Trade Development visit by 14 members of the Ulster Lamb Group who will be assessing their production and quality assurance methods against international competition from a number of lamb producing countries exhibiting at the show. It is important that primary producers appreciate the requirements of the market place and see for themselves how they are being met by others." Later the Minister was guest of honour at a IDB reception for NI companies exhibiting of SIAL. The Minister will spend most of the day at the Exhibition tomorrow and has plans to make a number of courtesy calls on An Board Bia, Food From Britain and the Argentine and Australian beef promotion stands. Meeting have also been arranged with senior representatives of the French Government and Agriculture Department. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/11093 | Southern Specialities and HLB join forces on new venture by John Groh | October 06, 2010 Two Florida-based produce marketers are joining forces to create a new entity that will specialize in sourcing, growing, packing, shipping and distributing several varieties of papayas as well as other tropical fruits grown in Brazil, Ecuador, Belize, Mexico and other countries in Central America and South America. Southern Specialties Inc., based in Pompano Beach, FL, and HLB Tropical Food USA Inc., based in Plantation, FL, reached an agreement to create a new joint venture called HLB Specialties LLC. HLB Specialties will be headquartered in Pompano Beach, FL, and will distribute from its Florida headquarters as well as from facilities in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and McAllen, TX. "HLB Tropical Foods' main goal has been to be the most reliable, competitive and innovative distributor of papayas in the world," Homero Levy de Barros, president and chief executive officer of HLB Tropical Food USA Inc., said in an Oct. 6 press release. “We are now ready for the next step in our expansion. Robert Colescott [president and CEO of Southern Specialties] and I realized that the combined strengths of both companies would create exponential value for our customers. The joint venture will automatically offer our clients a logistical advantage, since we’ll be able to consolidate more items then previously possible.” “The time is right to promote the benefits of papayas,” Mr. Colescott added in the press release. “Here is a fruit that has it all — flavor, color and tremendous nutritional value. We expect to see significant growth in the category and the company. I have great respect for the job Homero and his team have done with this product. They have set the bar for marketing papaya in this country and Europe.” Mr. Levy de Barros told The Produce News that for the last 18 years, HLB Tropical Foods has focused on papayas from Brazil and parts of Central America and Mexico, and “it became clear to me that when you are alone, it is difficult to deal with the extremes of the weather” and the effect it has on supply. With this move, “we can spread out the growing area as much as possible. And by partnering with Southern Specialties, we will have a full line of products, and we will be stronger in sourcing and logistics as a single company.” Mr. Levy de Barros said that HLB Tropical Foods Inc. would go into a “dormant” stage while he and his staff direct their efforts toward HLB Specialties. He said that he and his staff would all remain with the new combined entity. They left their former headquarters in Plantation, FL, at the end of September and have moved to the Southern Specialties facility in Pompano Beach, where HLB Specialties has rented space. He added, “I have known Robert [Colescott] for many years, and this move is something that has been under consideration for about a year. This will benefit our retail clients because the combined company will be stronger in sourcing and logistics. I am looking to triple the amount of business we are doing now.” HLB Specialties will be exhibiting at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit in booth No. 4945. Videos | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/11115 | HomeFood & Water Declining EU soil quality poses threat to farming
By Fiona Harvey, originally published by Financial Times May 3, 2005 European agriculture is under threat as the quality of soil worsens, particularly in eastern states.
More than 16 per cent of the European Union’s land is affected by soil degradation, but in the accession countries more than a third is affected, according to the first Soil Atlas of Europe, published last week.
This degradation can make agricultural land unsuitable for crop production, necessitating costly processes to restore its fertility and putting pressure on the Common Agricultural Policy, the EU’s controversial system of farming subsidies.
Arwyn Jones, research scientist at the EU’s Joint Research Centre, which produced the atlas, said: “Agriculture depends on healthy soil. But changes in farming, land use and climate are threatening the health of soil in many areas. As the atlas points out, we owe our existence to a thin layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
Changing land management practices have impoverished soil throughout Europe. In southern Europe nearly 75 per cent of the soil has an organic matter content – a measure of fertility – so low that it is a cause for concern. But even in England and Wales the percentage of soils classed as low in organic matter rose from 35 to 42 per cent between 1980 and 1995, owing to changes in farming practices.
Farmers have failed to practise some simple measures, such as composting, that could save the soil.
The atlas is the first report to assess all Europe’s soil. The study will form the basis of the Soil Framework Directive expected by the end of this year, which is intended to protect Europe’s soil from further damage.
The chief threats to soil are identified by the atlas as erosion, degradation from the overuse of fertilisers and pesticides, the loss of organic content, contamination from industry, the loss of biodiversity, salinity, the compacting of soil by agricultural vehicles, landslides and flooding. Action could be taken to reduce the effects of some of these processes, said Mr Jones. “In some cases it’s very simple – for example, teaching farmers to plough in line with the land’s contours instead of ploughing downhill will reduce the soil loss when it rains.”
Farmers should also be encouraged to use more composted organic material, he said. This nourishes the soil without the chemical contamination that comes from using large quantities of artificial fertiliser.
Once soil has been degraded it takes thousands of years to regenerate. “Soil is a non-renewable resource and we need to take action to protect it now,” Mr Jones said.
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By Fiona Harvey, originally published by Financial Times (UK) | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/11470 | Trying to pay attention
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Tag Archives: West Virginia
Coalwood is in my heart today
Posted on October 1, 2011 by sdate Reply Life has its turning points. The little town of Coalwood, West Virginia represents a big one for me. It was after visiting the October Sky Festival there in 2005 that I decided to make a documentary film about the town. Who knows why. I had no experience as a filmmaker, no camera, no concept of all that it takes to video a video production of that scale.
In October of 2009, after a half-dozen more trips to Coalwood and four years of learning a few skills, a dream came true as I was able to go back to Coalwood and hand-deliver a DVD of “Welcome to Coalwood” to each of the people who had appeared in the film or helped me make it and personally thank them for welcoming me into their homes and letting me into their lives. That 2009 trip was emotional for me, as some of the people were getting on in years and others had experienced major life changes. I’ll never forget the heartfelt thanks and hugs I received from these wonderful people just because I took an interest in them and their little town. It didn’t matter to them that the film wasn’t the highest-quality production or that it was made by a beginner. Homer Hickam had put Coalwood on the map a decade earlier with his wonderful memoir, Rocket Boys, which was made into the movie October Sky. My project covered some of the same ground, but in a different way — by finding people from the old days who were still around to tell the history of the town as they remembered it.
My biggest initial motivation for attempting to make the film was to preserve on video some of the older people that I’d met. In fact, when I drove down there with my daughter Emily in the summer of 2006 to do my first shooting, I really didn’t know what I was doing — but I felt a sense of urgency to record some of them before it was too late.
Red Carroll (2006)
I’m glad I did. Since I’ve made the film, several wonderful Coalwood residents who were “stars” in my film, including Red Carroll, Gene Turpin and Fred Beavers have died. Katie Jones has since move away, as has Janice McClure.
Eugene Turpin (2006)
"Miss Katie" Jones and Emily Date (2006)
Bill & Reba Bolt / Jim and Carol DeHaven (2006)
The Company Store, one of the two most import existing buildings in town, was torn down just as I was finishing the film, dealing a crushing blow to any historic preservation effort.
It’s really hard to explain to some people why that little, falling-down town grabbed me, but the fact is, it did. I’ve given up trying to explain it. It’s like trying to explain why you fell in love.
I’m a big believer in the importance of place. We all have places that we are emotionally connected to. For most of us those places are not famous or well-known, but they have meaning to us and represent something deeply important in our lives.
Coalwood is one of my special places. It changed my life. The October Sky Festival is today. I should be there and regret that I’m not. To the people of Coalwood: I’ll be thinking about you all day today. Thank you for what you’ve given me.
I’ve missed two October Sky Festivals in a row. I can only hope that there will be another one next year.
Red Carroll talks with a group of Minneapolis teachers on the steps of the Clubhouse (Oct 2008)
If you’d like to see some of my other Coalwood-related posts, here are the links:
Big Creek High School: A missed opportunity for historic preservation
Coalwood on my Mind
Memories of Red Carroll
“Owe my soul to the company store” — some like it that way.
Posted in My Special Places, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged coal, coal mining, coal town, Coalwood, Coalwood West Virginia, Homer Hickam, October Sky, October Sky Festival, Rocket Boys, Welcome to Coalwood, West Virginia | Leave a reply
Posted on February 26, 2011 by sdate 3 My friend Reid Parkinson sent me a Newsweek article last week about a company town called Scotia, California. It’s the last of a dying breed of community — a one-industry town completely owned by a company. Scotia, California - the last company town? (photo by Newsweek)
Reid knew I’d be interested because a couple of years ago I made a documentary film called “Welcome to Coalwood“, about the dying former company-owned coal mining town of Coalwood, West Virgina. Before I got involved with Coalwood, I’d never thought much about the idea of a company town. I had a vague recollection from my childhood of “Sixteen Tons”, the 1954 hit song by Tennessee Ernie Ford that painted a simple, negative picture of a type of community where residents were completely controlled by a company that owned everything – including the only store in town, to which the coal miner was forever and inextricably indebted.
If for no other reason, watch this video (introduced by Dinah Shore at some sort of banquet — probably in the 1980s) for its cool, RatPack-style, finger-snapping vibe.
One of the surprising things I learned during my first visit to Coalwood in 2005 was that most of the old-timers remembered the company-owned days with fondness and nostalgia. Sure, the coal company owned everything, they said, but in many ways that made for a better community. There was virtually no crime, they said, because criminals would be banished from living there. They had good schools, because the company made sure they hired good teachers and had a good school building. There was no city government bureaucracy, because there was no city government (and also no property taxes). People kept up their properties because there were fines and the threat of losing their house if they didn’t. They didn’t mind buying everything from the company store because it had everything they needed — at least they thought so at the time. The town was clean because the company sent around people to tag people for having trash in their yards, polluting the creek or other public health risks. There were competitions for most attractive house and yard. Whether it was out of fear or pride, the residents of town worked together to keep out the riff-raff and they were proud of their community.
Coalwood in the 1930s - "Everything we needed, we had right here", according to life-long resident Red Carroll. From left to right in the photo, the doctor's office, "clubhouse", post office, company store, offices, school. (photo courtesy of David Goad)
The coal company in Coalwood began selling the houses to individual miners in the 1960s. This, one of the people I interviewed for the film says, “was when the town started to go down”. Another woman said that when the company stopped doing everything for them, they “felt like orphans”.
This surprising irony was one of the main reasons I decided to make a documentary about the town of Coalwood. Coalwood, West Virginia during the 1920s -- company houses being built during a boom era for coal. (photo courtesy of David Goad)
Scotia, California - lumber is king here (photo by Newsweek)
At one time, there were thousands of these company towns all across the U.S. This phenomenon peaked in the 1930s, but as workers became more organized and became less willing to be dependent on the company for making all their decisions for them, these towns began to disappear and transform. Coalwood’s coal mine closed in the late 1980s and it declined steadily into the near ghost town it is today.
The idea of a company town, at least in the strict sense that Coalwood was, seemed like such a throwback to another era, that I didn’t really think that such a place still existed. Then Reid sent me the piece about Scotia. It’s an interesting read. Even today, people there say many of the same things the older people of Coalwood do. For more information about my film, “Welcome to Coalwood”, go here.
Posted in My Special Places, Uncategorized | Tagged Cape Coalwood, coal mining, coal town, Coalwood, Coalwood documentary, Coalwood West Virginia, company town, Homer Hickam, October Sky, Red Carroll, Rocket Boys, Scotia, Scotia California, Steve Date, Welcome to Coalwood, West Virginia | 3 Replies
Posted on October 1, 2010 by sdate 2 It was five years ago this week that I arrived in Coalwood, West Virginia for the first time. It seems longer ago than that. Sometimes I feel that Coalwood and I have been friends for a very long time.
Brad and Julie Blue (then Julie Ferris) brought a group of Minneapolis teachers to the hills of southern West Virginia to see the town and meet some of the people featured in Homer Hickam’s book called “Rocket Boys”, which was made into the movie “October Sky” in 1999. This trip was the first of a two professional development excursions named Coalwood to the Cape — or “C2C”.
Here's our group at the Dian Lee House B&B in Bluefield, WV. Homer Hickam and rocket boy Billy Rose are in the front row.
We met a lot of great people in Coalwood, but one of the most memorable was Red Carroll, father of Jimmy O’Dell Carroll, one of the rocket boys. In his late 80s at that time, he’d become the town’s greeter and historian. He gave us a long guided tour of all the important sites.
Red Carroll tells us about Cape Coalwood, the place where the boys launched their rockets.
We also visited Big Creek High School in the neighboring town of War, where the rocket boys attended school and where Miss Frieda Riley inspired them to teach themselves how to build bigger and better rockets. Big Creek is a very cool building, preserved from another era. Sadly, it was closed last spring and is scheduled to be demolished in a couple of months (see my post from September 22).
The footbal field was right out the front door at Big Creek High School. Notice the OWL - the school's mascot - atop the school.
We got a chance to spend a day in Coalwood during the quiet time before the October Sky Festival. Peggy Blevins invited us to dinner, Helen Carson gave us a tour of Big Creek H.S., Ms. Katie Jones welcomed us to her church for ice cream, Bill Bolt spoke to us about the old days in the machine shop, and we met Homer Hickam, who spent the evening telling us all about Coalwood and answering all of our questions. At Peggy’s house, we met David Goad, who later was instrumental in helping me do a documentary film about the town.
On later trips, we met Carol and Jim DeHaven, Gene Turpin, Tootsie Spraggins, Bobby and Jack Likens, J.R. Hatmaker and many other residents and former residents. They all added to the fascinating, collective story of Coalwood.
My first October Sky Festival that year was great. The Minneapolis teachers rode into town on a hay wagon in the parade. That was fun. In subsequent years, we would move up to the top of the fire truck — quite an honor, indeed. It was interesting to see several thousand visitors fill the dying little coal town of about 200 residents for that one day. Everyone was happy. Older people who live there said it took them back to the old days, when Coalwood was a bustling company town of 2,500 — every one of them either employed by the coal company or the child of someone who was.
Homer Hickam speaks to the crowd from the Clubhouse porch at the October Sky Festival in 2005.
One of the reasons people come to the festival is to meet Homer Hickam and the Rocket Boys. Roy Lee Cooke, Jimmy “O’Dell” Carroll and Billy Rose attend the fest every year and love chatting with fans of the book and the movie.
O'Dell Carroll, Roy Lee Cooke, Billy Rose, Homer Hickam (L-R behind table) sign Homer's books for fans.
On behalf of the other C2Cers, thank you Brad and Julie Blue for making it possible for several groups of Minneapolis teachers to come to this place for this festival. Because of you, we all have memories that we’ll never forget. Julie and Brad walking past Homer Hickam's boyhood home in Coalwood.
And thank you to the people of Coalwood and McDowell County, West Virginia. You’ve been a big part of my life for 5 years.
The October Sky Festival is tomorrow. I’m sad that I have to miss my first one since 2005. But having my family together for the weekend and seeing my two kids run a marathon on Sunday will be pretty cool, too. If you get a chance to go to Coalwood tomorrow, say hi to everyone for me. Tell them I’m thinking about them and hope to see everyone next year.
Posted in My Special Places, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged Bill Bolt, Billy Rose, Bobby Likens, Coalwood, David Goad, Homer Hickam, J.R. Hatmaker, Jack Likens, McDowell County, O'Dell Carroll, October Sky, October Sky Festival, Red Carroll, Rocket Boys, Roy Lee Cooke, War West Virginia, Welcome to Coalwood, West Virginia | 2 Replies
Posted on September 22, 2010 by sdate 18 I like old buildings. They’re often visually interesting. They evoke feelings and memories from another era. They have stories to tell.
They’re irreplaceable.
After hearing rumors for a while, I recently found out that Big Creek High School in War, West Virginia will be demolished soon.
Big Creek High School in October of 2005
If you remember the movie, “October Sky” or Homer Hickam’s book, “Rocket Boys”, on which it was based, then you know about Big Creek.
Homer "Sonny" Hickam's senior photo from the Big Creek High School yearbook
It was the school where young Homer — “Sonny” in those days — and his friends attended Miss Riley’s class and were inspired to “aim high” and learn how to build rockets that eventually won a national science fair and put them all on college-bound paths that led out of the coalfields and dying towns of southern West Virginia.
I made a documentary film about Coalwood, West Virginia, home town of Homer Hickam and the Rocket Boys, a few winding miles down the road from from War. I’ve been inside Big Creek High School a few times and found it to be a fascinating place, a time capsule where you could immediately feel as if you were back in the 1950s.
My first visit to Miss Riley's former classroom in 2005
A tropy case contains The Rocket Boys' National Science Fair medal. Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Miss Riley (Laura Dern) look skyward in a poster from the 1999 movie, October Sky.
The school had been scheduled to be closed several years ago, but construction delays in building the new consolidated school in the town of Iaeger prolonged Big Creek’s shutting down until this past summer. In 2006, the iconic football field immediately in front of the school was demolished and construction began on a new elementary school. The new building was built just a few yards from the front of Big Creek H.S., completely blocking the former view of the school.
They had ripped up the football stadium when I visited in October of 2006.
New elementary school blocks view of Big Creek (photo by Shawn Cheeks)
That was bad enough, but at that time there was at least a plan for preserving the high school building after it closed. It was to be given to the City of War. They were going to use various parts of it for office space, storage, businesses and — best of all — some of the rooms were to be preserved as a history museum. Miss Riley’s room would have remained in its nostalgic, mid-20th century state for visitors to see for years to come. The building would have been a place of memories, not only of the rocket boys, but for all Big Creek graduates. It could have been a tourist stop in an area that desperately needs that kind of thing.
It was a great idea and it would have worked.
But other forces came into play. I’m not sure how it all fell apart, but it did and I’m sad about that.
Tom Hatcher, Mayor of War, WV, and proponent of preserving history whenever possible, was quoted recently in the Bluefield, WV Telegraph as saying that he’s given up the fight because “Unfortunately, the rate of deterioration since 2005 has made this option cost prohibitive and an impossible venture.”
My friend Shawn Cheeks is a senior this year at the new high school in Bradshaw. He’s a bright young man with a strong sense of history. He recently made a documentary film about the history of Big Creek. I asked him how he felt about all of this. While he has great memories of Big Creek and feels badly about its upcoming demise, he says that the damage was really done when the elementary school was built right in front of the high school, blocking its view. “It would be like building something right in front of the Lincoln Memorial, so you couldn’t see Lincoln”, he says. “It loses a lot of its ‘Landmark status’ when you can’t see it.” Shawn wants people to know that things are going well at the new school and everyone is looking forward to Homecoming this week. The students are looking forward to “preserving some of the old traditions while starting some new ones”.
Shawn’s 30-minute film about the history of Big Creek H.S. can be order for $12 at
Shawn Cheeks
War, WV 24892
Can you see the owl peeking out from behind the new school? (photo by Shawn Cheeks)
I made my documentary about nearby Coalwood in hopes that somehow the right people would see it and do something to save what’s left of that historic little company-owned coal town. Before I could finish the film, the company store building, one of the most significant structures, was demolished by the current owner without warning to the residents of Coalwood. People had tried to buy it and restore it for years, but the company wouldn’t sell it. But neither did they maintain it, and after a couple of decades of sitting empty and uncared for, it got to the point where it was too far gone.
Now this important and wonderful school building will soon meet the wrecking ball. Big Creek High School, home of the Owls, is now said to be “too far gone” to save.
This didn’t have to happen. If you ever get to war, West Virginia and drive by the new elementary school, take a moment to stop and think — and try to visualize the Big Creek Owl sign on top of the old high school. I will.
The Owl no longer casts this shadow on the new school. It's been taken down and put in storage. (photo by Shawn Cheeks)
Posted in My Special Places, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged Big Creek High School, Coalwood, Freida Riley, historic preservation, Homer Hickam, McDowell County, Miss Riley, October Sky, Rocket Boys, Sonny Hickam, War West Virginia, Welcome to Coalwood, West Virginia | 18 Replies
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/11710 | SYNGENTA, DUPONT TO DEVELOP NEW HERBICIDE CHEMISTRY CLASSJan. 4, 2017Source: joint company news release Syngenta and DuPont Crop Protection (DuPont) recently announced the publication of a joint patent, focused on the development of a new herbicide chemistry class. Collaboration on the project started in 2015 and has resulted in the joint patent entitled "Substituted cyclic amides and their use as herbicides." The new herbicide has entered into the pre-development stage and is expected to be launched in 2023.
"We are very pleased that our collaboration with Syngenta has extended into a joint research project for a new herbicide chemistry class," said Timothy P. Glenn, president, DuPont Crop Protection. "Partnerships for the advancement of crop science and development of crop protection solutions help growers realize the potential in their fields."
Jon Parr, president for Crop Protection at Syngenta, said "We are excited to be working again with DuPont on this herbicide research and development project. Success in this field will bring much needed new technology to farmers in the increasingly challenging area of weed management, including resistance."
About Syngenta
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities. To learn more visit www.syngenta.com and www.goodgrowthplan.com. Follow us on Twitter� at www.twitter.com/Syngenta.
About DuPont
DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit http://www.dupont.com.Tweet | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/12923 | Did banning growth promoters have the desired effect?
(Review prepared for Novartis Animal Health UK, published in "Farmers Guide") Did banning growth promoters have the desired effect of reducing the prevalence of resistant strains of potentially harmful organisms found in the pig being transferred to man? Recent findings (Danmap 2002, 2003) suggest that it did and why it is planned to ban the rest of the growth promoters by 31st December 2005 in the EU.
The Danes were very much the drivers in Europe with regard to banning growth promoters as they had seen very high levels of antimicrobial resistance in pigs and broilers of certain organisms that might be transmitted to man via meat consumption or direct contact. Two groups of organisms, which were not necessarily harmful in their host animals, were involved, campylobacter, which can cause acute diarrhoea in man and enterococci, which are associated with severe hospital-acquired infections in immuno-compromised patients.
Campylobacter infections in man were commonly treated with macrolide antibiotics such as erythromycin. Tylosin, which was used as a growth promoter in pigs at the time, is related to this family of antibiotics. Enterococci were different, they were not normally harmful in man or animals, but when the immune system was suppressed by chemotherapy for cancer or for transplants or infections, such as HIV, this organism could become life threatening. Two important growth promoters avoparcin and virginiamycin were related to vancomycin and the streptogramin antibiotics respectively, which were becoming increasingly important as the backstops for controlling these infections. Hence the risk of resistance being spread to man from animal use was seen as too great and the ban was introduced on the 'precautionary principle'. In Denmark they banned all growth promoters in March 1998, before the EU partial ban came into place in July 1999 but they have seen a worrying increase in the use of antimicrobials as therapeutics, to control a variety of diarrhoeas in pigs and necrotic enteritis in chickens.
Graph 1. Growth promoter and therapeutic antimicrobial use in food-producing animals in Denmark
Ref: Danmap 2003
The links from pigs to man were always rather tenuous. Campylobacter jejuni which causes over 90% of infections in man, is hardly found in pigs where Campylobacter coli predominates (over 90%). Additionally the macrolide resistance patterns in C. coli do not match those found in man and using genetic markers, the isolates of C. jejuni found in man are not related to those found in pigs but can be found in chickens, cattle, water, wild fowl and even beach sand (Burch, 2002). Not many families want to picnic on a pig farm or a field where pig muck has been spread. The level of resistance did fall from a high of 70% to around 30%. (See graph 2.)
Graph 2. Macrolide resistance of Campylobacter coli in pigs after GP ban
(Danmap, 2003)
Enterococcus faecium, which is the dominant problem-causing enterococcus in man, has been linked directly to man and pigs but in healthy farm and slaughterhouse workers. However it is genetically different from those isolates found in man with hospital-acquired epidemic vancomycin-resistant strains, which have proven so dangerous. There has been a consistently steady fall in antibiotic resistance for the 3 major growth promoters since the ban. (See Graph 3.) Even lower levels of resistance found on pork meat, similar to the levels found in man, suggest contamination may come more from man or the processing environment rather than the pig.
Graph 3. Antimicrobial resistance of Enterococcus faecium in pigs after GP ban
(Danmap 2003)
Therefore the banning of the use of growth promoters has had the desired effect of reducing antimicrobial resistance in pigs, but is unlikely to have solved the problems of antibiotic resistance in man, especially coming from the hospitals. There has also been an increase in macrolide use in pigs seen in Denmark and the UK (VMD, 2003), switching tylosin from a growth promoter to a therapeutic for ileitis, which has probably caused the plateau in macrolide resistance at the 30% level for E. faecium and C. coli.
What should we expect when we also ban the remaining three growth promoters in the UK for pigs: probably not a lot? For growth promotion alone there are already new products such as potassium diformate and other acidifiers to replace them. As long as zinc oxide is retained, then post-weaning scours should be controlled. We have already seen an increase in tylosin for ileitis control. With the withdrawal of salinomycin, then the use of tiamulin and valnemulin, the most effective therapeutics for treating spirochaetal infections such as swine dysentery and colitis, should increase due to the removal of the risk of ionophore interaction and the opportunity to switch from lincomycin. This will have an additional benefit as the pleuromutilins are not used in human medicine, unlike the macrolides and lincosamides and therefore will not compromise antimicrobial therapy in man.
Danmap 2002 (2003) Use of antimicrobial agents and occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from food animals, foods and humans in Denmark. Editors, Emboorg, H-D. and Heuer, O.E., Danish Zoonosis Centre, Danish Veterinary Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark www.vetinst.dk
Burch, D.G.S. (2002) Risk assessment - Campylobacter infection transmission from pigs to man using erythromycin resistance as a marker. Pig Journal 50, 53-58. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/13060 | » Miscellany
For 200 years, the family grew tobacco on this land. Then Everything started to change. The Farm
It's his own daughter who sells him out. "You know," offers 12-year-old Rebecca Hawthorne a little slyly, "If you pay my dad, he'll actually bite the head off a tobacco worm." Rebecca is a tiny thing in brown braids and work clothes and is reaching into an enormous pile of lime-green tobacco leaves on the back of a tractor. She smiles a big magnolia dare. As far as you can see, fields roll away in all directions, each covered in plants that could pass as 3-foot heads of romaine lettuce. A dirt road curves past a black, dormant field and ends at an old farmhouse sitting under oak trees too big around for even a large man to hug.Rebecca and her snickering teen-age cousins Roberta Jo and Stacy have come to the family farm on this Saturday morning to dirty their nails and pull tobacco. Clearly, it's a sacrifice, and a decapitated tobacco worm seems a fair payment. Shacks are dotted around the dark land the Hawthornes have farmed for two centuries. The shacks are curing barns where both the flue-cured and dark-fired tobacco grown on this Alberta farm are turned into the most profitable cash crop in Virginia. Now, though, tobacco's prognosis is looking shaky. As a result, so are the family legacies of thousands of Virginia families like the Hawthornes. In the past few years, tobacco farming has taken a series of well-publicized hits. Chief among them: the good news/bad news of declining consumer use in the United States; government quotas on how much tobacco can actually be grown; and increased competition from leaf farmers in other countries such as Brazil, which keeps leaf prices low.In the last three years, the average Southside Virginia tobacco farmer has seen his gross income cleaved in half. According to a report by the Associated Press, more than 2,500 Virginia farmers stopped growing tobacco between 1992 and 1997.With all that in mind, looking out over the eye-searing colors of this farm and at a sweet kid like Rebecca teasing her dad, you can't help but wonder: How long can these people possibly keep doing this?Robert Hawthorne ignores Rebecca's dare to chomp into a tobacco worm, despite his reputation as the Chief Harasser of what he calls the younger generation mainly anyone younger than he is. (He's only 33.) He and his uncle Billy are busy hoisting up the first rack of tobacco leaves and sliding it deep into one of the depressingly cavernous curing barns that look like empty truck trailers. One down, 125 more to go before the leaves will be ready for the slow, steady heat that will cure them from green to aromatic brown. By lunchtime, Robert mentions, they want to have at the very least 18 racks loaded. Anything less puts them in the family Hall of Shame. Right now, it's not looking promising. He looks out toward the field to see how his father and the Mexicans everyone at the farm calls them that are doing with the next tractor. Every few minutes they emerge from the rows with huge bouquets overhead and dump them onto the flat of the next tractor that will heave and squeak its way to Robert's platform. They have a way to go. "OK," Robert says, suddenly snapping into the girls' game. He jumps down from the platform, pulls out a bright green, pointy-headed worm from the stack of leaves and eyeballs the critter to make sure he doesn't get bitten back. He holds up the victim as Uncle Billy shakes his head and keeps working. "This is purely for the crude entertainment of the help," he announces. And amidst high, piercing shrieks and impressed applause, the deed is done. Freakish? Sure. But it could be that this worm beheading will, in fact, pay off for Robert Hawthorne, a Lunenburg county attorney and gentleman farmer who claims he does law just so he can keep working the land.He's counting on the power of family memories even repulsive ones to make at least one of these girls want to stay on this farm. Even when all the odds seem against them.hen it comes to identity, very few things can beat tobacco in Virginia's psyche. Tobacco's got it all: history, economics, and the advantage of being grown in the postcard beauty of Virginia's 8.7 million acres of rural land. It's the crop that was grown by Native Americans, the one that brought Jamestown its economic boom, and for better and worse the one near the heart of plantation history in Virginia. Oddly, our tobacco image lingers even though Virginia isn't a big tobacco producer at all. In fact, we grow less than 6 percent of the nation's tobacco crop, with Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina coming in as the true big hitters. Virginia actually grows a higher percentage of summer potatoes (7 percent of the national total). But understandably, spuds seem to lack a little zing when you're talking state identity. Talk cash, though, and it's another story. "We may grow more potatoes," points out Kevin Harding, an agricultural statistician with the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service, "but they only bring in $10.5 million in cash receipts. Tobacco, on the other hand, brings in $132 million."Tobacco, then, remains the undisputed king in counties such as Brunswick and Lunenburg just south and west of Richmond where people like the Hawthornes farm. Acre for acre, according to Virginia Tech Magazine, nothing even comes close as a financial substitute. Even peanuts, our next favorite (and infinitely more innocuous) "state identity" crop, bring in only $214 per acre in operating income; flue-cured tobacco rakes in $1,212, or almost six times as much. Of course, all this battles against the politically toxic background of 30 years' worth of surgeon general's warnings about tobacco. Why, the health-conscious ask, don't those farmers just grow something else?"Tobacco has its problems," Harding admits. "But all the prices in other substitute crops have been depressed for years. It would be difficult to change, even if someone wanted to." He says that even soybeans, another heavy hitter, only generate a little more than half the money tobacco does. That's why surgeon general be damned Virginia continues to wrestle with its conscience, its history, its pride and its wallet over tobacco and the fate of the tenacious families who farm it. As it happens, in the Hawthornes' case, money has absolutely nothing to do with why they farm. No one in the Hawthorne family has to farm for economic reasons. The land is paid for. And they've been smart enough to diversify not necessarily in what they grow but in how they make an income they can count on. Take the three heads of the farm right now. Robert, once voted most likely to succeed by his high school class, stepped into a very successful law practice with his father. Bob, his dad, is the county attorney for the Lunenburg County board of supervisors. And Billy, who earned advanced degrees in chemical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, spends his weekdays as an accounting and statistics professor at the College of William and Mary. If you just take a quick roll call of most of the men and women who make up even the extended family, you'll find counselors, attorneys, people with Ph.D.s in physics, several lifelong educators and academics, and other highly accomplished professionals in a wide range of fields. Still, every generation for the last 200 years has yielded a farmer to take over the family's farm. Who wants to break that streak? Not this generation even when you factor in that the work is backbreaking, that the economic outlook is poor and that the social stigma of tobacco outside of Southside, frankly, stinks like manure. None of that, it seems, beats the need to keep the family's traditional way of life. "We farm because our family always has," Robert says. "But even more we do it because no one wants to be the last person in the family to raise tobacco on this land." For all their efforts (and these are capital E efforts), the farm generates only enough income to cover expenses and the taxes. That alone would make most people wonder if the job could possibly be worth it at all. "My income and Robert's income would definitely go up if we stopped farming, says Bob, the 56-year-old family patriarch. Bob is sitting in the Kenbridge law office that he and Robert own in a town that has a total of three traffic lights.Bob has a stellar reputation with the county board of supervisors as a serious man who is, according to board member Sid Smythe, "honest, sincere, hardworking, intelligent and slow as hell." To his delight, he is also widely admired for his creation of The List a highly coveted top-10 list of the people in Lunenburg County most willing to play pranks on or otherwise insult Bob Hawthorne. (To be included, publicly humiliating Bob is a plus. You know, stuff like figuring out how to make him bid five times too much for a truck radiator only to find out he just bought back his own broken one. Or leaving a life-size mock-up of an outhouse on his front lawn that says "legal advice" on one side and "Bob's office" on the other.) "Yes, we have several rookies on the list now, hoping to move up," Bob deadpans as he slips the tattered list out of his shirt pocket. "We'll see how they do in time."For a man who has spent an entire weekend hunched over pulling tobacco, he looks fairly relaxed. To understand what he takes on at the farm makes you wonder how he has time for humor at all.Tobacco farming is a stew of intuition, science, faith, sheer grit and the ability to enlist as much free or cheap help as you can lay your hands on. It starts in April or May with 6-inch plants that look something like the little trays of impatiens you might buy at a local nursery. Those are planted, then fed and tended to keep insects and weeds off until sometime in July when, with some luck and the right amount of rain, you'll have shoulder-high plants saluting you in the scorching sun. By then it's time to lop off the pink tubular flowers that come up because the leaves are your friends, not the pretty blooms. In August, pulling begins an act that involves not only three Mexican seasonal workers, but also family and friends who owe you favors and don't mind risking the nicotine poisoning that some people get from handling wet leaves; this involves nausea, vomiting and a general desire for death. Since tobacco ripens the way a glass of water fills up, the crop has to be pulled in stages, bottom leaves in the early weeks, top leaves in the final weeks. Then there's the curing process: adding heat, watching for color, guarding from too much moisture (mold) or two little (brittleness), and smelling constantly, instinctively, for the dangerous gases emitted by the plants that can ignite an entire barn in a few minutes. And then there are the endless business decisions: Do we contract with a big tobacco company this year, or will that give them too much power over the price of the leaves? Should we try a new curing method to reduce carcinogens? Spring for a new tractor? Train the seasonal workers in additional tasks to make the employees more cost-effective?Why, why, why do this if a cushy office job awaits you elsewhere? One reason might be related to butternut-squash casserole. No matter how tough the work gets, there is an attitude among the Hawthornes of a family party. Lunchtime is the hands-down favorite time during pulling season, for instance. The women who are not pulling prepare casseroles, turkey, cranberry dressing, rolls a feast that everyone enjoys on a makeshift collection of foldout tables. Between bites, Robert makes guilt-trip cracks about who needs to help more in the pulling. There is the occasional joke about Uncle Billy insisting on sleeping outside on a chaise longue at night. "There are plenty, plenty of beds in this house, Uncle Billy," insists his niece Stacy.Later, the girls though far too old for playgrounds congregate outside and swing anyway. Several of the men throw themselves on the grass for a snooze. It's a family party, a time to joke, catch up on what's going on, work and complain together, ignore each other's faults (OK maybe point them out mercilessly), and partake of Motrin. In short, it's a way of building family unity around shared work as foreign a concept to today's Richmonders as the farmland of "Green Acres" seemed to Zsa Zsa Gabor.Still, tradition and pig-headedness are only a couple of steps apart. And in recent years the issue of letting go of tobacco farming has started to loom. arlier this year, the Hawthornes held a huge family meeting to see who still wanted to farm and who could be counted on to do it. No one will say much about it other than it was a "difficult and sometimes painful" meeting. In some ways, the meeting was seven years in the making. In March 1994, Bob and Bill's younger brother 42-year-old Tommy Hawthorne was killed in a car accident. He was the second brother they buried. The first, John, died of leukemia in his late teens.Tommy had been the dyed-in-the wool farmer, absolutely beloved in his community, and the keystone figure to the farm. He left behind not only a wife and three young children, but also a canyon of missing information about how to run a farm that had been in the family since before the Civil War. "I thought I was out of it," recalls Bill, who had been working off the farm for more than 30 years when his brother died. He had been certain that farming would not be in his future. "Even Bob was getting ready to devote himself just to law," he recalls. "I was sure Tommy and John were going to be the farmers. But there were circumstances" he says this straightforwardly "a wife and three little girls. Somebody had to come and run the farm." Tommy's death seemed to be the marble that dashed the pile. Bill, Bob and Robert stepped up to the farmwork and onto a huge learning curve, one that included accidentally burning down a curing barn and getting a crash course in everything from running the books to figuring out how to make the best use of the hired laborers. "Before that, we hadn't burned a barn in 75 years," Bill says. "We had to learn it all."Seven years and lots of experience later, it was time to put the question to everyone: Who's in? Among those who opted out was Sadie the only sister to Bill, Bob, Tommy and John. She decided to focus on her job as a counselor in a private prison and to keep brood cows instead of being central to the tobacco farm. "I just don't feel the calling anymore," she says sadly of her first year in "retirement." "My brother Tommy and I were 14 months apart. We played in the tractors together. We did everything together growing up. Tommy isn't here, and he won't ever be here. For my brothers and my nephew, they feel closer to him doing the tobacco. But I had to let go of that. I love my family, but I can find other ways to be with them."Sadie's departure wasn't sacrilege, though. "Members of the family have always been able to choose whether to be more or less involved in the farm," explains Laura Hawthorne, Robert's sister who considers herself very marginally involved. Living in Charlottesville, she commutes to Richmond to work in the provost's office at Virginia Commonwealth University. Still, her fondest memories are of her Aunt Sadie standing high up in the dark curing barn calling out math facts to her as she etched them with a stick in the dirt floor. "We've always been tolerant and lucky that way, and lucky that someone's always wanted to do it," she says. "The changes Tommy's death especially was a huge change in the dynamic. It took us all a few years of shock to figure it out. And so we came together to have a chance to talk and have a chance to make a different decision about where each of us wanted to go. We wanted to be intentional." Like Sadie, farming is not in Laura's plan, either, she admits. She is thankful that her brother Robert has always been so naturally and fiercely drawn to the land. "He's a blessing for me. His passion has helped because I haven't had to make a difficult choice that would impact my life in Charlottesville."For now, the farm and its struggling democracy continue. Bob handles many of the major decisions, such as their recent decision to contract with Philip Morris a risky move with a notoriously hardball player. Bill oversees the curing process. And Robert lies somewhere in between, offering advice and opinion where he can squeeze it in. "I'm strictly the midstrata management," he laments.For all of these massive changes, responsibilities and decisions, the mood for the Hawthornes especially when they are pulling tobacco is a light one. Sure, the work is, flatly, awful. But they seem most in their element in each other's company, and even the exhaustion doesn't seem to dampen the feel of a big family reunion. There seems no thought, for now, of this being the last generation on the farm."I can't go and run a marathon," Billy concedes. "But there are lots of old farmers. I have endurance. And endurance is what it takes to run a farm."Endurance and, maybe, new blood. Roberta-Jo, the 13-year-old daughter of Tommy, was only 6 when her father died. All the memories she has of him, she says, are on the farm. Today she is a lanky blonde dressed in overalls and a baseball cap. She makes it clear she has a sharp sense of what's at stake. It's true, she says, that her interests are wide, maybe leaning toward writing or education like other women in the family. But farming is a big part of her too, she says."At the end of the day, you're tired, not talking, just doing something you're proud to do. I don't know if my family expects me to come back," she says tentatively. "I don't know if I'll physically even be able to do this work. But, I think I'm probably too stubborn not to." Tweet
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/14330 | ...Case Tractors
Case Tractors Back to: US Tractor PullingSo you are interested in Case tractors. You'll find Case Tractors history below, as well as used Case tractors and parts available right now on-line. You can bid on them and get a better deal than at a retail parts or lawn equipment store.
Case Tractors traces its history way back into the 1800s.Jerome Increase Case started a company in Rochester in 1842, then moved to Racine, Wisconsin where he began manufacturing threshers. In 1853, Case accepted three partners to form the J.I. Case & Company. The Case eagle trademark, "Old Abe," was created in 1865 and is patterned after a bald eagle mascot that served in the Civil War.The first gasoline engine Case tractors appeared in 1892, when William Paterson of Stockton, California made an experimental tractor engine for Case Tractors. The early Case tractor engine ran, but not well enough to be produced.Case built their first steam engine which was pulled by horses in 1869. By 1876 they had developed their first steam traction engine, which led the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company to build steam-powered Case tractors in the 1890's and was among the first to make the gasoline engine tractor.By the early 1900s, Case tractors began being fitted with engines purchased from the Davis Motor Company in Milwaukee. In 1913, Case made their own engines for Case tractors. Case Tractors expanded by merging with Grand Detour Plow Company in 1919, and by later purchasing the implement plant of the Emerson-Framingham Corporation of Rockford, Illinois in 1928. Eventually, Case Tractors were taken over by the Massey-Harris Company of Toronto, Canada.Case today still manufactures heavy equipment for construction.The following short movie has a couple Case tractors in it:Farm Tractors Video
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/15066 | P.E.I. government approves funding for hog farm sanitation, screening
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Comments Pigs are pictured at a pig barn at an Ontario farm in a handout photo. Officials have confirmed a case of the highly contagious pig virus that has ravaged herds across the U.S. has now been found in Prince Edward Island
The P.E.I. government has approved $115,000 in financial aid to hog farmers for increased sanitation and screening measures, now that a case of the deadly pig virus has been confirmed in the province.
Tim Seeber, executive director of the P.E.I. Hog Commodity Marketing Board, said the board requested government assistance close to a month ago but received no response.
Then late Tuesday afternoon, The Guardian received a statement from the Department of Agriculture confirming the funding would be forthcoming.
“The department moved swiftly to approve the project and was ready to launch the program within two days of notification that porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) had been diagnosed on P.E.I.,” says a statement emailed to The Guardian Tuesday.
The first reported case in P.E.I. was detected by a veterinary lab last week and confirmed on Sunday.
But hog producers in the province have been undergoing stringent cleaning and disinfecting measures for some time now, especially after the virus was first confirmed to have arrived in Canada last month.
Ever since, Seeber says Island hog farmers have been incurring numerous additional costs as a result of these heightened bio-security measures, especially for trucks that must transport hogs from P.E.I. to the nearest processing plant in Quebec.
“The costs of totally cleaning, washing, disinfecting and drying a truck adds about $4 a hog to our transportation costs,” Seeber said. “That is a huge increase and if we want to keep this disease at bay, we’ll have to do that going forward and that is a significant impact on the industry.”
The $115,000 in funding announced Tuesday will be delivered to the hog board to administer a project to enhance swine farm bio-security.
This will cover costs such as sanitation equipment required to properly wash and disinfect vehicles and equipment; training for individuals on bio-security by veterinarians, as well as special bio-secure entries to pig barns and pig loading facilities.
“The department also is covering expenses associated with the provincial veterinarian in determining the source of the disease. The department will cover environmental sampling costs by the provincial vet as well as the lab testing costs,” a department spokeswoman wrote in an email to The Guardian.
Prices for P.E.I. hogs are not expected to be negatively impacted by the fact the virus has been found here. In fact, the loss of so many piglets as a result of this highly contagious swine illness in the U.S. has driven up demand.
“They figure over a million hogs have been taken out of the U.S. market, which drives up the Canadian price. I guess that’s the only plus side of this disease,” Seeber said.
There have been no other cases of the virus found in P.E.I., but producers are taking no chances. All pig farms have strict sanitation measures in place and are taking all precautions necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.
And now they have some provincial dollars to help with these additional measures.
“It’s just a matter of just being a little bit more diligent in everything that we do,” Seeber said.
Twitter.com/GuardianTeresa | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/15740 | Dehai News<< BackCirculateNews.org: A STORY OF REGENERATION AND REFORESTATION FROM ERITREAPosted by: Berhane HabtemariamDate: Friday, 07 April 2017
A STORY OF REGENERATION AND REFORESTATION FROM ERITREA
NICK JEFFRIES · APRIL 7, 2017
The application and potential benefits of circular economy thinking have been widely described in the European context. What has been less commonly explored is the application in lower income countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa. During 1998 – 2003, a remarkable project took place in the tiny desert country of Eritrea that showcased a systems thinking approach to the development of seawater-based agriculture in an arid coastal zone leading to big profits, a revitalised environment and the creation of many jobs. Can this project be replicated to breathe life into some of the other 25,000 miles of poor coastal desert around the world?
Map data © Google, ORION-ME
Since gaining its independence in 1991, Eritrea has experienced many upheavals both social and economic. The location of the young country in a very arid part of the horn of Africa, with high temperatures, low rainfall and poor soil conditions, mean that cultivation of food crops or indeed any kind of agriculture is very difficult. However between 1998 – 2003, a new type of farming enterprise unfolded in this hot dry corner of the continent, that could be a model for the economic, environmental and social revitalisation for many other similar climatic zones around the world. This is a story about how human intelligence and photosynthesis combined to create abundance and natural regeneration in a place where previously only sand, seawater and sunlight existed.
Saltwater farming has been attempted before in a number of different ways. Examples include Charlie Paton’s tomato-producing greenhouses in the Australian bush and Michael Pawlyn’s Sahara Forest pilot project in Qatar producing amongst other things cucumbers, energy and freshwater. In Eritrea, atmospheric scientist turned agricultural entrepreneur Carl Hodges developed a seawater farm which is an integrated multi-species complex system. This approach produces direct benefits in the form of protein and vegetable for local consumption and revenue generation; but importantly revitalises the environment and creates the enabling conditions for further economic activity.
The farm system begins by excavating a channel from the sea to create a saltwater river running into the desert. The first enterprise comprises 290 brick tanks which are used to grow white leg shrimp and Indian prawn. Tanks are concrete lined to minimise the infiltration of saline water avoiding contamination of the freshwater aquifer. The nutrient rich outflow from the shrimp farm then passes to a fish farm where species such as tilapia and milkfish are grown, both of which are good eating fish for local and export markets. The next stage is a large plantation of salicornia (also named samphire or ‘sea asparagus’). This salt-loving plant, known as a halophyte, thrives in the nutrient-rich irrigation water emanating from the shrimp and fish farm and yields several useful products. The cycle continues to a semi-submerged saltwater forest of mangrove which is a useful fuel and fodder crop in itself but also provides valuable ecosystem services in the form of water purification and as a habitat for many different species. The final stage in the cycle is a large coastal wetland, that forms a habitat and migratory stop for over 200 species birds as well as many other animals. By now the water has been cleaned of any potential harmful nutrients and can flow back safely to the sea.
The list of benefits associated with the integrated seawater farm is remarkable:
In economic terms: at peak production the shrimp and prawn tanks exported one ton of premium grade product per week to Europe. The fish ponds provided meat both for export and local market, as well as bone-meal that looped back into the shrimp growing operation. The salicornia converts seawater into succulent green vegetables suitable for humans, the seeds can be converted to cooking oil and the remaining meal can be used as fodder for livestock. Mangroves produce over 10 tons of stems per hectare that can be used for building material and firewood as well as 18 tons of leaves that can be used for animal feed. Mangroves also create a habitat for bees which in turn produce revenue-generating honey.
The social benefits are just as significant. The farm led to the creation of 800 jobs, providing money for improvements to quality of life but also developing useful new skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. A woman’s co-operative emerged from the mangrove growing operation, and comprised a high proportion of widows, an often marginalised group that faces challenges and even discrimination in poor societies. The co-operative was trained in forest management and honey production, giving them new skills leading to self-sufficiency and more security in the future. By-products of salicornia and mangrove growing that are not suitable for human consumption provide feed for animals, thus expanding the potential in livestock rearing which is a source of pride and an important part of Eritrean culture. The stems can also be used as (a carbon neutral) fuel reducing costs associated with cooking and keeping warm at night.
Image: © seaphotoart / stock.adobe.com
The environmental benefits are felt both locally and globally. As evidenced by similar projects in the tropics, locally the climate is cooled and humidity increases; new habitats lead to increased biodiversity and root networks create fertile topsoil, increase water storage and stabilise the soil mass thus reducing losses through wind-blow erosion. At the global level, the farm enterprise acts as a valuable carbon sink soaking up man-made emissions – mangroves which grow 35 tonnes of roots per year can sequester up to two tonnes of carbon per hectare annually.
The overall benefit is the transformation of an unproductive tract of coastal desert, primarily through increased evaporation that leads to higher humidity and rainfall, into a zone of social revitalisation, increased biodiversity and enhancing its potential for economic activity.
While this innovation story deserves a happy ending, unfortunately political upheavals in Eritrea resulted in most of Carl Hodge’s Seawater farm project being closed down in 2003. Thankfully, before this happened, the farm functioned long enough to demonstrate that a systems thinking approach using simple renewable resources as feedstock can lead to abundance and social revitalisation where only desert and poverty existed before. This kind of project represents an important application of circular economy principles, which should be much broader than meeting the needs of middle class urbanites. It should also offer solutions to big issues such as the 1.3 billion people experiencing absolute poverty and hunger, the 24 billion tonnes of topsoil soil loss each year and the rising concentration of carbon in the atmosphere.
As Carl Hodges enters his eighth decade his indefatigability continues to grow. Having discovered another nifty quality of salicornia – it can be converted to biofuel – he is currently working on a project in the Sonora Desert that when completed will be the largest seawater farm in the world.
Back to Dehai News | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/15831 | Friends for more than 40 years, Craig Bowden and Tom Menezes had always wanted to farm together, but after graduating from Kalani High School and the University of Hawaii, they went their separate ways. Then, in recent years, they decided to find a way to bring the Hawaiian Crown™ Sweet Gold™ Pineapple to consumers and Hawaii Pineapple Company was established. Together with Craig’s wife of many years, Lisa, they finally realize their dream.
As President and Managing Member of Hawaii Pineapple Company and Hawaiian Crown, R. Craig Bowden has benefited the company with his broad and technical knowledge of business and production agriculture. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Tropical Agriculture at the University of Hawaii, and with over 30 years of experience working with small and large scale agriculture production, he has a very clear understanding of production and a focus on quality. As a former Group Operations Manager for a major pineapple producer, Craig also contributes extensive expertise in pineapple operations.
After leaving the sugar and pineapple businesses, Craig worked for Driscoll Strawberry Associates in California and then left to start his own produce consulting and food safety auditing business in 1999. Although most of his work was on the mainland, he still kept ties to Hawaii by coming to the islands to perform audits and consulting with local companies. His long term vision was to one day return to Hawaii so he could help to keep Hawaiian land in agriculture. He finally sold the food safety business, allowing him to return and focus on the family farming operation.
Partner and VP of Administration, Lisa Yamaguchi Bowden, was born and raised in Honolulu, and after graduating from Punahou School, she went to the University of Hawaii to study Nutrition. However, because Craig’s career took them to Kauai, Arizona, the Philippines, Florida and California, she was finally able to complete her college education, changing to a double major in Marketing and International Business at Florida International University. While in California, she helped write several patents and worked with Craig on their many businesses. She still continues to be at his side in all of his endeavors, including a leading postharvest technology company in California and the farming businesses in Hawaii. Her dream was always to return to Hawaii and allow their daughter the same wonderful schooling and lifestyle that she and Craig grew up with. So when the pineapple acreage became more than an “expensive hobby”, they jumped at the chance to sell one of their California businesses and move “home” to expand the farm. Her hope is to help keep agriculture alive in the islands, and by using a minimal amount of chemicals, pesticides and no genetically modified plant materials, the land would be preserved for generations to come.
Hawaii Pineapple Company Senior VP of Operations and Partner, Tom Menezes, has degrees in Tropical Agriculture and Plant Pathology from the University of Hawaii. With more than 30 years of experience in production, breeding, research, and farm management of tropical crops in Hawaii, Tom’s extensive expertise includes collecting and breeding pineapples (and ornamental bromeliads), taro, & cacao. He has also co-authored several research papers on gingerroot, taro and cacao with members of the University of Hawaii. Prior to helping to establish Hawaii Pineapple Company, he worked for a local pineapple company, the USDA, and for the last 20 years has run his own successful banana & tropical crop farm and nursery on the Big Island. Sweet Gold™ Pineapples are the result of his hard work, patience, collaboration with Craig, and a singular focus on achieving his goal to find a unique Pure Hawaiian Pineapple with great flavor and low acidity while maintaining a high quality fruit. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/16389 | Reader's Choices: 10 Greatest Beef Innovations May 28, 2011 10 ways to cut cattle feeding costs Nov 23, 2015 Cover crop cocktails are more than a salad bar Feb 15, 2017 Producers impacted by wildfires encouraged to come and get hay Mar 14, 2017 U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Riverbed Ownership
High court overturns Montana Supreme Court ruling that power company owes state rent. Feb 23, 2012
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case PPL vs. Montana that the waterfalls of the Missouri River near Great Falls, Mont., are not navigable and therefore power company PPL does not owe the state rent and the state cannot claim ownership of the riverbed. By law states hold title to riverbeds only if the rivers are navigable. "Farmers and ranchers prevailed this week when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of landowner property rights in the case of PPL v. Montana," said American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman. "This decision puts ownership of streambeds and stream banks in the hands of their rightful owners."
The American Farm Bureau Federation filed a friend-of-the-court brief along with the Montana Farm Bureau in the case. Colorado Farm Bureau and Utah Farm Bureau also filed briefs in the case in support of the petitioning landowners.
Despite the ruling in favor of PPL, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock still has plans to attempt collecting rent from PPL, who has dams on the Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork rivers. The Supreme Court did hand the case back to state courts for other disputed stretches of river, encouraging them to use the guidance of the federal court's decision. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that there is a significant likelihood that some of the other river stretches will fail this navigability test. According to University of Montana School of Law associate professor Kristen Juras this decision is very important not only for PPL bur also for any landowners with property abutting rivers. She says the broader you describe navigability the less property rights riparian landowners have. "I think it's an important decision really for all Montanans who enjoy or use the rivers for their businesses," PPL spokesman David Hoffman said.
PPL had argued that charging the power company rent would lead to the state charging irrigators and agricultural uses near rivers, which state officials had said wouldn't happen.
"This decision also helps ensure that farmers and ranchers will not have to pay government for the use of land or water from streambeds that run alongside or through their property," Stallman said. "This week's decision is a win for Farm Bureau members, farmers and ranchers nationwide and all private property owners." | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/16428 | Finally, we are on the brink of calling for a halt to factory farming
Brian Sherman
On the brink ... factory farming is on its way out. It's been a landmark year for the animals. Public and media concern for the 500 million sentient beings that are mass-produced for food each year in Australia has never been higher and is now backed in some instances by regulatory muscle.After Four Corners' expose of horrific abuse of Australian cattle in Indonesia last year, the program followed up in 2012 by bringing to light unspeakable cruelty to animals on a mass scale, in particular towards sheep exported to the Middle East.Clearly, this current affairs flagship considers animal protection to be a policy issue of significant public importance, devoting substantial investigative resources to tackling it on a continuing basis.We also saw the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reject attempts by the egg producers' lobby to redefine free range as 20,000 birds per hectare through its initial assessment that such a definition would mislead consumers.It is hard to imagine a universe in which this number would constitute free range until one is reminded that these same egg producers consider it reasonable to confine hens in wire cages with the space of an A4 page for their entire lives until they are trucked off to be killed.This year consumers have also witnessed two high-profile television advertising campaigns lifting the veil on factory farming: Voiceless's ''Factory-farming: the truth is hard to swallow'' in February and more recently ''Make it Possible'' from our colleagues at Animals Australia.
Both campaigns have enabled the public to see the awful truth which is usually hidden behind the closed walls of factory farms. Armed with knowledge of the brutal conditions that animals are forced to endure, consumers are empowered. So much so, we seem to be on the brink of a mass realisation that when it comes to factory farming and the industrialised abuse of animals, enough is enough.This is especially pertinent this time of year. As far as we've come, there is still a long way to go. Old habits die hard. The consumption of large quantities of meat, with ham the centrepieces of many a holiday feast, is deeply ingrained in the Australian psyche. Retailers, keen to encourage consumption, are not about to let us forget it. So we see ads like the ''Ham King'' campaign from Woolworths extolling the virtues of the Christmas ham, its preparation portrayed as a family tradition passed from one generation to the next.This month Voiceless released a report into the factory farming of pigs, Science and Sense: the case for abolishing sow stalls. In this country, we still routinely lock mother pigs in stalls for most of their lives - individual, metal-barred cages barely larger than their bodies with concrete or slatted floors. More than 170,000 highly intelligent and social animals suffer disorders ranging from skin abrasions to lameness caused by the harsh conditions in which they are repeatedly confined. Many display ''stereotypies'', a repetitive movement such as bar-biting which is a known sign of distress. These animals never feel the grass or the sun, let alone the touch of a kind hand. If you treated a dog like this, you'd be prosecuted.The report presents a thorough review of the relevant science, confirming the adverse health impacts of sow stalls on pigs. Science and Sense refutes the scientific justification of sow stalls used by the pork industry, concluding that stalls do not increase productivity or welfare compared to well-managed group housing of sows.Our main food retailers, both leading and responding to consumer sentiment, have recognised this. For example, Coles announced it would no longer source its own brand of pig products from enterprises that use sow stalls from January 2014, and has now brought this deadline forward to January 2013. Woolworths expects to achieve the same by mid-2013.As our report says, government action is long overdue. It's time for the Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig, to take a lead from the many nations that have rejected these cruel devices and prohibit sow stalls.In this way, he would bring some comfort, if not the joy of a long, natural life, to these emotionally-complex beings. As is appropriate in a democracy, he would reflect the deep compassion that the vast majority of the Australian people feel for animals, whose lives are entirely at our mercy.Brian Sherman is the managing director and co-founder of the animal protection think tank Voiceless.
First fledgling night parrot spotted in nearly 100 years | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/16478 | Return to Sustainable Resources
ACDI/VOCA
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
Builders Without Borders
Choike
Counterpoint International
Directory Of Development Organizations
End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign
Food & Agriculture Organization of the U.N.
Foundation For Sustainable Development
Global Environment & Technology Foundation
Global Stewards
Hope International Development Agency
International Institute for Sustainable Development
Learning For Sustainability
Legacy Foundation
Master Composter
Schumacher Society
SD Gateway
Smart Communities Network
Sustainable Farming Connection
Tearfund Footsteps Newsletter
Trickle Up
U.N. Development Program
U.N. Habitat Best Practices Database
U.S. African Development Foundation
Winrock International
ACDI/VOCA strives to promote positive economic and social change worldwide. It is distinguished by commitment to its overseas beneficiaries, wise stewardship of development resources and a knowledgeable, experienced, diverse and effective team. ACDI/VOCA is dedicated to poverty alleviation and broad-based economic growth. Their respect for host societies and commitment to the involvement of beneficiaries as true partners in development projects result in improved local capacities, enhanced opportunities, and vibrant, sustainable communities, cooperatives and enterprises. ACDI/VOCA’s business model of development is designed to increase incomes and wealth, permitting beneficiaries to fully participate in the global economy.
http://www.acdivoca.org
The Alternative Farming Systems Information Center specializes in identifying resources about sustainable food systems and practices in support of USDA’s effort to ensure a sustainable future for agriculture and farmers worldwide.
http://afsic.nal.usda.gov
Architecture for Humanity is a nonprofit design services firm building a more sustainable future through the power of professional design. By tapping a network of more than 40,000 professionals willing to lend time and expertise to help those who would not otherwise be able to afford their services, they bring design, construction and development services where they are most critically needed. Each year 10,000 people directly benefit from structures designed by Architecture for Humanity. Their advocacy, training and outreach programs impact an additional 50,000 people annually. They channel the resources of the global funding community to meaningful projects that make a difference locally. From conception to completion, they manage all aspects of the design and construction process. Their clients include community groups, aid organizations, housing developers, government agencies, corporate divisions, and foundations.
http://www.architectureforhumanity.org
Builders Without Borders is an international network of ecological builders who advocate the use of natural, local, and affordable materials in construction. They believe that the solution to homelessness is not merely housing, but people who know how to house themselves. To this end, BWB creates educational materials and opportunities to empower communities, organizations and owner-builders.
http://builderswithoutborders.org
Choike is a portal dedicated to improving the visibility of the work done by NGOs and social movements from the South. It serves as a platform where citizen groups can disseminate their work and at the same time enrich it with information from diverse sources, which is presented from the perspective of Southern civil society.
http://www.choike.org/2009/eng/21/38/links.html
COUNTERPART INTERNATIONAL
Founded in 1965, Counterpart International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a just world through service and partnership. CI gives people a voice in their own future through smart partnerships, offering options and access to tools for sustained social, economic and environmental development. They have forged strategic partnerships in the public and private sectors to help people improve the quality of their lives and revitalize their communities in more than 60 nations. CI provides people access to the tools they need for a life of dignity for themselves, their communities and their countries.
http://www.counterpart.org
The directory of development organizations, listing 53,750 development organizations, has been prepared to facilitate international cooperation and knowledge sharing in development work, both among civil society organizations, research institutions, governments and the private sector. The directory is intended to provide a comprehensive source of reference for development practitioners, researchers, donor employees, and policy makers who are committed to good governance, sustainable development and poverty reduction, through: the financial sector and micro-finance, trade and business development services, rural development and appropriate technology, private sector development and policy reforms, legislation and rule of law and good governance, community development and social protection, gender equality and participation, environment and health, research, training and education.
http://www.devdir.org
End poverty by 2015. This is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when they signed onto the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
http://www.endpoverty2015.org
Engineers Without Borders is an international, humanitarian engineering group that serves our global neighbors in the developing world; those who need it most. They provide the basics of life such as water and shelter, using appropriate and sustainable technology. More importantly though, they help people help themselves. Their unique model includes a rigorous technical and cultural assessment, community involvement, and a five-year commitment to each community they are privileged to serve. Dedicated professionals and aspiring college students form the backbone of EWB, with invaluable help from corporations, non-government organizations, and other supporters.
http://www.ewb-usa.org
The long-term objective of the FAO Organic Agriculture Program is to enhance food security, rural development, sustainable livelihoods and environmental integrity by building capacities of member countries in organic production, processing, certification and marketing. The web site offers information on organic agriculture available at FAO. It also functions as a road map whereby users are directed to other relevant web sites.
http://www.fao.org/organicag/en/
The Foundation for Sustainable Development works with seven overlapping development subjects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Each of the ten program locations provide a range of opportunities to intern or volunteer abroad in micro-finance, health, environment, youth and education, women’s empowerment, community development and human rights. These development subjects make up the prominent social, health, environmental, and economic obstacles that prevent communities from rising out of poverty. By understanding how these issues and their related solutions build upon each other, FSD is able to facilitate development in a sustainable and culturally appropriate manner. They work with over 200 community-based organizations whose programs reflect a comprehensive understanding of these development subjects.
http://www.fsdinternational.org
The Global Environment & Technology Foundation, established in 1988, is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote sustainable development through action. GETF views sustainable development as an opportunity to shape a better environmental future by introducing new technologies and creating new alliances that can have a lasting and positive impact on our world. A key GETF strength is their ability to form these alliances in support of national and international sustainability goals.
http://www.getf.org
Global Stewards provides environmental tips for sustainable living and information about exciting sustainable solutions that are speeding the shift toward a sustainable way of life. Hundreds of links, especially to Wikipedia, are found under the Sustainable Solutions box on the main page.
http://www.globalstewards.org
HI works with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. Their strategy is to “pass on the gift.” As people share their animals’ offspring with others—along with their knowledge, resources, and skills—an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe. This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for over 60 years. Today, millions of families in 128 countries have been given the gifts of self-reliance and hope.
http://www.heifer.org
Hope International is a Christian faith-based, nonprofit organization focused on alleviating physical and spiritual poverty through micro-enterprise development. Hope believes that micro-finance can be a powerful force in changing the world for the better, and that loving people as Christ loved others means caring for both physical and spiritual needs. Hope ministers to the poor in over a dozen countries, working in the hard places and thriving there.
http://www.hopeinternational.org
Established in 1975, Hope International Development Agency’s mission is to enable people in the developed world to connect with people in the poorest communities on earth through compassionate giving and other opportunities to help. Their work creates long-term, self-sustaining benefits for people by teaching them income-generating skills and further developing family and community infrastructures, like clean water, education, vocational training, sustainable agriculture practices, disease prevention, revolving loan funds and community planning methods.
http://www.hope-international.com/projects-and-programs/sustainable-agriculture.html
IFPRI’s 2020 Vision is a world where every person has access to sufficient food to sustain a healthy and productive life, where malnutrition is absent, and where food originates from efficient, effective, and low-cost food systems that are compatible with sustainable use of natural resources. This is a downloadable document entitled, Appropriate Technology for Sustainable Food Security.
http://www.ifpri.org/2020/focus/focus07.asp
IISD is promoting change towards sustainable development. As a policy research institute dedicated to effective communication of their findings, they engage decision-makers in government, business, NGOs and other sectors in the development and implementation of policies that are simultaneously beneficial to the global economy, the global environment and to social well-being.
http://www.iisd.org
This site aims to provide a practical resource for those who work with communities (in the wider sense of the term) to help them identify and adopt more sustainable practices. It provides an annotated guide to a range of on-line resources providing papers, handbooks, tips, theory and techniques in a number of related, skill fields. It also shows how the application of these different skills is interlinked in practice to contribute towards social learning and constructive practice change.
http://learningforsustainability.net
Legacy Foundation provides training, technology and media services for bio-mass fuel briquette production, environmental conservation and income generation throughout the world. The foundation has released 8 technical/training manuals and two devices on all known aspects of briquette making.
http://www.legacyfound.org
This web site provides many details on composting; including types of compost, why to compost, how to build various bins, how to use compost, etc.
http://www.mastercomposter.com
Oregon Tilth is a nonprofit organization supporting and promoting biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture through education, research, advocacy, and certification. OT advocates sustainable approaches to agricultural production systems and processing, handling and marketing. OT’s purpose is to educate gardeners, farmers, legislators, and the general public about the need to develop and use sustainable growing practices that promote soil health, conserve natural resources, and prevent environmental degradation while producing a clean and healthful food supply for humanity.
http://www.tilth.org
Since 1979, Outreach International has been working with the world’s poor to help them build better lives for themselves. Their mission is simple—to help the poor help themselves. Their purpose is equally straightforward—to help men and women in poor communities overcome the effects of poverty and create new futures for themselves and their communities.
http://www.outreach-international.org
Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change. They work directly with communities and seek to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.
http://www.oxfam.org
Founded in 1980, the mission of the Schumacher Society is to promote the building of strong local economies that link people, land, and community. To accomplish this they develop model programs, including local currencies, community land trusts, and micro-lending; host lectures and other educational events; publish papers; and maintain a library to engage scholars and inspire citizen-activists.
http://www.schumachersociety.org
The SD Gateway integrates the on-line information developed by members of the Sustainable Development Communications Network. In addition to over 1,200 documents available on SD Topics, services such as a calendar of events, a job bank, the Sustainability Web Ring, and news sites dealing with sustainable development are provided.
http://www.sdgateway.net
SCM provides a rich menu of information and services on how a community can adopt sustainable development as a strategy for well-being.
http://www.smartcommunities.ncat.org
These links provide a gateway to sustainable farming information on the Internet.
http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/links/home.htm
This link provides access to the Footsteps newsletter, produced quarterly for health and development workers. Through it, Tearfund hopes to provide encouragement, inspiration and practical ideas for Christians often working with little access to funding, training or resources. It aims to share information, ideas, contacts and experience in a Christian context at grassroots level. Footsteps encourages a holistic approach to development and seeks to build up local capacity. It is produced in seven languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Bangla and Hindi.
http://tilz.tearfund.org/publications/about+footsteps.htm
Trickle Up empowers people living on less than $1 a day to take the first steps out of poverty, providing them with resources to build micro-enterprises for a better quality of life. In partnership with local agencies, they provide business training and seed capital to launch or expand a micro-enterprise, and savings support to build assets. Trickle Up believes in people and their capacity to make a difference. They empower the world’s poorest people to develop their potential and strengthen their communities. They pursue this goal in a way that encourages innovation and leadership, maximizes resources, and promotes communication and cooperation among all Trickle Up constituencies.
http://trickleup.org
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. They are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and their wide range of partners. World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015.
http://www.undp.org
This searchable database contains over 3,800 proven solutions from more than 140 countries to the common social, economic and environmental problems of an urbanizing world. It demonstrates the practical ways in which public, private and civil society sectors are working together to improve governance, eradicate poverty, provide access to shelter, land and basic services, protect the environment and support economic development.
http://www.bestpractices.org
The United States African Development Foundation is an independent Federal agency established to support African-designed and African-driven solutions that address grassroots economic and social problems. USADF provides grants of up to $250,000 directly to under-served and marginalized community groups and enterprises. The grants help organizations create tangible benefits such as increasing or sustaining the number of jobs in a community, improving income levels, and addressing social development needs.
http://www.adf.gov
USAID’s history goes back to the Marshall Plan reconstruction of Europe after World War II and the Truman Administration’s Point Four Program. In 1961, the Foreign Assistance Act was signed into law and USAID was created by executive order. Since that time, USAID has been the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms. USAID is an independent, federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. Their work supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting economic growth, agriculture and trade, global health, and democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance.
Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. By linking local individuals and communities with new ideas and technology, Winrock is increasing long-term productivity, equity, and responsible resource management to benefit the poor and disadvantaged of the world.
http://www.winrock.org | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/16837 | République-Unie de TanzanieViewpoints: Tanzania, Food Prices and Promoting Agriculture in Africa
Viewpoints: Tanzania, Food Prices and Promoting Agriculture in Africa
Last month in Dar es Salaam, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Tanzania Country Office invited members of government, the local aid community, bi- and multilateral organisations, private agribusinesses, civil society, think tanks and journalists, to debate rising food prices and growth prospects in Tanzania. The event, co-organised by the OECD Development Centre with financial support from the Italian government, hinged around two recent reports: Business for Development 2008 (B4D) and the annual African Economic Outlook 2008 (AEO). We asked Sipho Moyo, AfDB Tanzania Resident Representative, to expand on some of the issues raised.
Which of the reports’ findings were most relevant to Tanzania?
The launch of the two reports was timely and pertinent given what is happening in the global economy, specifically the challenges of the food crisis and ever rising oil prices and how these affect African countries. The most relevant findings to Tanzania— and elsewhere in Africa— are those relating to measures that would improve the functioning of food markets. Commercial agriculture in Tanzania is constrained by poor logistics including poor infrastructure, lack of market information/or information asymmetries, and unpredictable government interventions, including those supported by development partners. As noted in the B4D case study of Tanzania, food surplus in one region could more easily find its way into neighbouring countries – as opposed to neighbouring regions— owing primarily to poor infrastructure.
How can Tanzania specifically, and African countries in general, stave off the negative effects of the crisis and capitalize on the opportunities it presents?
Part of the solution lies in government initiatives geared at improving logistics for commercial agriculture. Development partners need to scale up support to government programs in agricultural development with a focus on improved market access for food products. Much of this is already happening with the sector basket funding but another key area where donors can add value is assisting African governments to develop policies that promote private sector investment in agriculture, particularly in agro-processing and irrigation. But given the current baseline, an immediate measure that Tanzania may have to consider is subsidies for agro-inputs and investments in irrigation schemes.
The AEO provides independent analysis and data meant to promote open and informed public policy debate. What has been the added-value of this type of analysis in Tanzania and the region?
The added value of the AEO is in the breadth and depth of relevant policy analysis across the spectrum of development areas particularly macro economic and fiscal policies. And of course using a uniform analytical model of economic development across African countries is valuable for purposes of comparison. The approach of drawing findings from country studies and the use of in-country expertise also makes the report’s findings more informed and pertinent for policy decisions. The focus on the quality of growth was excellent; however a more detailed analysis of strategic growth drivers would have been useful especially for Tanzania where a lot of attention is focused on the need for improved fiscal performance. The mining sector is a case in point. It accounts for 47.8% of Tanzania’s export earnings and expected to reach 50% in 2008 with one of the highest sectoral growth rates (around 16 per cent annually). In spite of this, the contribution of mining to government revenue is less than significant. I think policy makers would like to see us shedding more light on this kind of topical discussion.
The AfDB works with many development institutions. What makes it’s collaboration with the Development Centre in producing the AEO valuable to the Bank and its constituents?
First, the OECD’s expertise in development policy analysis enables the Bank to proffer the right policy solutions to decision makers in its regional member countries, policies which are designed to stimulate growth and improve the living conditions of African people. Second, the findings and recommendations of the AEO are critical in informing the Bank’s capacity building programs in policy analysis, and in orienting its interventions with African member countries. Last, but by no means less significant, our collaboration paves the way for OECD member countries to share a common understanding of the constraints facing African countries in meeting Millennium Development Goals and hopefully further informs OECD countries to better improve their development initiatives in Africa. | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/19506 | Posts Tagged barn
Posted by admin in Amish In The News | 2 Comments Matthew Stoltzfus, left, on his farm in Lancaster, Pa., where a government program is working with Amish farmers to try to instill more environmentally sound methods for handling runoff. By SINDYA N. BHANOO
LANCASTER, Pa. — With simplicity as their credo, Amish farmers consume so little that some might consider them model environmental citizens.
“We are supposed to be stewards of the land,” said Matthew Stoltzfus, a 34-year-old dairy farmer and father of seven whose family, like many other Amish, shuns cars in favor of horse and buggy and lives without electricity. “It is our Christian duty.”
But farmers like Mr. Stoltzfus are facing growing scrutiny for agricultural practices that the federal government sees as environmentally destructive. Their cows generate heaps of manure that easily washes into streams and flows onward into the Chesapeake Bay.
And the Environmental Protection Agency, charged by President Obama with restoring the bay to health, is determined to crack down. The farmers have a choice: change the way they farm or face stiff penalties.
“There’s much, much work that needs to be done, and I don’t think the full community understands,” said David McGuigan, the E.P.A. official leading an effort by the agency to change farming practices here in Lancaster County.
Runoff from manure and synthetic fertilizers has polluted the Chesapeake Bay for years, reducing oxygen rates, killing fish and creating a dead zone that has persisted since the 1970s despite off-and-on cleanup efforts. But of the dozens of counties that contribute to the deadly runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus, Lancaster ranks at the top. According to E.P.A. data from 2007, the most recent available, the county generates more than 61 million pounds of manure a year. That is 20 million pounds more than the next highest county on the list of bay polluters, and more than six times that of most other counties.
The challenge for the environmental agency is to steer the farmers toward new practices without stirring resentment that might cause a backlash. The so-called plain-sect families — Amish and Old Order Mennonites, descended from persecuted Anabaptists who fled Germany and Switzerland in the 1700s — are notoriously wary of outsiders and of the government in particular.
“They are very resistant to government interference, and they object to government subsidies,” said Donald Kraybill, a professor at Elizabethtown College who studies the Amish. “They feel they should take care of their own.”
But the focus on the plain-sect dairy farmers is unavoidable: they own more than 50 percent of Lancaster County’s 5,000-plus farms.
“It’s been an issue over the last 30 years,” Dr. Kraybill said. “We have too many animals here per square acre — too many cows for too few acres.”
For now, the environmental agency’s strategy is to approach each farmer individually in collaboration with state and local conservation officials and suggest improvements like fences to prevent livestock from drifting toward streams, buffers that reduce runoff and pits to keep manure stored safely.
“These are real people with their own histories and their own needs and their own culture,” said John Hanger, the secretary of environmental protection in Pennsylvania. “It’s about treating people right, and in order to treat people right, you’ve got to be able to start where they are at.”
But if that does not work, the government will have to resort to fines and penalties.
Last September, Mr. McGuigan and his colleagues visited 24 farms in a pocket of Lancaster County known as Watson’s Run to assess their practices. Twenty-three of the farms were plain sect; 17 were found to be managing their manure inadequately. The abundance of manure was also affecting water quality. Six of the 19 wells sampled contained E. coli bacteria, and 16 had nitrate levels exceeding those allowed by the E.P.A.
Persuading plain-sect farmers to install fences and buffers underwritten by federal grants has been challenging because of their tendency to shy from government programs, including subsidies. Members neither pay Social Security nor receive its benefits, for example.
Word of the E.P.A.’s farm visits last September traveled rapidly through Amish country, Mr. Stoltzfus said, even though most plain-sect farmers do not have their own phones.
The farmers whom the agency visited declined to be interviewed. But Mr. Stoltzfus, whose brother-in-law was among them, said that as the news circulated, some farmers decided on their own to make changes in anticipation of intervention by the agency.
“I had never heard of the E.P.A. coming out to do inspections,” he said. “I think these practices are going to be required more.”
With help from the Lancaster County Conservation District, Mr. Stoltzfus applied for a government grant to help finance construction of a heifer barn with a manure pit. He expects the grant to cover about 70 percent of the cost.
But some Amish farmers were angered by the agency’s intrusion and its requirements.
“It’s certainly generated controversy,” said Sam Riehl, a farmer in the area. “We wonder whether we are being told what to do, and whether the E.P.A. will make it so that we can’t even maintain our farms.”
Mr. Riehl said he had vowed never to accept a government grant. He does have a manure management plan and a manure pit, he said, although several of his neighbors do not.
Last year the federal Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $500,000 to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to work with the farmers on switching to barnyard runoff controls, streamside forest buffers, no-till farming and cover crops. The money has been lucrative for local agricultural companies like Red Barn Consulting, which has used some of it to hold milk-and-doughnut sessions in barns for Amish farmers and drop off fliers door to door.
The firm’s owner, Peter Hughes, and his employees instruct the farmers on manure management and do free walkthroughs to offer suggestions. In the last six months, Mr. Hughes said, his plain-sect clientele has soared from several dozen farmers to about 200.
Working with the plain sect presents challenges, Mr. Hughes said. For one thing, the group is deeply averse to salesmanship. Then there is the technological communication problem: most of the farmers share a phone booth along a road with several neighbors.
“I had one client who would call me at 5:15 every morning,” he said. “That was his allotted time to use the phone, and that was the only way for us to talk.”
Most days Mr. Hughes is on the road in his pickup visiting farmers. As he drives, he said, he is often struck by the dichotomy between a would-be pastoral ideal and the environmental reality.
“You see those cows and the fields, and it’s beautiful,” he said. “But then there’s that big pile of manure sitting back there.”
Mr. Stoltzfus hopes he is ahead of the game. By adopting new practices and building the manure pit, he thinks he can both help the environment and steer clear of E.P.A. interference.
At midday, Mr. Stoltzfus was placing a bowl of cut fruit into a propane-powered cooler in his backyard, one of the family’s few concessions to technology. Hand-washed black pants and plain cotton dresses fluttered on a clothesline behind him. He offered a taciturn reflection on how quickly things had changed — his willingness to accept the grant, for example.
“A while back, Old Order Amish would not participate in programs like this,” he said, “but farming is getting expensive.”
And then he ended the conversation.
“Is that all?” he said politely but coolly. “I have work to do.”
It was milking time.
Tags: agency, Amish, barn, Chesapeake Bay, conservation, dairy farmer, Department of Agriculture, environment, environmental agency, environmental protection, EPA, farm, Farmer, farmers, Fines, fish, government, government grant, government program, hughes, kraybill, lancaster county, manure, manure management, manure pit, matthew, mcguigan, Mennonites, old order, Penalties, people right, plain-sect, red, riehl, run, said, said plain-sect, sam, september, stoltzfus | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/20258 | Meat Market Update | Grilling demand pulls prices higher Apr 20, 2017 Prime and Choice producing more dollars Apr 17, 2017 2017 Feed Composition Tables: Use this to mix your cattle feed rations Mar 21, 2017 2017 Parasite & Pest Management Product Listing Apr 18, 2017 BEEF Chat: Cargill's Greg Page
Greg Page has a global view of agriculture. And well he should. He's president and chief operating officer of Cargill Inc., international marketer, processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services. And he knows a bit about beef. Formerly as a corporate vice president, he was in charge of Cargill's red meat business, the largest of which is Excel Corp. Clint Peck Senior Editor | Sep 01, 2002
Greg Page has a global view of agriculture. And well he should. He's president and chief operating officer of Cargill Inc., international marketer, processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services. And he knows a bit about beef. Formerly as a corporate vice president, he was in charge of Cargill's red meat business, the largest of which is Excel Corp. Excel operates six packing plants in the U.S., one in Canada and two smaller plants in Australia. Page has combined his international experience with lessons learned while with Excel to become adamant that increased global wealth is tied directly to the success of the U.S. beef sector. BEEF: You're a big believer in being engaged in the global food business. What do the fortunes and misfortunes of other countries have to do with the well-being of American cattle ranchers and cattle feeders? Page: Our growth potential clearly lies beyond our shores. It doesn't take much change in income to make a difference in people's demand for quality protein. Our research shows that people will spend one-third of any increase in their incomes on a more varied high-protein diet. I lived in Asia in the '80s and watched Indonesia go from a country that consumed on average only one-third of a chicken/person/year to a country that consumed almost two chickens/year. That happened because their income increased during that period. It's incredible how increased income goes toward buying more protein. We're all dependent on growing global wealth. Three billion people in the world live on incomes below $1,000/year. They consume almost no meat, milk or eggs. If just one-third of those people increased their incomes by 25¢/hour, they would consume enough meat, milk and eggs to require the entire U.S. grain crop. BEEF: We've seen some amazing changes in the international trade scene in the past 15-20 years. Where is this transformation taking us, and how are U.S. beef producers going to compete? Page: Trade is the great energizer in increasing the wealth of the world. But when we have protectionism, we lose in two ways. First, we lose access to markets. More importantly, diminished global wealth takes away people's ability to enjoy our products. We've seen recently how the import tariffs placed on steel banned Russian steel imports into the U.S. and resulted in the Russians embargoing our chicken exports. That hurt farmers and ranchers in this country. But beyond that, our behavior showing that we're less-than-honorable free traders has encouraged other countries like China to act just as dishonorably. The U.S. has a decision to make — to fight to optimize the enormous comparative advantages in productivity we enjoyed all through the'80s and '90s or shrink back and become a nation that simply converts food into alcohol and produces beef only for the people who live inside our borders. High tariffs and high-priced foods hurt us all. We have to raise our voices against those things. BEEF: Closer to home, we're still debating laws that would control how companies like yours conduct business. As this shakes out, how will this impact the way you do business? Page: We own a very small percentage of the livestock we process. But we quite energetically oppose the tenets of laws designed to ban packer ownership. I find it hard to believe that the framers of the Constitution sat on a steamy day in Philadelphia and argued about who had the right to own a pig. The cost of the mandatory country-of-origin labeling bill is not zero. We can argue in the end who is going to pay it — whether it's producers or packers or retailers — but there's a cost to the beef industry of about $460 million per year. That's a cost the chicken industry will not have to pay. Beyond the question of who is going to determine the citizenship of these cattle, the real issue is comparative advantage over other protein sources. Someone once wrote: “Anger without enthusiasm is depression.” People in this industry are upset with things going on around them. In many cases, they have a right to be. The challenge for all of us is to turn that anger into enthusiasm and make sure our responses are thoughtful and we don't harvest unintended consequences of being too hasty. BEEF: You're an outspoken critic of recent ethanol language in the new federal energy legislation. Why should ranchers and feeders be so concerned about ethanol? Page: It will take 1.2 billion bu. of corn to produce the ethanol that's mandated by the new energy bill. That is three-fourths of the total corn that will be exported from the U.S. this year. We as cattle producers will be competing with the government to buy that grain — a government that has a 58¢/gal. or $1.35/bu. advantage simply by its control of the tax laws. Our estimate is that the ethanol legislation will cost every family in the U.S. about $90/year — $90 that might otherwise be spent at a steakhouse or at the meatcase. We lose two ways — we compete with the government for our corn and we lose consumers' dollars on the demand side. I have a difficult time understanding the lack of protest that's come out of the livestock industry now that they have to compete with the federal government to obtain the feedstuffs they need to produce their livestock. BEEF: There's been a great deal of discussion lately over whether ranchers and feeders are “beef” producers or “cattle” producers. As a meatpacker and processor, how does Cargill address the discussion? Page: I'll be a little harsh here and take that issue a step further and say that there is no demand for beef, but there is a demand for cuts of beef. The last year has taught us this. How many ranchers that you know have thought much about tongues, intestines and chuck short ribs lately? Not many. But since the discovery of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in Japan last year, $20/head has been taken out of the value of a steer because of lost markets for those cuts. We calculated the damage done at about $600 million dollars total. If you take the velocity of money at about six-fold, that's $3.6 billion sucked out of the communities where we live, simply because of tongues, intestines and short ribs. The recognition of demand for cuts and not demand for beef is far better than it was just a few years ago. When we can all recognize in our marketing systems that we are selling cuts and not just beef, we will all enjoy better times. BEEF: What are some things Cargill is doing to help increase demand for beef and help the industry get through tough times? Page: One is marketing — everything we can do to get people into Outback or Applebee's or anywhere they can use their money to buy a product they obviously prefer. Ten years ago, Cargill spent $500,000 marketing beef. This year, we'll spend $15 million on beef in support of our private brands and in co-support of brands we have in conjunction with Kroger's and other retailers. And we're spending a lot of money in Japan in an effort to turn that demand situation around. Domestic beef demand is still strong, but when you have a government policy that takes $90 out of our pockets for ethanol, you know something has to be done to get that money back into buying beef. The other way we can help is in food safety. Every time there's a food safety incident, it diminishes us all. Food safety is not something where you can say the hole is in your side of the boat. The consumer has one image of all of us. Collectively, we are making progress. There are some really interesting technologies coming out, including automatic detection systems and instant testing. We're finally getting some traction with irradiation, and we need to stay the course with research and development on irradiation. It will come. BEEF: What's the major advantage we have in this country when it comes to producing beef. Is there a transformation underway with regard to comparative advantage? Page: To our disadvantage, where we go and where we can succeed has a great deal to do with regulations. There has been some movement of livestock production to Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Some of that has been as a result of regulatory restraints people have felt in the U.S. Labor cost is another important factor in determining where this transformation will take place. The fact is that we are still sitting in the midst of the greatest food-producing engine on earth. We can grow grain where it's most economically efficient, bring feeder cattle out of markets where they are most effectively raised, and finish cattle where it's climatically most beneficial. We can do each of these things in the best place and move commodities between regions at a fraction of the cost of virtually any other country. The U.S. has the most incredible transportation system of any country in the world. It's something we often overlook, but is an amazing strength of American agriculture. During this transformation, we're going to continue to see consolidation in all links in the food chain. But in doing so, we're going to continue to see more information shared between segments in the food chain. We're all going to be more dependent on each other in the future. In turn, we will be dependent on the growth in global income. But if we can't make the world wealthier, it's hard to make a case for a prosperous American agriculture. Cargill™ type of company: private, family owned year established: 1865 corporate headquarters: Minneapolis, MN vision: to raise the standard of living around the world by delivering increased value to producers and consumers number of employees: 97,000 in 59 countries net worth in 2001: $7.52 billion net earnings in 2001: $358 million name: Greg Page birthplace: Bottineau, ND age: 50 current job: president and COO of Cargill education: University of North Dakota-Grand Forks, bachelor's degree in economics career: 28 years at Cargill serving in various worldwide posts, including corporate vice president in charge of Excel Corp. and other red meat businesses Cargill's Agri-Business Ascent 1865 - William Wallace Cargill becomes proprietor of a grain flat house in Conover, IA. Four years later, Cargill moves to Albert Lea, MN, where he builds his second flat house. 1890 - Cargill Elevator Co., now of Minneapolis, owns 71 grain elevators, 28 coal sheds and two flour mills. 1909 - John H. MacMillan Sr. becomes president of Cargill and its subsidiaries. 1930 - The expansion continues with offices opening in Canada, Holland and Argentina. 1951 - Cargill's Feed Division (Nutrena Mills, Inc.) merges with Royal Feed & Milling Co. 1966-69 - Cargill enters the broiler-chicken industry and later moves into corn wet milling. Cargill-Korea and the Cargill-Taiwan Corp. are formed. 1974 - Cargill purchases Caprock Industries and enters into cattle feeding. The poultry division expands, and Cargill enters into steel making. 1977 - Whitney MacMillan is elected chairman. Cargill Citrus imports the first Brazilian frozen concentrated orange juice into the U.S. 1979 - Cargill acquires MBPXL Corp. and enters into beef processing. The name is later changed to Excel Corp. 1980-81 - Cargill becomes a leading international coffee, cotton, rubber, wool and fiber trader with locations in Kenya, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Peru, France and West Germany. 1987-89 - Cargill acquires a leading international cocoa processor. Excel enters into pork processing by acquiring plants from Oscar Mayer Foods and Hormel. Cargill begins crushing cottonseed in China and builds a $500-million nitrogen fertilizer plant in Saskatchewan. 1995 - Cargill sells its broiler operations to Tyson Foods and acquires Tyson's pork producing facility in Marshall, MO. MacMillan retires after more than 44 years at Cargill. Ernest S. Micek becomes chief executive officer. 1997 - Excel installs steam pasteurization in its seven beef plants. Cargill becomes one of the largest salt production companies in the world, and it forms a new energy trading and marketing company. 1998 - Warren R. Staley is elected president and chief operating officer. Cargill acquires Continental Grain Co.'s worldwide commodity marketing business and acquires Agribrands for $580 million. 2000 - Gregory Page, 48, rises to become Cargill's president and COO while Staley becomes chairman of the board and CEO. The World, According To Page A quick tour around the world with Greg Page, president and COO of Cargill Inc. European Union (EU) — “We have no participation in the beef industry in the EU. I don't see them as a threat to the American producer as global demand for beef grows. Even though they say they're a united community, it's our experience they're still very fragmented, especially in food processing.” Brazil — “We had packing plants in Brazil for years, but their value-added tax system forced us to leave. It's a country with great potential in beef and pork production. Brazilian packing plants are first-rate, and some of their cooking methods are among the best in the world.” Argentina — “We do not participate in the Argentine beef business. The value-added tax in Argentina causes the same problem as in Brazil.” Australia — “We operate two packing plants in Australia. Labor relations have improved from one of despair to one of great strength in the past few years. They are growing their herds nationally — probably to about 32 million head this year from 25 million not too long ago. “More Australians are raising grain-fed beef. They have a chance to take away our markets in Japan as a result of their current cost-competitiveness. It shows how important foreign exchange and the relative value of a currency is to an industry.” China — “In every aspect but beef, their livestock industries are very robust. We have a large animal feed business in China where they have been experiencing double-digit growth in demand for meat.” Canada — “It's a country with great cattle and forward-thinking producers. It's seasonally difficult to feed cattle because of the climate and provides challenges in running our packing plant. The behavior and attitude of food safety officials to continually improve the safety of beef in Canada is very proactive and cooperative and stands in stark contrast to the regulatory climate we have in the U.S.” Mexico — “The demand for beef in Mexico has been a godsend the last year. There is nothing but upside potential in Mexico for beef.” | 农业 |
2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/20259 | Reader's Choices: 10 Greatest Beef Innovations May 28, 2011 10 ways to cut cattle feeding costs Nov 23, 2015 Cover crop cocktails are more than a salad bar Feb 15, 2017 Producers impacted by wildfires encouraged to come and get hay Mar 14, 2017 Regulatory South Korea Ratifies FTA
Final step taken that clears way to implement the agreement next year. Nov 22, 2011
After more than five years the free trade agreement that was negotiated under previous Presidents Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea and George W. Bush of the U.S. finally has reached final approval. The South Korean Parliament approved the FTA in a surprise session. The ruling Grand National Party caught the opposition off guard with the call to ratify the agreement. Strong opposition to the free trade agreement with the U.S. had vowed to block entrance to Parliament for the vote, but the session was convened after most of the ruling party was already inside. The agreement was passed on an 151-7 vote, however the vote was not without incident as police cleared the hall briefly after a member of Democratic Labor Party, Kim Sun-dong set off tear gas in building. Kim was removed by police and the vote was taken.
The chairman of the foreign affairs committee in charge of legislation, Nam Kyung-pil, said that it was a pitiful spectacle and apologized to the country. "I struggled to come to a compromise and to ratify the FTA together, and I did my best to show a mature, developed Parliament, but failed," Mr. Nam said. "So I feel deeply sorry to the people."
The deal that was ratified with the U.S. is very similar to a deal brokered with the European Union earlier this year, but it did not receive the attention or the opposition that the deal with the United States garnered. Despite public opinion polls showing broad support for the deal, Korean farmers and labor unions led protests against ratification of the FTA.
Bigger changes are expected from the FTA for South Korea than for the U.S. The South Korean trade surplus is expected to continue but will likely become smaller due to the purchase of U.S. agricultural products. The U.S. Meat Export Federation issued a release praising the ratification. USMEF Chair Danita Rodibaugh called the move true globalization – the highest level of exchange that countries can experience is when consumers can trade goods and services around the world in a borderless economy.
"The value of U.S. red meat exports for American producers has never been higher than it is right now," Rodibaugh said. "Both beef and pork exports are projected to hit record highs, exceeding $5 billion in value this year. And the per-head value of those exports also is at a high, topping $202 per head for beef and $54 for pork. The invigoration of our trading relationship with South Korea will only add more value to that trade that will benefit the U.S. agricultural sector."
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2017-17/0276/en_head.json.gz/20810 | COTTON SPIN: Will the boom in U.S. cotton exports continue? Apr 21, 2017 USDA announces 2017 cotton loan rate differentials Apr 18, 2017 With new farm bill looming, next agriculture census critically important Apr 17, 2017 2020 Strategic Plan Positions Peanuts for Optimistic Future Apr 19, 2017 Cotton breeders' tour chance to share ideas
Ron Smith Farm Press Editorial Staff | Oct 02, 2003
Cotton breeders, if you'll excuse the pun (or even if you won't), are a close-knit group who await their every-other-year tour of variety trials, technical innovations, and research reviews with the anticipation of a family reunion. “This is the only time the cotton breeding community gets together to talk and maintain a sense of camaraderie,” says John Gannaway, Texas A&M cotton breeder at the Lubbock Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Center and host of this year's tour. “The cotton breeders' tour offers a unique opportunity for scientists to share ideas and pick up information, sometimes things they don't expect.” Roy Cantrell, vice president for agricultural research at Cotton Incorporated, the tour sponsor, says the event has been a highlight for breeders for more than 20 years. “It serves a dual purpose,” he says. “This tour offers breeders an opportunity to learn from each other and to develop a sense of cooperation that may be unique to this industry. This is the premier event for cotton breeders.” Cantrell says the recent tour that highlighted cotton breeding and research on the Texas High Plains set a record for attendance, with more than 120 pre-registered and more than 130 actual participants. “We had more than 70 at a pre-tour cotton fiber quality workshop. We saw a lot of interest in new technology for quality trait improvements.” Cantrell says the tour, which alternates between five locations including the Southeast, the Mid-South, the Texas High Plains, South Texas and the Far West, allows breeders to see cotton varieties they may never see in their regions. Within a span of 10 years, breeders will have an opportunity to visit every major cotton-producing region in the United States. Regional comparison “They also get a chance to see how cotton bred in one region performs in another. Some varieties adapt well; others do not. Breeders can evaluate their own materials under different stress conditions and evaluate them for disease and pest resistance as well as for quality traits,” he says. “Scientists see equipment and techniques for planting and harvesting variety plots that may adapt to other sites. We have to think of new ways of doing things. These tours help us do that. “The industry has undergone significant change in the past few years,” Cantrell says. “Bayer/FiberMax, for instance, offers a big breeding program that didn't even exist just a few years ago.” Cantrell says the future of cotton breeding is promising. “The pipeline is full of varieties and we're optimistic that better materials, with improved quality characteristics and yield potential, will be available soon.” Cantrell says another reason for optimism is the number of graduate students on the 2003 tour. “That bodes well for the health of the industry,” he says. “Young minds will move into increasingly important roles and will be responsible for improvements as far out as 20 or 30 years.” The tour gives students an opportunity to meet some of the most important people in cotton genetics, Gannaway says. “And they get exposed to what goes on in the real world beyond the lab and the classroom.” “It's a great opportunity,” says Sarah Jackson, a graduate student from Arkansas. “This is the first time I've ever been in the High Plains and I'm amazed to see how different production is from the Mid-South or the Southeast. The amount of acreage in cotton in this area is overwhelming.” Possibilities endless Jackson says the possibilities for cotton breeding “seem endless, especially with molecular technology.” She says the seed has become an important carrier of resistance and quality traits. “I can't imagine ever not needing crop protection chemicals, but the seed will become increasingly important as we develop new technology.” Jackson plans to concentrate on traditional cotton breeding techniques. “Traditional breeders will continue to provide the final product,” she says. Ted Wallace, cotton breeder from Mississippi State University, estimates that at least a dozen graduate students participated in this year's tour. “That's more than we've ever had before. This is the first year I've brought a graduate student. These young people are the next generation of cotton breeders and this is a good way for them to get a foot in the door. They start making contacts they'll need in their careers.” Cotton breeders from 11 cotton-producing states and Australia, China, Costa Rica, and Israel participated in the tour. e-mail: [email protected] | 农业 |
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