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Follow @thefishsite News & Analysis Features Markets & Reports Knowledge Centre Business Directory Events Our Shop Forums News Japan Pushes Eel Farming After Endangered Species 'Red List' Placing18 June 2014 JAPAN - The Japanese eel, a popular summertime delicacy that has become prohibitively expensive due to overfishing, has been put on the international conservation "red list" in a move that may speed up Japan's push for industrial farming of the species.Japan's agriculture minister urged that efforts to boost the eel population be stepped up after the International Union for Conservation of Nature this week designated the Japanese eel as "endangered", or facing a very high risk of extinction. Other species of eel are also facing various levels of threat due to habitat damage and overfishing.The decision by the IUCN to put the Japanese eel on its red list could lead to global restrictions. Inclusion on the list can be the basis for trade restrictions under an international treaty on trade in endangered animals and plants. "We must speed up efforts to build large-scale production systems," Yoshimasa Hayashi, the minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters after the IUCN's decision was announced. Efforts to farm eels have made slow progress due to their complicated migratory patterns. Unlike salmon, which migrate inland to spawn but spend their lives at sea, eels are spawned in remote areas of the ocean and then migrate inland, only returning to the sea to reproduce. The IUCN said various factors are believed to be hurting the species, including barriers along waterways, pollution and changes in ocean conditions. Japan consumes more than two-thirds of all eel eaten, thanks partly to a tradition of eating roasted eel as tonic for the heat during the hottest days of summer. The delicacy is as much a custom of the season as watching fireworks, listening to wind chimes and eating watermelon. Japanese eel are usually raised to adulthood after being caught as elvers, or glass eels. Although there are limits on catching elvers and juvenile eels, demand has soared, putting heavy pressure on the species, as well as many other fish stocks and pushing prices for elvers as high as $36,000 a kilogram. In turn, prices for mature eels have soared, turning the traditional "kabayaki" roasted eel dish, with a tangy sauce on top, into a luxury rather than common household dining. A bowl of rice with a slice of roasted eel on top sells for $7-$10 at Tokyo's Tsukiji market. Small packages of roasted eel sold in supermarkets sell for $15 or more. The threat to eels has received much less attention than the crisis with some other species, such as Bluefin tuna. Such issues will be among those discussed next week at a US-led "Our Ocean" conference in Washington, said David Balton, a deputy assistant to the US secretary of state. "A third of all major fish stocks are overfished and another 50 per cent are fished at their limit and are in danger of being overfished," Balton said on a conference call. "The situation for fisheries around the world is not a good one. We need to act to end overfishing." Elvers are caught in rivers in Asia and other regions and provided as seed stock for aquaculture. They are a lucrative fishery for New England, in the US, where quotas have been set to prevent overfishing. Japan put the Japanese eel on its own red list of species in danger of extinction last year. The IUCN said the population of all eels has declined by as much as 90 per cent over the past 30 years. TheFishSite News Desk Eels, Government and Regulatory, Aquaculture, Sustainable Fishing Share This

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Almond industry puts bee health front and center Jan 05, 2017 Duvall: Agriculture gains clout to address over regulation, labor needs Jan 10, 2017 Western food supply safer since 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach Jan 04, 2017 New HLB positive tree found in urban Cerritos, Calif. Jan 02, 2017 Regulatory>Legislative California water system gets rigorous environmental review California Gov. Brown Jr., Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eric Schwaab outlined revisions to the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that, along with a full range of alternative proposals, will undergo a rigorous public environmental review in the coming months. CNRA | Jul 25, 2012 California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eric Schwaab outlined revisions to the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that, along with a full range of alternative proposals, will undergo a rigorous public environmental review in the coming months. In announcing the path forward for an enhanced BDCP process, the officials emphasized that California’s water system is unsustainable from an environmental and economic perspective, and that the BDCP is a key part of a comprehensive solution to achieve the dual goals of a reliable water supply for California and a healthy California Bay Delta ecosystem that supports the State’s economy. Population growth, habitat loss and ongoing threats to levee stability and water supply have crippled the California Bay Delta, threatening the health and economies of California communities. The revised approach, which is grounded in science, is designed to help restore fish populations, protect water quality, and improve the reliability of water supplies for all water users who receive deliveries from state and federal projects. It improves on key aspects of previous proposals and offers a strong governance model, financing options, a scientific review process and a steadfast conservation foundation for a new water conveyance facility to move water and help restore the health of the ecosystem. "A healthy Delta ecosystem and a reliable water supply are profoundly important to California's future," said Governor Brown. "This proposal balances the concerns of those who live and work in the Delta, those who rely on it for water and those who appreciate its beauty, fish, waterfowl and wildlife." “As broken and outdated as California’s water system is, we are also closer than ever to forging a lasting and sustainable solution that strengthens California’s water security and restores the health of the Delta,” said Secretary Salazar. “Through our joint federal-state partnership, and with science as our guide, we are a taking a comprehensive approach to tackling California’s water problems when it comes to increasing efficiency and improving conservation. Today marks an important step forward in transforming a shared vision into a practical, effective solution. With California’s water system at constant risk of failure, nobody can afford the dangers or costs of inaction.” “The status quo isn’t working for fish, communities around or dependent upon the Bay Delta, economic development, or water resources management,” said Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. “Our proposed changes to the BDCP reflect important improvements in shaping a comprehensive strategy to fix a broken system. Because this is a complicated issue and we do not have all the answers today, we will continue to evaluate and refine the proposal. We call upon the many participants throughout California to join us in staying focused on science-based solutions.” Water decisions The elements of a preferred proposal include the construction of water intake facilities with a total capacity of 9,000 cubic feet per second -- down from an earlier proposal of 15,000 cfs – operations of which would be phased in over several years and a conveyance designed to use gravity flow to maximize energy efficiency and to minimize environmental impact. Many other alternatives, including no conveyance facility, and facilities with capacities ranging from 3,000 to 15,000 cfs, will also be fully considered as part of the upcoming environmental review process. Governor Brown and Secretary Salazar affirmed their commitment to continue working with water users, non-governmental organizations and local governments to achieve the co-equal goals in a manner that incentivizes reduced, efficient water use throughout California and that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta. Having identified the key elements of a proposal, the parties expect to issue a draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan and corresponding Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement for public review this fall. In recognition that water supply reliability and affordability elements are vitally important to the public water agencies who are expected to pay for any proposed facilities, the state and federal agencies will work intensively with the public water agencies and other interested parties over the next 90 days to address these important questions. State and federal agencies will continue to refine the proposals announced today and will issue a major progress report after the completion of this initial work. The proposal outlined today is based on shared objectives, including: • Science: In order to determine the benefits of additional habitat and Delta outflow to fish, the State and U.S. governments are developing a process, including independent scientific review, to ensure that science is playing a neutral and informative role in determining a way forward for the BDCP. All parties, including water users, conservation groups and public agencies will be invited to fully participate in the process. Science will guide how to best restore the ecosystem and how much water can be exported. • Conservation: The BDCP will contain biological goals and objectives to improve the status of a wide variety of listed species and species of concern under the Endangered Species Act, and will quickly implement new habitat projects in the Suisun Marsh and the Delta upon completion of appropriate environmental reviews. • Cooperation and Governance: State and U.S. governments will work cooperatively with local water agencies, environmental organizations, and Delta governments and districts under a proposed governance structure to achieve an open, transparent, and inclusive process, allowing affected parties to play an appropriate role in the governance and implementation of the BDCP. • Finance: State and U.S. governments are committed to the “user pay” principle, and the state and federal water contractors agree that the costs of the new water conveyance facility and associated mitigation of that facility will be paid through charges to the water users who would benefit from its development and operation. Habitat and other conservation measures in the BDCP would be financed in part by the contractors, but would mostly be paid by the state over a period of 40 years, with likely additional investment by the federal government through existing programs. • Adaptive Management: The proposal reflects the shared commitment by state and U.S. governments to incorporate adaptive management to ensure flexibility as factors such as climate change, new invasive species, and unexpected prolonged drought continue to affect the biology and water supplies of the Delta. • Sustaining Delta Communities: The State and U.S. governments recognize the need to preserve the unique communities and agricultural productivity of the Delta. State and federal agencies will continue investment in the Delta for flood protection, community development, and biological restoration. • Protecting Upstream Water Users: State and U.S. governments will make sure implementation of BDCP will not result in adverse effects on the water rights of those in the watershed of the Delta, nor will it impose any obligations on water users upstream of the Delta to supplement flows in and through the Delta. • Improved Water Management Statewide: State and U.S. governments will continue to explore new ways to satisfy competing water demands, including commitments to an Integrated Water Management approach, reducing water demand, increasing water supply, and improving efficiency of operations. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Santa Clara Valley Water District - the two largest urbanregional water agencies-- have committed to exceed the urban water savings target established in the 2009 Delta Reform Act by saving 700,000 acre-feet a year based on predicted future demands. This includes a commitment by Southern California to annually save more water through conservation and recycling than it receives, on average, from Northern California, as well as a commitment from the Santa Clara County Water District to meet Silicon Valley’s future increases in demand through conservation and recycling. With respect to agricultural water use, the Bureau of Reclamation has worked with local water agencies to invest close to $50 million over the last eight years in efficiency improvements in California. Reclamation is now partnering with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide funding for projects that improve water management and create new supplies for agricultural irrigation. In the last two years, approximately $15 million in federal funding has been invested in this effort. The State of California has invested more than $47 million in similar programs since 2001. For more information on the announcement, including a q&a document and information on how the proposal is expected to improve fish species, please visit: http://baydeltaconservationplan.com.

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'Southwest Yard and Garden' Goes Regional Writer: D'Lyn Ford Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ Pinterest LAS CRUCES - Regional interest in New Mexico's "Southwest Yard and Garden" series prompted producers to take their cameras across the Southwest for a new 13-episode series, which is debuting in September on New Mexico's public stations. Episodes are being uplinked from Albuquerque to public stations across the nation. Curtis Smith (right), a New Mexico State University Extension horticulture specialist, looks at a native plants at Palo Duro Canyon State Park's Interpretative Center with Neal Hinders, owner of Canyon's Edge Plants, a nursery that specializes in xeric plants. (09/12/2002) (NMSU Agricultural Communications Photo by Tomilee Turner) "The response across the Southwest to uplinked New Mexico-based programs was so impressive that we decided to produce segments in the gardens of our new audiences," said Terry Canup, executive producer and head of New Mexico State University's department of agricultural communications. Public stations in Austin, Dallas, Denver, southern and central California and other Southwestern locations aired programs from the old series. The new series will feature gardens in Flagstaff, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Palm Springs, Calif.; El Paso and Amarillo, Texas; Denver and Boulder, Colo.; Las Vegas, Nev.; and several New Mexico locations. "The show will have more beautiful locations, a wider variety of growing conditions and more innovative ideas, " Canup said. Each episode features a travel destination with two gardens and a public garden from elsewhere in the Southwest. Innovative gardeners and basic how-to information will be part of each show, which will have segments from several states. "Even when we visit beautiful gardens, it's not just to look but to learn something new about gardening," said Curtis Smith, show host and horticulture specialist with NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service. Extension professionals from each state have brought producers together with knowledgeable private gardeners like Jim Knoff, a pioneer in xeric gardening from Boulder, Colo. Footage from past and future episodes will be used to develop instructional gardening tapes for Extension master gardeners and the public. Extension and its agricultural communications department have produced "Southwest Yard and Garden" since spring 2000. In New Mexico, the program airs Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on KNME-TV in Albuquerque, 10 a.m. on KENW-TV in Portales and 11:30 a.m. on KRWG-TV in Las Cruces. Online Publications

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SOURCE: Yasheng Group April 16, 2014 08:00 ET Yasheng Group Joint Venture With Natural Capital Investment Ltd REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 16, 2014) - Yasheng Group (OTCQB: HERB) a high-growth diversified China-based agricultural company with US headquarters in California, today announced: Yasheng Group and Natural Capital Investment Ltd (formerly known as Lemco Investments) are delighted to announce that following the change of name of the latter's operation (now referred to as "Natcap") and in accordance with the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding and the Joint Venture Term Sheet it had entered into with Yasheng Group in 2013, they have now adjusted all the relevant documentation accordingly to reflect the change of name and the two companies are taking all the necessary steps to complete the relevant documentation to be able to start a joint operation to conduct the acquisition, development and commercialisation of land-based assets representing high value both in terms of income and positive eco-social impacts in the developing world, Latin America in particular. The proposed joint venture that now enters into its final phase aims to set a unique landmark model of sustainable development led by a private initiative which has the prospect of being both profitable and socially responsible. It shall aim to secure access to land and exclusive commercial rights on assets such as timber, agriculture, forestry carbon, minerals, aquaculture and environmental services, amongst others. The announced joint venture, once completed, will for the first time facilitate the fostering of avoided deforestation and reforestation initiatives through the prospective trading of forestry carbon credits in the far east, China in particular, thereby procuring a sound solution for the reduction and/or offsetting of carbon emissions and at the same time securing an effective contribution to the protection of thousands of hectares of forests under threat and the survival of the communities and ecosystems who are entirely dependent on those forests. As expressed before, this is a true unprecedented opportunity to put together the impressive track record of Yasheng Group in industrial agriculture and the expertise of the group at Natcap in providing and securing effective sustainable land use and exclusive commercial rights in key biogeographic areas around the world. Dr Ivan Guevara Yasheng Group Yasheng Group, founded over 30 years ago, is a US holding company that conducts primarily agricultural operations in the Northwest of China. Today it is one of China's leading producers and marketers with six major product segments including field crops, vegetables, fruit, specialty crops, hops, hemp, seeds, beef and poultry. Yasheng is a supplier of high-quality agricultural products to world-famous conglomerates such as McDonald's, KFC, Tsingtao Beer, and Pepsi. The company is led by a highly qualified management team and has total assets of approximately $2 billion, over 15,000 employees, and a history of strong sales and earnings growth. Please visit our website www.yashenggroup.com and register to receive future press releases directly. Except for the historical information contained herein, certain matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in the company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Yasheng Group From this industry Natural Resource Management

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Agricultural program looks to give bees a leg (or 6) up print Jim Wilson / New York Times News Service John Miller, left, owner of Miller Honey Farms, works with employees to prepare hives on his apiary in Newcastle, Calif.. Miller fears that a new federal program encouraging farmers and ranchers to grow alfalfa, clover and other bee-friendly crops will meet with resistance, but is still pleased that something is being done to address colony collapse disorder. Click here to enlarge image Agricultural program looks to give bees a leg (or 6) up By John Schwartz / New York Times News Service Published Apr 4, 2014 at 12:01AM LOCKEFORD, Calif. — Helping America’s beleaguered bees could start with something as humble as planting a shrub. Here in California’s Central Valley, researchers are trying to find assortments of bee-friendly plants that local farmers and ranchers can easily grow, whether in unusable corners and borders of their land or on acreage set aside with government support. Bees could certainly use the assist. Since 2006, the commercial beekeepers who raise honeybees and transport them across the country to pollinate crops have reported losing a third of their colonies each year, on average. Native species of bees, too, have been in decline. That is taking a toll on crops that rely on bees for pollination, including many nuts and fruits. The Department of Agriculture says that one of every three bites that Americans take is affected, directly or indirectly, by bees. They cause an estimated $15 billion increase in agricultural crop value each year. Colony collapse disorder The causes of the decline, known as colony collapse disorder, are still being studied. But they appear to be a combination of factors that include parasites, infection and insecticides. Underlying all of these problems is the loss of uncultivated fields with their broad assortment of pollen-rich plants that sustain bees. That land has been developed commercially or converted to farming corn, soybeans and other crops. The federal government has announced a new $3 million program to step up support for honeybees in five states in the Upper Midwest. Those five — Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota — have huge numbers of honeybee colonies at various times of the year, perhaps 65 percent of the nation’s total. Beekeepers truck them around the country in the spring to pollinate commercial crops. The new program will encourage farmers and ranchers to grow alfalfa, clover and other crops favored by bees and which serve a second purpose of being forage for livestock. Other proposed changes in practices include fencing property for managing grazing pastures in rotation so that they can replenish, leaving living plants for the bees. Jeffery Pettis, who leads bee research at the federal Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md., said the effort to get farmers to plant more crops with pollinators like bees and butterflies in mind was intended to help the creatures weather the challenges of pathogens, parasites and pesticides. “If they have a good nutritional foundation, they can survive some of the things they are faced with,” Pettis said. The federal agency that focuses heavily on these issues, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, began in the 1930s as a government effort to help farmers hold on to soil and prevent dust bowls. The 2008 farm bill called for the service to include fostering pollinator health in its efforts in all 50 states. That, in turn, has led to about 43 million acres of land across the country incorporating conservation features that support pollinator health. From 2009 to 2012, the bill’s environmental quality incentive program spread around $630 million. In the Central Valley, the research to support that work is done on 106 acres of prime farmland at a Department of Agriculture plant materials center. The results are beautiful: More than 2,200 feet of hedges and fields of blended crops present a feast for the eyes — and for bees — beginning in early spring. On a recent viewing, flowers dotted the landscape with color. The bright orange flowers of California poppies opened near rich purple lupines. Last year, an entomologist found about 50 species of bees and 1,500 other beneficial insects, birds and creatures of all sorts in the hedgerows. Drought-resistant plants Jessa Cruz, a senior pollinator conservation specialist with the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving pollinator health that is collaborating with the center, said drought-resistant plants that are bee friendly are increasingly important in arid California. “It’s important to be able to tell farmers, ‘You’re not going to have to use your precious water to irrigate your hedgerows,’” Cruz said. The use of hedgerows and cover crops is on display at nearby Vino Farms, whose grapes are bought by 180 wineries. Growing among the vines are peas and beans, aromatic sage, golden currant, wild rose and even daikon radish. Chris Storm, the director of viticulture for the company, said that even though grapes are self-fertilizing and do not need bees in the way that the nearby almond orchards do, “We’re doing it for everybody else,” providing a habitat for bees pollinating other crops nearby. Vino Farms receives other benefits from the plantings, which help reduce the use of pesticides by supporting beneficial creatures like the tiny wasps and green lacewings that kill pests. Storm has taken out rows of vines for some hedgerows, and has flowering plants growing at the base of vines. His company’s efforts also allow it to assert that it grows grapes sustainably. The certified sustainable production, he said, can bring a 10 percent increase in price from winemakers looking for a green edge. That translates to anything from $250 to $500 more per ton. “It doesn’t yet pay for itself,” he said, though he clearly expects it to. It also helps that Storm is as adept at raising money from government conservation programs as he is at raising grapes and pollinating plants. He is constantly on the lookout for federal and state programs that will help pay for new techniques. A mix of plants that works beautifully in California’s Central Valley will not necessarily be much good in the Upper Midwest, said Laurie Davies Adams, the executive director of the Pollinator Partnership, which promotes the health of bees, butterflies and other plant helpers. “When I talk about hedgerows to guys in Iowa, they just kind of glaze over,” Adams said. The big bushes would interfere with the giant equipment those farmers use, she said, but they might be persuaded to set aside small plots of land for pollen-rich plants, which can help accomplish the same conservation goals. “This is not one size fits all,” she said. “This is one ethic fits all.” A swinging pendulum A major commercial beekeeper, John Miller, said that the multimillion-dollar pollinator program for the Upper Midwest would not work miracles. Spreading the money across five states over several years, he said, doing a little “shirttail math,” means that “you’ve got about a Dixie cup worth of seeds going into a field” in any one season. He added, however, that the program is good news because it means “the pendulum, perhaps, is beginning to swing back” to paying attention to the role of bees in the food supply. Surging corn prices have led farmers to grow on every available acre, which has been bad for bee habitats. Gary Shilling, an economic consultant, asset manager and avid beekeeper in New Jersey, said corn prices had been coming down again, and that should affect the number of acres they plant. “There will be less incentive to plant fence-row to fence-row,” he said. So pollinator plantings could make a comeback, especially if social pressure encourages farmers to support bees. “This is a business,” Shilling said. “Are these guys going to go out of their way for something that’s going to hurt their business, affect their bottom line? Not unless they think they’ll catch some flak if they won’t.” 6420833

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India struggles to keep Bt cotton growth story going Updated on 21 May 2012 Irrigation woes Dr NP Hirani, chairman of Maharashtra Cotton Growers Marketing Federation, says, "Low irrigation facilities in the state has been a big problem for farmers. If you draw a comparative picture with other cotton-growing states, such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, Maharashtra has the lowest area under irrigation. We have 15 percent of the cultivated area under irrigation, out of which four percent is surface irrigation and 12 percent is well irrigation. In Gujarat, irrigation comes up to around 40 percent, while in Punjab and Haryana, it is 99 per cent. In Andhra Pradesh, it is 39 percent." To take Bt cotton to its next level of growth, irrigation and tools for water availability will play a crucial role in the coming months. Dr Gyanendra Shukla, director, Mahyco Monsanto Biotech, says, "On the whole, India faces a water scarcity. In such a situation, the government, rather than giving monetary packages, should be thinking of providing such technologies as to how a farmer can store water and use them for his crops." Against this backdrop, companies are already working on drought-resistant seeds. States like Gujarat and Rajasthan have been heavily investing in irrigation technologies over the past 10 years, with Gujarat reporting an impressive yield and acceptance from farmers. Dr BR Shah, director, Agriculture and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, says, "There is a very good response to Bt cotton from farmers. After introduction of Bt cotton, the area under Bt cotton has increased, while area under other crops has shown decreasing trend. There was a continuous rise in acceptability of Bt cotton in Gujarat." The total area in Gujarat under Bt cotton cultivation is 24.62 lakh hectares out of 29.62 lakh hectares of total area under cotton in kharif 2011. Also, nearly 52.89 lakh packets of seeds of Bt cotton were sold in Gujarat during 2011-12. Cost of cultivation

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Industry S.D. dairy industry continues to expand By South Dakota State University Extension March 14, 2014 | 3:30 pm EDT Due to ample supplies of both food and water, the sustainable future of South Dakota's dairy industry looks bright. "Sustainable dairies of the future need to be located in areas with ample supply of both water and feed. South Dakota as a state offers all these advantages and its part of the reason why between 2012 and 2013 dairy cow numbers in the state increased from 92, 000 to 94,000," said Alvaro Garcia, Professor & SDSU Extension Dairy Specialist. During the same timeframe, the total number of milk produced in the state grew by 2.8 percent from 1.97 to 2.02 billion pounds, making it the seventh largest growth in the country. Of the top 23 dairy reporting states according to USDA, only Colorado at 3.4 percent grew more. As of 2013 South Dakota ranks 21st in the U.S. for overall milk produced and ranks 22nd in total number of dairy cows. Garcia said that well-being is critical for cows. "They need to be supplied with competitively-priced feed and water and be comfortable and well-cared for. Water has been identified as one of the critical items for the future of sustainable agriculture, particularly in the western/southwestern region of the U.S," he said. However, he said feed and water are not enough in today's fuel-strapped world. "First and foremost what is needed is a vibrant local processing industry that minimizes transportation costs and adds value to milk," Garcia said. Several milk processing plant upgrades as well as new start-ups are taking place in the state. The SDSU Dairy Science Department was deeply involved at various stages of these developments. Garcia lists DAVISCO Foods of Lake Norden and Valley Queen Cheese of Milbank as two examples of existing processing plants. DAVISCO Foods, an international company that supplies a major portion of Kraft Foods cheese products, started in 2001 with their $40 million, 85,000-square-foot facility expansion project in its Lake Norden plant. The Lake Norden Cheese Company as it was named began full production in 2004 encouraging dairy producer's expansion and relocation. Starting in 2009, Valley Queen Cheese of Milbank, S.D. underwent a two-year expansion project with an 80,000-square-foot warehouse addition and a 12,000-square-foot dryer addition to their current plant. A milk processing plant new to the state in 2014 is Bel Brands USA. The company manufactures and markets "The Laughing Cow" cheese wedges and Mini Babybel - America's No. 1 branded snacking cheese, as well as Boursin, Merkts, Kaukauna, and other natural and gourmet cheese spreads. The Company will invest approximately $100 million in its new plant on a 48-acre land parcel in Brookings. Phase 1 of the project will have a production capacity of approximately 22 million pounds or 10,000 metric tons. The second phase, contingent on anticipated increased market demands, is envisioned to be built in 2016-2017, bringing 200 additional jobs to the area. Why is the dairy industry expanding in South Dakota? "All this is excellent from a strictly dairy business perspective. However, other parts of the country offer similar economic environmental conditions and even milder weather," said Garcia. "What is it about South Dakota that has made the difference? Quality of life is oftentimes mentioned as a decision to move or relocate. Could this be making a difference for South Dakota?" Maybe it's South Dakota's high well-being score? Garcia explains that according to the most recent 2013 Gallup-Healthways poll, which surveyed 176,000 people from all 50 states in the U.S., South Dakota ranked in the top two for well-being (along with North Dakota). "South Dakota respondents were among the most likely in the U.S. to report good emotional health. Ninety percent reported enjoying a large portion of their day, and more than 93 percent felt happy during the previous 24 hours, more than any other state," Garcia said. The state's unemployment rate in December at 3.6 percent tied for the second lowest in the U.S. Not only did much of the workforce in South Dakota have a job, but also were more likely to enjoy their work environment. "The success of South Dakota as a dairy state is not just that its climate and economic conditions are conducive to profitable and sustainable agricultural practices. It is foremost a combination of those with a living environment where well-being and quality of life is currently rated among the two highest in the nation," Garcia said. Topics: south dakota state university About the Author: South Dakota State University Extension

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Encyclopedia > Plants and Animals > Plants > Plants chrysanthemum chrysanthemum (krĭsănˈthəməm) [key], name for a large number of annual or perennial herbs of the genus Chrysanthemum of the family Asteraceae (aster family), some cultivated in Asia for at least 2,000 years. The chrysanthemum is the floral emblem of the imperial family of Japan; the highest officials are honored by orders of the chrysanthemum. The flower heads are mostly late blooming and of various shades of red, yellow, and white; they range from single daisylike to large rounded or shaggy heads. Chrysanthemums were introduced to England in the late 18th cent., and today innumerable named horticultural types exist. Most are varieties of C. morifolium, a species of indeterminate origin and no longer known in the wild form. Chrysanthemums rank with roses in commercial importance as cut flowers and pot and garden plants. The pyrethrum, feverfew, and daisy belong to the same genus. Pyrethrum is used as an insecticide and feverfew as an herbal remedy for migraine. Chrysanthemum is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Asterales, family Asteraceae. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.See more Encyclopedia articles on: Plants

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U.S. food movement seeks election-year vault to political force Fri Oct 26, 2012 | 4:51pm EDT By Charles Abbott | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. food movement, which groups a kaleidoscope of causes from inner-city gardens to hunger prevention and no-biotech crops, plans to link the farmers market to the ballot box as it challenges large-scale agriculture this year.It is the first attempt to turn a largely unorganized social movement into a political force.The most important initiative for the movement is a November 6 referendum in California to require labels on genetically engineered food sold in grocery stores. Under a new umbrella group, Food Policy Action, the movement issued its first voter scorecard for congressional races this week."We're coming to it about 40 years after the environmental movement did," said activist Ken Cook, one of the dozen founders of Food Policy Action. "There aren't a lot of politically oriented organizations in the food movement. This is the first one."Organizers include Dave Murphy, a leader in the California referendum, chairman Gary Hirshberg of organic food maker Stonyfield Farm, and two anti-hunger leaders, Ray Offenheiser of Oxfam America and David Beckman of Bread for the World, both veterans of food policy debates. Hirshberg is part of a campaign to label U.S. biotech foods."THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING IMPORTANT" Author Michael Pollan, a chronicler of the food movement, said the group's scorecard showed the growth in the food movement."All in all, I think this marks the beginning of something important," Pollan said on Thursday.Earlier this month, Pollan wrote in an essay that the November 6 general election will test whether the food movement is an organized political force.Food and agriculture writer Tom Philpott of Mother Jones magazine said the movement is diverse, but seeks healthier food, better pay for workers, less pollution and "non-corporate-owned food networks." "I think adding a political pressure wing represents an important asset for the food movement and is potentially part of the food movement's maturation into a more potent political force," said Philpott.Food Policy Action is starting on a financial shoestring with none of the accoutrements, such as a political action committee, of large advocacy groups.Its scorecard, similar to one the League of Conservation Voters has put out for years, graded senators and representatives on 32 votes involving funding for food safety and public nutrition, cutting farm subsidies and limiting ethanol. Democrats tended to score higher than Republicans.Fifty lawmakers, mostly from the East and West coasts, got perfect scores of 100, including Sen Barbara Boxer of California and Rep Charles Rangel of New York City.LOW SCORES FOR FARM BELT LAWMAKERS Lawmakers from the Farm Belt rated poorly on the "food policy scorecard," reflecting sharp disagreements between mainstream farmers, who produce the bulk of U.S. food and fiber, and the food movement, which glories in small, local producers as the source of tasty, healthy and high-quality food.House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas got a 36 and his Senate counterpart, Debbie Stabenow, a 61, barely above average. Pat Roberts, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, graded at 17."We do welcome them (Food Policy Action) to the agriculture community," said Dale Moore, an executive at the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation.Moore said he hoped the scorecard would take into account the economic welfare of farmers, adding: "That's not always readily apparent."The scorecard rewarded senators who voted to require farmers to practice soil conservation to qualify for federally subsidized crop insurance. The major U.S. farm groups, who lost the vote in June, say the idea cuts a hole in their safety net. "Foodies" criticize large-scale mechanized farming, a profitable model since the 1950s, for using biotech seeds and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and for confinement feeding of livestock. "Production agriculture" regards foodies as dilettantes in love with outmoded, high-labor methods common when farmers were the perennial poor cousins of city dwellers.IN CALIFORNIA, YES OR NO ON GMO? Large segments of the food movement work on nutrition issues, whether it is a "soda tax" to prevent obesity, hunger prevention or food safety regulations. Others say fair wages for workers and humane treatment of livestock are vital links in the food chain. Stereotypically, foodies prize hand-prepared food, heirloom plants, a good restaurant or a time-proven recipe.For years, farmers markets and organic food were the best-known symbols of the food movement. There are 7,900 farmers markets now, compared with 3,100 a decade ago. Organic sales were strong through the recession and grew by nearly 8 percent in 2010. They were 4 percent of U.S. food and beverage sales.Nearly 1 million Californians signed petitions to force the November 6 referendum on labeling GMO food, promoted as a consumer "right to know." Opinion polls showed 2-to-1 support for the proposal initially, but now it is a virtual tie after an advertising blitz by opponents, who say it will drive up food prices and is full of loopholes.Organic farmers and processors are leading financial backers of the "yes" campaign. The "no" campaign raised more money, led by Monsanto Co and DuPont and helped by food makers such as PepsiCo Inc.Food activists see California, the largest U.S. state by population with 37.7 million people and the largest agricultural producer, as a fulcrum for action nationwide. California has a history as a leader on food and environmental regulation.Victory in California, for the first GMO labeling law, could prompt food makers to label products nationwide rather than risk the chance of being accused of mislabeling, say activists, and it might lead to federal action. There is a grassroots campaign for Food and Drug Administration rules for mandatory labeling of GMO foods.(Editing by Andre Grenon)

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South Carolina cotton, peanut meetings set for Jan. 24, 26 Jan 12, 2017 Should we rethink fertility for new, higher-yielding cotton varieties? Jan 12, 2017 Big farm-related tax changes proposed by Republicans, Trump Jan 10, 2017 Peanuts versus enough off-target dicamba can cost yield, timing matters Jan 10, 2017 Management Growers responsible for farm labor Paul L. Hollis Farm Press Editorial Staff | Jan 16, 2002 As the pool of farm labor in the United States continues to shrink, more growers are looking to foreign, temporary labor as a possible solution. In this final part of a two-part report, Dan Bremer of AgWorks, Inc., in Lake Park, Ga., looks at some of the problems farmers face in finding and maintaining a stable workforce. Bremer, who is retired from the U.S. Department of Labor, currently works with growers throughout the Southeast in providing seasonal farm workers and in complying with government regulations. Once a grower has found a farm worker, he or she is responsible for everything that happens to that worker, says Dan Bremer, a Georgia labor consultant. “You're responsible for everything that happens on your farm. If you allow a farm labor contractor to bring in 15 illegal aliens, and that farm labor contractor doesn't pay directly, the federal government or the legal aid lawyers will come to you for restitution. The farm labor contractor is gone, and you'll be responsible for wages, housing, transportation and possibly the status of your workers. “If a farm labor contractor pulls up to your place in a van filled with 26 people, he has violated a federal law that there can be one person to each seat, and the fine is about $1,000 per person for each person over capacity. But the federal government will levy the fine against you if the farm labor contractor pulls up to your farm,” says Bremer. Growers also are responsible for paying minimum wage to their farm workers, says Bremer. In addition, growers are responsible for providing adequate housing for the workers, he adds. “If you're responsible, there should be a strategic plan to get yourself into compliance. This will help to insure that you have a stable workforce, and that you won't be paying out all of your money in fines and court costs,” he says. If you're a grower, you can hire and pay your farm workers, you can use the H2A seasonal/temporary worker program or you can hire a farm labor contractor, says Bremer. “If you're the grower, and you're the one who finds the workers, you are not required to have any type of license. If any other full-time worker on the farm does the hiring, then he or she must have a license. “You are required to tell everyone that you recruit how much you'll be paying them, where they will be working and what they will be doing. Federal law applies to you, and one of these laws includes disclosure. The government is getting very ‘touchy’ about this disclosure business. And if you go out into the community and hire someone, you're required to give them a piece of paper that tells them where they will work and what they will do,” says Bremer. Vehicles used by the grower to transport workers must carry liability insurance of $100,000 per seat, notes Bremer, or the grower must have workers' compensation. “Many growers don't have workers' compensation, and I don't know why not,” he says. “It's about 5 percent, and it's usually money well spent. Workers' compensation becomes an exclusive remedy. If someone is hurt on your farm, and you have workers' compensation, the doctor or hospital is paid, and the worker gets 66 2/3 percent of his or her wages for time missed from work. If you don't have workers' compensation, then there's not an exclusive remedy. The worker can hire a plaintiff's attorney and sue you. If they get hurt on your farm, you could lose your farm.” If a grower wants to build farmer labor housing on the farm, there are rules that must be followed, says Bremer. If the grower is working through the federal government's H2A program, adequate, decent housing must be provided before foreign workers arrive on the farm. Growers must receive an I-9 form from the farm worker, says Bremer. “Every employer in the United States must fill out an I-9 on every employee. It's worse to turn someone away based on their documents than to hire someone who has a document containing errors. As soon as you turn someone away, there could be a claim of discrimination. The I-9 law wasn't meant to identify illegal aliens. It was written to protect you from knowingly hiring illegal aliens. You're protected if you take their documents.” In the H2A program, a foreign worker can go to a farm on a visa and work for several months before returning home, says Bremer. “Everything is 100 percent legal. You have to work with your state government, the U.S. Department of Labor, the INS and the U.S. Department of State. That's a lot of red tape, and there are people who can help you to work through it. “The minimum wage in the H2A program is $6.83 per hour. If you pay 40 cents per bucket to your workers, then it still must equal $6.83 per hour. You also must pay for their transportation from their country of origin to your farm, and you must pay for their return trip home. Also, you're required by law to provide free and decent housing to each and every worker. There are no taxes to be paid on these workers. But, the government likes to ‘pick on’ H2A employers, and you'll probably be investigated if you're working through this program.” If you use a farm labor contractor, you should insure that everything is in order, says Bremer. Farm labor contractors are required to have a license, he says. “As a grower, you're obligated by law to see that license. Look at the license before you hire them. You'll be fined if you don't. Farm labor contractors also must give disclosure in their recruitment. Make sure you see what they've told the workers. “If they told the worker he'd receive $10 per hour, and he's only making $5 per hour, then you as the grower are responsible for that other $5.” In summary, says Bremer, the grower is responsible. “There's a whole law that applies to you, and you're ultimately responsible for everything that happens on your farm. You need a plan for farm labor. If you're going out and hoping that 50 workers will show up, that won't happen in 2002. If you're looking for more than two to three people in a year, you need to find a legal way of getting labor on your farm.”

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GM sugarbeet helps U.S. growers beat weed onslaught Published online: Mar 03, 2014 By Mohamed Khan How big is the U.S. sugar beet industry and where are the main growing regions? The U.S. sugarbeet industry covers nearly 0.5m hectares producing 4.7m tons of sugar. About 60 percent of the sugarbeet production is in North Dakota and Minnesota, worth $3 billion in just these two states. There are seven factories covering the two states, all of which are owned by farmer co-ops. Five are owned by the American Crystal Sugar Company, which is an agricultural co-operative owned by about 2,800 sugar beet growers in the Minnesota and North Dakota portions of the Red River Valley. What are the key challenges facing US beet growers? Drilling and lifting windows are very narrow because of the short growing season, with crops drilled in early May and lifted six months later in October. The roots are then lifted and clamped, being transported to the beet factories over an eight-month period from September to May, as it can’t be left in the ground because of the permafrost. This means lifting is typically carried out starting Oct. 1 (ideally during a 10-day period) and drilling in five to six days. Unlike in the UK, most growers have their own kit (drill, sprayers, topper, harvester and trucks) and don’t use contractors. Therefore, kit tends to be of a large scale, with high work rates. As in the UK, disease, pests and weeds are other key challenges. For example, cercospora leaf spot alone resulted in $100 million of losses back in 1998. Growers are managing the disease by rotating chemistry. But the number one problem in 38 out of the past 45 years of sugarbeet growing has been weeds. The U.S. is one of the weediest places on earth, with kochia, common ragweed, giant ragweed, and amaranthus species (wild oats, sow thistles, leafy spurge—these were present in the very early days of farming in this area) being particular problems. The weed population is so high they can take over the crop, therefore, good control is essential for viable crops. Weed control is also crucial for a smooth-running harvest, as farmers don’t want them clogging up the harvester when lifting in such a narrow window. How has the arrival of Round-up Ready sugarbeet helped growers? Round-up Ready sugarbeet showed good weed control in trials. Seeds became widely available in 2008 and accounted for half of the area in the first season. Glyphosate is a very effective herbicide and this GM technology has enabled excellent weed control, as well as allowing greater flexibility with herbicide timings. It resulted in fewer problems when lifting beet, allowing growers to maximise yields. Performance has been good—for example, crops grown by American Crystal growers in 2012 yielded 67t/ha at 19.14 percent sugar. GM sugarbeet has also allowed farmers in western states, including Nebraska and Colorado, to direct drill the crop into wheat stubble. This helps seedling survival, as you can get damaging 40-50 mph winds and stubble helps to protect plants. This approach was impossible previously, as you could not control weeds. Does GM sugarbeet cost more to grow? Yes. The seed costs are higher for as you have to pay for the technology, but there are some savings with less herbicides needed to be applied. Overall, the Round-up ready crops costs about $80/ha more to grow in the Red river area. But in western states, such as Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming , production costs have been significantly reduced. Is there a growing problem of herbicide resistance? There are more than 400 reported cases involving 150 herbicides and most modes of action, including glyphosate. Resistant weeds include waterhemp, common ragweed, giant ragweed and Kochia scoparia. The last one is a real concern with glyphosate resistance, as it can rapidly overcome a crop. Looking at GM crops, there were some areas where the technology worked so well, that some farmers pushed it too hard and the result is weed resistance. They were growing Round-up Ready soya and maize in the same rotation or continuous soya or corn because of favourable prices (not common in the areas where sugar beet is grown). But there are strategies to control this risk by adjusting the rotation to include GM crops resistant to other actives such as Liberty Link soya, which is resistant to glufosinate. With GM maize, conventional herbicides are used alongside glyphosate, reducing the pressure by allowing rotation of herbicides. So what will growers be growing in 2020? I see a range of GM crops being grown to reduce resistance, including Round-up Ready (glyphosate), Liberty Link (glufosinate), Round-up Ready Xtend (glyphosate + dicamba) and Enlist Weed Control (2,4-D resistant corn and soya bean) crops. How widely is GM crops grown and what is the legal situation? The sugarbeet area is 100 percent Round-up Ready in most areas and it is now starting to be grown in California. There was a law case back in 2008 and there were temporary constraints, with triple bagging packaging, crops being inspected and bolters. But in 2012, these were lifted and there are no constraints on its cultivation. GM technology is also widespread in other crops, with 93 percent soya, 90 percent cotton and 90 percent corn being GM. Mohamed Khan is professor and extension sugar beet specialist at North Dakota State University and University Of Minnesota and is based at the recent BBRO Winter Conference. Source: www.fwi.co.uk

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Click here to search Safflowerplant Carthamus tinctoris, Carthamus tinctorius Safflower, flowering annual plant, Carthamus tinctoris, of the Asteraceae family; native to parts of Asia and Africa, from central India through the Middle East to the upper reaches of the Nile River and into Ethiopia. The safflower plant grows from 0.3 to 1.2 metres (1 to 4 feet) high and has flowers that may be red, orange, yellow, or white. The dried flowers may be used to obtain carthamin, a red textile dye that was commercially important at one time but has since been replaced by synthetic aniline dyes, except in local areas of southwestern Asia. Safflower has been used as an adulterant of the condiment saffron.Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)J.C. Allen and SonOil obtained from the seed is the chief modern use of the plant. Safflower oil does not yellow with age, making it useful in preparing varnish and paint. Most of the oil, however, is consumed in the form of soft margarines, salad oil, and cooking oil. It is highly valued for dietary reasons because of its high proportion of polyunsaturated fats. The meal, or cake residue, is used as a protein supplement for livestock. Safflower, grown chiefly in India, has been introduced as an oil crop into the United States, Australia, Israel, Turkey, and Canada. Asteraceae the aster, daisy, or composite family of the flowering-plant order Asterales. With more than 1,620 genera and 23,600 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees distributed throughout the world, Asteraceae is one of the largest plant families. Read Morein Asterales: Asteraceae...or cooking oil, as well as in the manufacture of margarine, soap, paint, and varnish. Oil cake is fed to livestock, and the whole plant is used as silage. Flowers of Carthamus tinctorius (safflower) are the source of red and yellow dyes, and the seeds produce an oil used in cooking and in the production of soap, paint, and varnish. Several other members of the order, including...Read More Plant of the genus Helianthus of the family Asteraceae, native primarily to North and South America. The common sunflower is an annual herb with a rough hairy stem 1–4.5 metres... More about safflower 1 Reference found in Britannica ArticlesAssorted Referenceuses (in Asterales: Asteraceae) How Stuff Works - Science - Safflower North Dakota State University Agriculture and University Extension - Safflower Purdue University - Safflower Safflower Genetic Resources Homepage - Safflower Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous Take this botany quiz at encyclopedia britannica to test your knowledge on the different species of plants around the world. (Not) All in the Family Take this science quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of common plant families. Scientific Names of Edible Plants Take this food quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of the scientific names of some common grains, fruits, and vegetables. Playing with Wildfire: 5 Amazing Adaptations of Pyrophytic Plants A blazing inferno is moving quickly in your direction. You feel the intense heat and the air is clogged with smoke. Deer, snakes, and birds flee past you, even the insects attempt to escape. You would... https://www.britannica.com/plant/safflower

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Loan Program Aimed at Young Canadian Farmers Jim Adair on Monday, 23 April 2012 7:00 pm PRINT Canadian farm values continue to rise. The latest outlook for agricultural producers suggests a positive outlook for the next 10 years. But the average Canadian farmer isn't getting any younger - the average age has been climbing steadily and was 52 in 2006, the last year from which census data is available. To encourage more young people to stay home on the farm or to embark on a career in agriculture, Farm Credit Canada recently introduced the Young Farmer Loan, aimed at people aged 18 to 39. They can borrow up to half a million dollars to purchase or improve farmland and buildings. The program offers variable rates at prime plus 0.5 per cent, with no loan processing fees. FCC says farmers in this age group make up just 16 per cent of Canadian producers. "By allowing young producers to borrow with no fees at affordable rates, the Young Farmer Loan will help them build their businesses and develop a solid credit history," says Greg Stewart, CEO of FCC. "Agriculture is a key driver of jobs and economic growth here in Canada, and young farmers are vital to the long-term prosperity of the agriculture industry," says federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. The loans will be secured with real estate. FCC says the average value of Canadian farmland increased by 6.9 per cent during the second half of 2011, following increases in the previous two six-month reporting periods. Farmland values have been rising steadily during the last 10 years, and on average by about eight per cent annually since 2006, says FCC. "Low interest rates, in relation to inflation, and higher farm incomes have recently led to significant increases in farmland values in some provinces," says Michael Hoffort, FCC senior vice-president. In the most recent report, values increased in every province except for Newfoundland and Labrador. The largest increase was in Saskatchewan, which had an increase of 10.1 per cent. Saskatchewan has 40 per cent of Canada's arable land. FCC says Saskatchewan's price increases are in line with the pace of increases in the United States, where double-digit growth has been reported in corn and soybean states including Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. "Two contributing factors to the value increase in Saskatchewan are the current and anticipated strength of commodity prices, combined with land values that previously increased at a slower rate than in other areas of the country," says FCC. Hoffort says that "farmland value trends are sensitive to both interest rates and crop receipt trends. With interest rates expected to remain at historic lows until 2013, it will be especially important to monitor trends in crop and livestock receipts in the coming year. These factors combined with strong demand from expanding farm operations and increasing interest by non-traditional investors have all played a role in the continuing trends toward higher farmland prices." A recent report and forecast from the federal government's Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) says average net farm income set a new record in 2011 and exhibited "strength beyond what was foreseen earlier in the year." AAFC expects more of the same this year. "Despite a projected pullback in grain and oilseed prices, crop receipts are projected to climb slightly, as planted acreage will increase and carry-in stocks are high," says AAFC. "There will also be a small increase in livestock receipts as markets for major commodities will remain firm, with moderate price increases. Nonetheless, high feed costs will restrain income gains for most livestock producers, with hog farmers seeing income declines on average. However, net operating incomes for livestock producers are still expected to be higher than average for the past five years." Looking further down the road, the federal ministry says that "many of the factors that will influence farm income…will be felt over the next 10 years", including continued world demand for feed grains. "A more affluent population in emerging economies like China and India is driving the global demand for food, which results in crop and livestock prices that have remained above historical averages," says Jean-Philippe Gervais, FCC senior agriculture economist. "This helped propel the value of farmland to record-highs in North America. It will be important for producers who want to sell or buy farmland to keep an eye on possible variations in Canadian farm income in the coming years." Hoffort says the FCC wants to "focus on a more positive perception of agriculture, one that reflects the optimism that producers themselves tell us they have so we can attract the people, the skills and the investment that will be needed to meet this increased demand for food. "At the same time, we want to provide tools for those who want to buy farmland to expand their operation or enter the industry." Rate this item Tweet About the author, Jim Adair back to top Individual news stories are based upon the opinions of the writer and does not reflect the opinion of Realty Times.

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Read more about Forage Production & Utilization Body: This research is investigating factors that will minimize forage production and utilization. Inputs are monitored to determine efficient levels that will maximize profit and protect environmental quality. Alfalfa is the primary hay crop in Delaware. Ongoing cultivar trials evaluate forage production, predicted feed value, and stand longevity. The impact of five levels of residual soil fertility and four levels of commercial fertilizer are being compared in a long-term experiment evaluating nutrient requirements of alfalfa when maximum yield management is practiced. A defoliation management experiment measures the effects of regrowth interval and fall harvest on dry matter production, forage quality, and stand persistence. Year-round grazing of rotational pastures by a cow-calf herd is being fine-tuned. Bermudagrass is being compared to reed canarygrass for utilization during July and August; maximum utilization during July and August. Maximum utilization of stockpiled tall fescue pastures is being determined; strip vs. Non-strip grazing management with and without ionophores are treatments. Endophyte levels in tall fescue pastures are measured annually. Animal response on the year-round system is measured by recording: conception and weaning rates; correlation of calf weights with expected progeny differences; pelvic areas; health; cow weights and condition; and correlation between seasonal forage production / quality and animal condition. All production inputs are recorded and compared to production product. The first attempted embryo flush at the University was successful and the first calf was born utilizing a surrogate cow. A Delaware State University bull was the second highest selling bull in the West Virginia Bull Performance Sale. A new bovine hospital and a feed processing center have been constructed in support of the forage-beef research. Research Profile Dr. Gibson Read more about Research Profile Dr. Gibson Body: Dr. Paul F. Gibson Title: Associate Professor College / Department: Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology / Mathematics Number of Years at Delaware State University: 33 Work Address: ETV Building, Room 115 Work Phone: (302) 857-6643 Work Fax: (302) 857-7054 Work Email: [email protected] Areas of Specialty/Research Types Different Geometry Algebraic Probability Ph.D., Applied Mathematics Delaware State University, 2007 M.S., Mathematics, University of Arkansas Fayetteville, 1966 B.A., Mathematics Hendrix College, Conway Arkansas, 1964 Mathematics Association of America America Mathematical Society Honors and Awards Received (past five years) DSU Merit award 2008 Published Works Developing Properties of Sequence Transforms, Advances in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Nova Sciences, 2007. A New Algebraic Structure for Finding the Reliability of Organizational Systems, Advances in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Nova Sciences, 2006, 81-92. With Shi, X., Liu F., Umoh H., Two Kinds of Nonlinear Matrix Equations and their Corresponding Matrix Sequences, Linear and Multilinear Algebra, (2004), Volume 52, No.1, 1-15. Reliability of Organization System, Delaware State College Faculty, Volume 7, June 1977, 25-33. Probability on Independent Probability Spaces, International Congress of Mathematics 2002 held in Madrid, Spain. August 20 - August 28, 2006. Developing Properties of Sequence Transforms, 2006- Applied Mathematics workshop, Delaware State University, July 31 - August 2, 2006. A New Algebraic Structure for Finding the Reliability of Organizational, Applied Mathematics workshop, Delaware State University, August 18- August 20, 2005. The Last Round Matching Problem, The Joint Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and Mathematical Association of America held in Atlanta, Georgia (January 2005). The Last Round Matching Problem, 2004 - Applied Mathematics workshop, Delaware State University, July 9 - July 11, 2004. Separation Properties Between US Space and KC Space, International Congress of Mathematics 2002 held in Beijing, China. August 9, 2002. Read more about Research Profile Body: Dr. Carlos M. Rodriguez Title: Associate Professor of Marketing College / Department: College of Business / Management Number of Years at Delaware State University: 5 Work Address: Bank of America Building, Suite 210F Work Email: [email protected] Relationship Marketing: Business-to-Business. Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures design, process and implementation. Internationalization Processes, Exporting, and Market Entry Strategies. Decision Making Processes in Marketing and Strategic Marketing in Cross Cultural settings. New Product Development and Technology Management. Active Grants or Program Funding Target Corporation (2005 - present) Ph.D., Marketing; Pennsylvania State University MSc., Marketing and Quantitative Methods; Pennsylvania State University M.B.A. Master of Business Administration; School of Business Administration, ESAN B.Sc. Bachelor of Science Industrial Engineering; Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria, UNI I.E. Degree in Engineering Industrial Engineering; Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria, UNI Academy of Marketing Science, AMS, USA Association of Engineers of Peru, Peru, # 25266 official registration American Marketing Association, AMA, USA Consejo Latinoamericano de Escuelas de Administracion, CLADEA Business Association for Latin American Studies, BALAS Academy of International Business (AIB) 2007 Best paper submission, Lead Paper, Self-efficacy Beliefs, Institutional Climate, and Faculty Expectations as Determinants of Academic Achievement in Business Students, Journal of Business and Leadership, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2007. 2006 Highly Commended Paper, Emergence of a Third Culture: Shared Leadership in International Strategic Alliances, International Marketing Review, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2005, Literati Network Awards for Excellence. 2006 Fellowship Award by MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Summer Professional Program to attend the Seminar Design and Strategy of Product Platforms. 2005 Fellowship Award by MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Summer Professional Program to attend the Seminar Design and Analysis of Experiments. 2004 Fellowship Award by MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Summer Professional Program to attend the Seminar Individual Choice Behavior and Application of Discrete Choice Analysis. 2004 Fellowship Award by Harvard Business School to attend the Seminar The Art and Craft of Writing Cases. Published Works / Presentations Self-efficacy Beliefs, Institutional Climate, and Faculty Expectations as Determinants of Academic Achievement in Business Students, Journal of Business and Leadership, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2007. Undergraduate Business Marketing Education: Exploring the Collaborative Skills of High-Performing Marketing Managers: A Commentary, Journal of Business to Business Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2007. Emergence of a Third Culture: Shared Leadership in International Strategic Alliances, International Marketing Review, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2005 ( Highly Commended Paper, International Marketing Review, Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2006). Impact of Design: Number of Hyperlinks and Node Size on Web Usefulness and Ease of Use. Co-authored with Dae R. Kim and Brian J. Reithel, published in the special Issue on Web-Based Information Quality, International Journal of Electronic Business Management (IJEBM), 2005. Relationship Bonding and Trust as Foundation for Commitment in International Strategic Alliances, USA-Mexico: A Latent Variable Structural Modeling Approach co-authored with David T. Wilson, Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 10, No. 4., 2002, pp: 53-76. Commentary on: "Technology in the Classroom: Teaching Business Marketing in the 21st. Century" by Richard P. Vlosky and David T. Wilson, Journal of Business to Business Marketing, Vol. 5, Number 1/2,1998. Convergent Management Styles and Intercultural Fit: The Role of Culture in International Strategic Alliances USA-Mexico, Paper accepted for publication and presentation at the 1997 Business Association for Latin American Studies Conference, BALAS, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dr. Carlos M. Rodriguez General Research Capability Read more about General Research Capability Body: Delaware State University is a public, comprehensive, 1890 Land Grant Institution fostering the triad of teaching, research and extension/service. The University is a fully accredited institution of higher education, which grants degrees at the masters and undergraduate levels. As such, the University is composed of five divisions: Executive Services, Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, Business and Finance, and University Advancement. Each division is headed by a vice president with the exception of Executive Services, which is headed by the President of the University.The Division of Academic Affairs is composed of five colleges and/or schools, which are as follows: College of Agriculture and Related Sciences, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Education, Health and Public Policy, College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology, and the College of Business. Three centers of excellence are also housed under Academic Affairs: Applied Optics of Delaware, Sea Food Safety Research Laboratory and Applied Mathematic Research Center. This division is where the majority of the formal academic educational activities are conducted on a day to day basis.Under the Division of Academic Affairs graduate degrees are offered as follows: Master of Arts (MA), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science (MS), and Master of Social Work. At the graduate level 18 degree program options are offered. At the undergraduate level the University offers the Bachelor of Science (BS) and the Bachelor of Arts (BA) with 187 degree program options. As outlined in the President’s Vision Statement the University will continue to offer an array of master’s and doctoral programs in areas of importance to the social and economic development of Delaware.In order to ensure an emphasis on research the President established a unit within the Office of the President with University-wide responsibilities for focusing on research. The unit is headed by a Ph.D. level scientist, which carries the title “Senior Administrator for Research”. In addition to working with the President, Vice Presidents, Deans, Chairpersons, Faculty and Staff within the University, the office works with businesses and industries throughout the State of Delaware and the United States of America with some international responsibilities related to research.Delaware State University Research Capability 2014 Agricultural Research CapabilityThe College of Agriculture and Related Sciences (CARS) at Delaware State University (DSU), through its mandate and mission, accelerates the development, transfer and access of modern science and technology-based developments in agriculture and related fields to small farmers and producers in Delaware, the nation and the world. The critical national challenges of a rising population, rising food prices, rising energy demand and an increasing population shift from rural to urban environments means that agriculture has to produce more food, fiber and energy with fewer people and in some places less space. Addressing these complex needs calls for both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach.As a Historically Black College and University with a long track record and rich mandate, Delaware State University is well positioned to contribute to the research, instruction and transformational education and outreach in the state and nation, as well as internationally in its areas of competence. To do this, CARS research is based on strong collaboration and cooperation among its four divisions of Human Ecology, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cooperative Extension and Cooperative Research. In addition, CARS administers a modern herbarium, and collaborates closely with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Laboratory Center of Excellence in Microbial Seafood Safety. The four pillars are responsive to the new high priority demands, which are identified by community and state need areas. Many of the solutions to the pressing challenges in human health and nutrition, climate change and the environment, organic agriculture, food safety, food security, aquaculture, biotechnology and bioenergy are rooted in agricultural-biosciences. On Delaware State University’s 400-acre main campus, the College of Agriculture and Related Sciences houses 16 laboratories, two greenhouses, and a 34-pond Aquaculture Research and Demonstration Facility—all of which are dedicated to agriculture, food science and textile production and research. Additionally, DSU owns two farms in the Kent County community that are used for teaching, field research, and agriculture outreach and demonstration events. The 75-acre Hickory Hill facility is dedicated to forage, large and small ruminant, and poultry research, and the 192-acre Outreach and Research Center is dedicated to crop production and research. Long term water quality monitoring in the upper Choptank River Watershed and the effects of agricultural drainage on natural and managed systems on the Delmarva Peninsula wetlands, as it relates to land use, are other ongoing activities to address complex food and environmental systems.The college covers a broad range of agricultural and ag-bioscience subject matter areas. These include Ag-biotechnology, which addresses genomics in plants and animals; natural resources, which deals with the restoration of devastated habitats in national or natural estuarine reserves; aquaculture research and demonstration; and research on small ruminants. Culinary herbs, medicinal and oil plants research is a major plant science initiative that investigates native and endangered species, as well as alternative cash crops. Additional work is ongoing with several species of importance in the Delaware Bay and with terrestrial animals and birds in Delaware’s upland habitats. This collective collaborative research has broadened student participation from an early undergraduate stage to the post-doctoral level. The college also cooperates and supports student research from the other colleges. The outreach and transfer of research results to Delaware producers, landowners, businesses and families involve collaboration among research and extension as the 1890 land-grant mission dictates. Delaware Center for Scientific and Applied Computation (DeSAC) Read more about Delaware Center for Scientific and Applied Computation (DeSAC) Body: To build this capacity at Delaware State University and in the communities of South Delaware, the Delmarva Peninsula and the North-East Corridor, DSU plans to establish the Delaware Center for Scientific and Applied Computation (DeSAC). The major goals of DeSAC are to Provide efficient service to biomedical researches at DSU, within Delaware and nationwide Help DSU students in the sciences and applied math / computer science to better prepare for graduate studies in the fields related to computational biology, bioinformatics, computational physics / chemistry and numerical mathematics Enhance and strengthen graduate student research at DSU Support efforts of DSU towards establishing PhD programs in areas of importance to the social and economic development of Delaware, with special emphasis on the natural sciences and agriculture Boost collaboration between DSU and the industrial community in related research / development fields Develop a community of scholars with talent and expertise that will garner regional and national recognition Become a natural seed and basis for activities on developing a proposed research incubator at DSU. The Delaware BRIN has provided the necessary support structure to establish a biotechnology program at DSU and equip it with the essential computing facility that provides students with access to state-of-the-art technology and software in bioinformatics. Dr. Marwan Rasamny and Dr. Dragoljub Pokrajac, both in the DSU Computer and Information Sciences Department, have played a major role in the realization of the bioinformatics core during the Delaware BRIN project. Dr. Rasamny was closely involved in designing the network and purchasing the computers and server that supports bioinformatics. Dr. Pokrajac has played an instrumental role in developing, implementing, and offering the bioinformatics curriculum to support the biotechnology program at DSU. The biotechnology-training laboratory at DSU presently houses the bioinformatics equipment purchased through funding from the Delaware BRIN that includes a SunFire V880 server with two 750 MHz SPARC processors, 4 GB of memory and 216 GB of disk storage, a 1000 hardware raid disk array with 145 GB of disk storage expandable to over a terabyte of disk storage; 6 SunBlade X3Delite with 500 MHz UltraSPARC – IIe processors and SunPCi co-processor card and 18” TFT displays; and 4Dell Precision workstations with 1.5 GHz Xeon processors and 400 MHz front side bus, nVidia Quadro2 EX graphics card, 512 MB of memory and a 40 GB internal drive. DESAC for Research and Bioinformatics Jaiwant Mulik, Assistant Professor Computer and Information Science Department 305D Science Center North 1200 N Dupont Hwy, Dover, DE 19901 Email: [email protected] Ph.D., Computer Science, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 2004 M.S., Computer Science, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 2000 B.E., Computer Engineering, Mumbai University, India, 1998 Dragoljub Pokrajac, Assistant Professor 1200 N Dupont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901 Email: [email protected] M.S., Telecommunication systems, University of Nis, Serbia, 1997 B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Nis, Serbia, 1993 Marwan Rasamny, Chairperson 1200 N. Dupont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901 [email protected] Ph.D., Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 1999 M.S., Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 1992 B.S., Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY, 1990 Read more about Policies and Procedures Body: Proposal/Grant Submissions The Principal Investigator (PI) The individual responsible for conceiving and enacting a project is known as the principal investigator. When this individual takes on the task of preparing a proposal for submission to an outside source, he or she agrees to manage the ensuing grant or contract in compliance with the terms, conditions, and policies of both the sponsor and the University. Only one principal investigator should be named to delineate clear lines of responsibility for project management. In some instances, a colleague central to the project may be named co-principal investigator or be given another appropriate title. University Affiliation for Institutional Awards The principal investigator must be a member of the full­time faculty, professional, or senior staff, or be an administrative officer of the University. Depending on the nature of the proposal, individuals with other University appointments may serve as principal investigators. Naming an individual in the proposal who is not an employee of the University does not commit the institution to employing that individual. Unless otherwise indicated in the proposal, principal investigators are expected to be in residence at the University during the period of project operation. Principal investigators seeking a leave of absence during this period must obtain written authorization from the sponsor through the Office of Sponsored Programs. All sponsored projects that utilize campus facilities such as laboratories, classrooms, etc., involve human subjects, animals, radioactive materials, or toxic or hazardous substances, involve any other faculty, staff or graduate students as part of the project budget, or in any way affect the University, must comply with University regulations. Requests must be submitted through the OSP for review and approval. Fly America Act When traveling using federal funds, travelers are required to use an airline that is designated as a U.S. flag carrier for every portion of the route per the Fly America Act (49 U.S.C. 40118). To determine if the flight complies with Fly America, look at the flight number on the boarding pass or flight coupon and verify that it begins with the abbreviation of the U.S. flag carrier (ex: Delta flight DL# 1234). There are very few exceptions to the Fly America Act. If you believe you meet one of the exceptions, please complete the Fly America Act Checklist for Federal Funds form ( found in the Sponsored Programs’ Forms Library) and turn it into the Office of Sponsored Programs with supporting documentation for approval PRIOR to purchasing the flight. Some exceptions requiring a waiver include: when a U.S. flag carrier is not available on a particular route; when using a U.S. flag carrier would increase the number of aircraft changes outside the U.S. by 2 or more; extend travel time by 6 hours or more; or require a connecting time of 4 hours or more at an overseas interchange point. Rightbar: Table of Contents Conflict of Interest (COI)Personnel IssuesForms LibraryFaculty Proposal Form Time and Effort Reporting Forms Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) Fly America Act Checklist for Federal Funds Form Read more about Human Subjects Protection Body: All research involving human subjects must be reviewed by the Institutional Review Board - Human Subjects Protection Committee. During the review process various guidelines are used in reviewing the research protocol to ensure that it is in compliance with federal and state regulations, and in accordance with Delaware State University's institutional assurance compliance filed with the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR). Submission of a protocol to the IRB - Human Subjects Protection Committee and subsequent approval of the project means that the IRB - Human Subjects Protection Committee has found the protocol to conform to scientific, ethical and legal standards for research involving human subjects. All survey forms that entail research activities that may involve little or no risk to subjects must be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), building 502. Funded, including non-funded research projects, must also be submitted to the OSP. IRB Application Deadlines and Meeting Dates: Submission Deadline *Dates are subject to change due to academic scheduling For more information, please visit the Sponsored Programs Forms Library or contact Ms. Chanel Haman in the Office of Sponsored Programs at (302) 857-6834 or at [email protected]. Benefits of Writing Grants Read more about Benefits of Writing Grants Body: There are many benefits to writing grants for the university and your Department. Not only do you improve the academic structure of the University and your community through research, but you as the Principal Investigator (PI) benefit as well. There are three incentives to writing grants. When proposals are submitted and funded, the Principal Investigator (PI) is given release time from his/her academic responsibilities such as classroom instruction to run the funded program. A percentage of his/her classroom instruction is reassigned to other faculty members and that percentage of time will then be used to carry out the objectives of the grant. This percentage and amount has to be approved by the faculty member, Chair and Dean. PI Account/Indirect Costs The Administrative Council has approved the following policy for using indirect costs. When proposals are funded, regardless of the overhead rate, the unit sponsoring the grant/contract will receive 40% of the overhead/indirect cost, the Office of Sponsored Programs will receive 10% and the University will receive 50% of the overhead/indirect cost. If the unit is a school, the overhead/indirect cost money returned shall be distributed as follows: The school will be awarded 5% The department will be awarded 5%; and The Principal Investigator (PI) will receive 30% If the unit is not a school, the overhead/indirect cost money shall be distributed as follows: The budget unit will be awarded 5% The department in which the PI has academic rank will be awarded 5%; and The PI will receive 30% None of the indirect cost money can be used to augment departmental salary lines with the exception of student workers or graduate student assistants. Any cost sharing required shall be deducted in the proportion set forth above. Asset for Promotion and Tenure Writing winning proposals can benefit you during the funded periods as well as years down the road. The PI can include the funded proposal in his/her promotion and tenure portfolio. The PI will also be able to reference the funded grant on his/her curriculum vita when seeking promotions and/or positions within the University or external to the University. Read more about Institutional Animal Care and Use Body: All animal-use protocols involving vertebrate animals conducted or sponsored by Delaware State University must be submitted for campus Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) review, approval, and periodic review in accordance with campus policies and procedures which are required by federal law. Review of animal-use protocols may be subject to further appropriate review and approval by officials of the University. These officials may not, however, approve an activity involving the care and use of animals if the campus IACUC has not approved it. All faculty and staff using animals in teaching and/or research purposes should download a copy of the IACUC Approval Application. This document identifies the requirements and procedures for obtaining approval of animal-use protocols. An animal-use project may not begin until the principal investigator has been notified that the animal-use protocol has been approved by the campus IACUC and a protocol number has been assigned by the IACUC Committee. A completed copy of the application should be forwarded to Dr. Dennis McIntosh in the College of Agriculture and Related Sciences. For more information on IACUC, please all (302) 857-6456 or (302) 857-6834. Read more about Research Division Description: Research (n): studious inquiry or examination aimed at the discovery and interpretation of new knowledge —Merrill Webster's Desk Dictionary feature_image: Lab_77.jpgBody: “Research” is what happens when you pair curiosity with knowledge, inspiration, perspiration and determination. The mission of the Office of the Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Development is “to provide to those individuals who are admitted quality research opportunities and experiences that are consistent with the overall University Commitment.” The Research Division is also responsible for maintaining an infrastructure within a supportive environment that encourages both faculty and students to produce research with results that are making our world better every day (see Mission , Vision, Goals for more info). Join us in our quest for “new knowledge.” Prestigious research projects underway by DSU faculty members serve to enhance DSU's land-grant mission and its contributions to the nation's research efforts. View a sampling of ongoing research activity to see some of the interesting research going on at DSU. The Office of Sponsored Programs has more information about research and grant opportunities. DSU’s Hydrogen Storage Research Center The primary focus of the Hydrogen Storage Research Center is finding novel materials that can store and release large quantities of hydrogen gas at moderate temperatures and pressures. These materials can be used on board vehicles for hydrogen fuel cell applications. Materials are being sought that will absorb at least 6 wt. % hydrogen by the year 2010 and 9 wt. % by 2015 (DOE objective). The Research Center is involved in all aspects of hydrogen storage research including: fabricating and testing the hydrogen storage materials determining the amount of hydrogen that can be absorbed and released from these materials determining their thermodynamic stability finding catalysts that are suitable for certain reactions measuring the kinetics of uptake and release, and performing modeling studies to determine the mechanism that controls the reaction rates. Dr. Andrew Goudy, who has over 25 years of experience in this area, heads the Hydrogen Storage Research Center. Rightbar: “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell therein.” — Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), African-American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, playwright and anthropologist. Research Partnerships and Collaborations Listed below are some of the institutions who have partnerships and collaborations with Delaware State University in the areas of research: United States Army Research Laboratories UNCFSP BP Foundation American Psychology Association DE Mental Health Fox Chase Cancer Center Ion Power U.S. Agriculture U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services NYSP United States Department of Defense University of Maryland - Eastern Shore Virginia State University University of Maryland – College Park Cheyney University

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Inside OBAContact Us Staff, Tech-Transfer Program Contract Specialists & Board Directors Ontario Bee Journal By-laws & Constitution News & UpdatesSign-Up for Email Newsletter Ban neonicotinoids now to avert another silent spring. July 17, 2014 Read articleHere’s our choice. We wait and see if a class of powerful pesticides, made by Bayer and Syngenta, is indeed pushing entire ecosystems to oblivion, or suspend their use while proper trials are conducted. The natural world versus two chemical companies: how hard can this be?Papers published over the past few weeks suggest that theseneonicotinoids, pesticides implicated in killing or disabling bees, have similar effects on much of life on Earth. On land and in water, these neurotoxins appear to be degrading entire food chains. Licensed before sufficient tests were conducted, they are now the world’s most widely used pesticides. We are just beginning to understand what we’ve walked into.A paper in Nature last week showed a strong correlation between neonicotinoid concentrations and the decline of birds such as swallows, skylarks, yellowhammers, wagtails, starlings and whitethroats. It couldn’t demonstrate causation, but it was elegantly designed to exclude competing factors. The precipitous loss of insects caused by neonicotinoids is the simplest and most obvious explanation, as all these birds depend on insects to feed their young. Where the chemical was heavily used, bird populations fell by 3.5% a year; where it was not, they held up. At this rate, it doesn’t take long to engineer a world without song.Another paper reports that residues of neonicotinoids were found in all the soil samples the researchers took: these chemicals are highly persistent. Sold to farmers as precise and targeted, they are some of the least discriminate pesticides ever produced. When used to treat seeds, just 5% is absorbed by the plant; the rest soaks into the soil, with potentially lethal impacts on the animals that maintain its structure and fertility.They are also water soluble. Recent papers suggest a collapse in the diversity and abundance of invertebrates in water running off farms where neonicotinoids are used. Mayflies and caddis flies, essential to the survival of many aquatic ecosystems, are especially vulnerable.Another new paper provides compelling evidence linking these chemicals to colony collapse disorder: the sudden disappearance of honey bee colonies that’s now trashing the livelihoods of beekeepers in the US. Half the colonies exposed to neonicotinoids disappeared in the course of one winter; none of the untreated swarms vanished.Worldwide contamination, indiscriminately wiping out wild animals, including those on which farming depends: these are the findings of an analysis of 800 scientific papers, also just published. How much more obvious does the case for action need to be?Sure, there is plenty that we don’t yet know. We know almost nothing about the long-term, cumulative effects of these chemicals, or about what neonicotinoids do to birds that eat contaminated seeds, to mammal and amphibian populations, to coral reefs or marine life of any kind. Governments went into it blind, approving neonicotinoids before they had even a fraction of the necessary knowledge.Far from being essential to food production, these pesticides are a serious threat to food supplies, through their likely impacts on bees and soil animals. They are well designed for lazy farming, but their advantages vanish in the face of more sophisticated methods such as integrated pest management. The only sensible response to the little we know so far is a global moratorium pending further research for all purposes except the control of human diseases.In August 1962, after extracts from Rachel Carson’s book Silent Springwere published, President Kennedy launched a commission to investigate the impacts of the pesticide DDT. Within 10 years it was banned from use in the US, except for public health emergencies.This was despite lawsuits and a massive lobbying and disinformation campaign by the chemicals industry. Alongside the usual accusations of hysteria and other alleged female pathologies, it suggested that Carson was seeking to destroy US farming on behalf of the Soviet Union. The smears continue to this day. Corporate front groups concocted a myth that DDT was banned worldwide as a result of Carson’s book, causing the deaths of millions through malaria. In fact the DDT ban (still in place through the Stockholm convention) is for agricultural purposes but not disease control. DDT would soon have become useless against malaria had it continued to be used by farmers: the wider their exposure, the more quickly mosquitoes become resistant. Kennedy and his successors held firm.Compare this with the British government’s response to attempts to control neonicotinoids. It threw everything it had against an EU proposal to suspend their use on flowering crops. Owen Paterson, the worst environment secretary this country has ever suffered – who was struck down by the Curse of Monbiot on Monday night in the cabinet reshuffle – wrote privately to Syngenta to reassure the company that “our efforts [to stop the suspension] will continue and intensify in the coming days”. His department commissioned a study claiming to show that bees were not being harmed. It was so flawed that no journal would take it. The lead author soon left to work for Syngenta. The government’s chief scientist, Sir Mark Walport, made wildly misleading statements about the science and used scare tactics and emotional blackmail to try to keep the pesticides in circulation. Fortunately the government’s campaign failed, and a two-year moratorium, though limited only to certain flowering crops, came into force across the EU in December 2013.The case for a global moratorium is just as strong, so once more the government weighs in on the wrong side. Ian Boyd, chief scientist at the environment department, sought last week to dismiss the new Nature paper. His article was so slapdash that he couldn’t even get the lead author’s name right. He insisted that there was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions. So did he announce a massive research programme to resolve the uncertainties? Did he hell. Uncertainty suits these people, and they will exploit it as ruthlessly as they can.Will Liz Truss, the new environment secretary, champion science, not chemical companies? I would love to believe that there might be a remaining glimmer of recognition that governments exist to protect us from exploitation and destruction. Kennedy knew it, for all his faults. Like him, our politicians have a clear choice: surrender to corporate bullies or defend the living world. What will they do?Twitter: @georgemonbiotA fully referenced version of this article can be found at monbiot.com Contact Us

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Off Season Gardening InformationHome & GardenPlants, Flowers & HerbsIndoor Growing What Kinds of Plants Can be Grown in a Green House? What Kinds of Plants Can be Grown in a Green House? What Kinds of Plants Can be Grown in a Green House? Growing plants in a greenhouse offers several advantages to gardeners. For instance, you can grow plants in a greenhouse that you may not be able to grow outside, due to your particular hardiness zone. With the ability to control the temperature and the humidity, there are several different kinds of plants that you can grow in a greenhouse. Blue Java Banana Tree The Blue Java Banana Tree is often known as the "Ice Cream" banana, due to its vanilla ice cream flavor. The Blue Java produces medium-sized bunches of silver-blue bananas and, at maturity, reaches 12 feet in height, making it suitable for larger greenhouses. This fast-growing tropical plant does well in greenhouses, where it is safe from frost. Fahrenheit temperatures as low as the high 20s can kill the Blue Java; therefore, a greenhouse can protect the plant from the natural temperature conditions of the area, keeping it in the tropical warmth it thrives in. The Blue Java does well in a variety of soils, as long as there is good drainage and the soil is deep. For greenhouse planting conditions, raised beds can help increase depth as well as enhance drainage. Citrus Hystrix 'Kaffir Lime' The Citrus Hystrix, commonly known as the Kaffir Lime, is a popular Thai cooking herb. Its aromatic leaves are used in a variety of dishes, including lemon grass soup, and the rind of its fruit is used in Thai curry. This is a strong growing tree that reaches approximately 10 feet in height at maturity. The Kaffir features dark green, glossy leaves that are segmented, giving the appearance of two leaves growing end to end for each singular leaf. In a greenhouse, the Kaffir will bloom all year; however, at least two genetically different plants are needed to produce fruit. This plant prefers a well-drained soil that is kept moist at all times. The Kaffir can be propagated from either seed or cutting. Clivia are dramatically blooming plants that are well suited to greenhouses, either all year long, or sheltered in the greenhouse during colder months. The plant features long, upright leaves with flowers spires topped with pendulous red to orange flowers. Bright red berries follow the flowers and can last for up to one year. In the wild, Clivia grow in tropical forests of South Africa under trees; therefore, they enjoy shade or partial shade. Although they thrive in containers, they prefer a growing medium where their roots can get air. For this reason, a planting medium comprised of equal parts granite chick starter grit, soilless potting mix and sand is recommended. Although the Clivia is naturally drought resistant, water it thoroughly to not only flush salt build up from the planting mixture, but also to encourage root growth deeper into the container. Banana Plants and Banana Trees Citrus Hystrix - Kaffir Lime Clivia Care and Culture greenhouse plants, banana tree, Kaffir Lime, Clivia, plants for greenhouses About this Author Kimberly Wylie has been a professional, full-time freelance writer for nearly a decade. She is the author of the book "Hiring the Right Candidate" and has written for several online and print publications. A gifted wordsmith, her work has included everything from movie scripts to patent documentation. Article provided by eHow Home & Garden | What Kinds of Plants Can be Grown in a Green House? New in Plants, Flowers & Herbs About Fichus Plants About Terrariums How to Grow New Plants From Old Plants How to Move Plants Inside For Winter How to Grow Cyclamen How Can I Make Wheatgrass at Home? Interior Plantscaping Plant Care How to Get Started Growing Vegetables With Hydroponics Equipment Needed to Raise Carnivorous Plants What Are Grow Lights?

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Matteo and His Fig Tree Published by Ecological Gardening on Tue, 05/17/2011 - 07:00 Original article: http://www.ecologicalgardening.net/2011/05/matteo-and-his-fig-tree.html by Adrian Ayres Fisher Stringing tomatoesWhen you teach classes at a community college that sits in the midst of a multicultural patchwork of neighborhoods at the edge of a great metropolis, you never know who will show up. Evening classes, which I often teach, are particularly diverse. Matteo showed up one semester and sat in the front row, a stocky, round-faced, round-headed man, balding, with a fringe of white hair. His appearance, in itself, was not unusual, since students of all shapes and sizes present themselves, nor was his age, really, which I judged to be somewhere west of sixty-five. My classes frequently include students ranging in age from sixteen and not yet out of high school, to grandparents who are finally able to begin the college education they have always hoped for. Matteo said he’d come to the U.S. from Sicily at some undisclosed period in his youth, took a job, married, had children and then grandchildren--a pretty average story for this part of the world. Other than his self-confident air and loud voice, there was nothing to make me think about him too much. This changed one evening when I talked about gardening, which I don’t teach. However, since I believe everything is connected, wherever I am, gardening and the environment get mentioned. At this, Matteo came alive. "Ms. Fisher, I didn't know you are a gardener. I am too." "That's nice," I said. But Matteo persisted. In a subsequent conversation he discovered that, while I have an understanding of perennial food plants such as berries and herbs, I’m a newbie when it comes to serious annual vegetable gardening. He began to share his knowledge. Some he brought with him from Sicily, some he’s picked up elsewhere, and all has been honed in his modest backyard. Matteo told me that when he was young he lived in a small town, in a house overlooking the sea. Though they had little money, they always ate well—his father was a tailor, his mother a seamstress, and people often paid for their clothes in kind. His mother would stop work earlier than his father in order to cook. Matteo and his friends loved growing things, and they’d often walk out of town and visit nearby farmers to learn their methods. He also explained some of the games they played. One, an old tradition, seems to have combined twenty questions and tag, and you were to guess the name of various plants, both farmed and wild, by descriptions of appearance and use. More fun than school, he thought, and an excellent way to learn, since you got to run around. I couldn’t help contrasting this with the childhoods of many students I’ve met: they’ve learned to understand social media or what’s going down in celebrity-world, but not much at all about where they actually live. What are we teaching them that will be of help in a low-carbon future? Wine Matteo, of course, brews his own wine. He wrote an essay with instructions, illustrated with an old photo in which he and his two sons stand by their wine press. His opinion is that for small batches, stomping the grapes really makes better wine. And not only did his essay include winemaking advice, but also explained that when it has aged and is ready to be decanted, you must invite your friends and relatives over for food and wine as a sort of celebration. Which seems as important as the process itself. How different this is from wineries I have visited I cannot begin to explain. Yet his enthusiasm was so infectious, that I began to feel that I, too, could make wine fit to drink. Tomatoes Matteo also grows tomatoes. It is hard to imagine Italian cuisine without them. The Romans made fish sauce, with a production center at Pompeii prior to Vesuvius’ great eruption, and similar food ways continued until tomatoes, that new world plant, arrived in Italy to revolutionize the old traditions in the 16th Century. It’s interesting to think about how food travels. One of my favorite recipes for cornbread—that American staple—is a Basque version that includes pureed pumpkin. Did a Basque person long ago get the recipe from someone in America and bring it home, only to export it back to the U.S.? An American Indian gardener once told me that this is what happened with many varieties of beans. Early European explorers took American beans home, where they became widespread, and then later settlers brought “their” beans back to America. But returning to tomatoes. Illinois is emphatically not Sicily. So how to get the required yields? While the neighbors wait until late May to put out their starts from the garden center, Matteo’s strategy is different. He’ll buy the starts, transplant them into pots and then keep them in his garage. On warm days he takes the tomatoes outside for some sun, then tucks them safely back inside for the night, leaving them inside on cold days, since our spring is nothing if not temperamental. By the time the weather settles, his tomato plants are large, robust and easily transplanted. The harvest is earlier and--since some gardeners are competitive and I suspect Matteo may be--the neighbors are envious. Then he shares his largess, with pride. These days, you can, if you wish to pay more, buy large greenhouse-grown tomato plants, sometimes with the fruit already on, but I think I prefer Matteo’s method, as being less energy-intensive, cheaper and more ingenious. It also lends itself to variation. For example, you could start your tomato seeds at home, and then incorporate Matteo’s methods into your sequence. The Fig Tree Matteo’s story about his fig tree is the one I like best. At some point, he decided that he would like to have fresh figs to eat in the summer--but how to go about it? He decided to see what he could do. He wouldn’t tell me how or where he learned to grow a Mediterranean tree in our miserable Midwestern climate, but did say it took several trees to get the method correct. Here is how he has achieved success. About five years ago he started with a small tree, meant for an atrium or greenhouse and planted it in his back yard near the vegetable bed. Since then, every summer the tree has grown and produced figs. Every fall he digs a trench as tall as the tree. He then loosens the soil all around the roots and lays the tree down gently in the trench. Then he covers it with leaves, puts cardboard on top, and covers everything with a mound of soil. Each year in spring Matteo opens up the trench. Then he very gradually, over days, returns the tree to its upright position, replaces the soil, and begins giving the tree regular care, anticipating fresh figs later in the summer. This method reminds me of the way people used to winter over climbing roses by piling soil on the bud unions and burying the canes, before so many cold hardy varieties were bred. More and more I’m finding that it's good to know people who can do things, and these people are of two sorts: those who can do things you don't know much about and those who know more than you about what you know. From both you can learn. In practice this leads to a pretty constant state of beginner's mind, since keeping an eye out for these people encourages an outward gaze and prevents one from setting up as too much of an expert. Sometimes living knowledge beats books. The semester rolled on, as they do. Matteo and I would sometimes talk after class, once about growing potatoes. Towards the end, he brought me a seed potato, his largest and best, he said. With instructions, naturally. Source URL: http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-05-17/matteo-and-his-fig-tree Links:[1] http://www.ecologicalgardening.net/2011/05/matteo-and-his-fig-tree.html

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South Carolina cotton, peanut meetings set for Jan. 24, 26 Jan 12, 2017 Should we rethink fertility for new, higher-yielding cotton varieties? Jan 12, 2017 Big farm-related tax changes proposed by Republicans, Trump Jan 10, 2017 Peanuts versus enough off-target dicamba can cost yield, timing matters Jan 10, 2017 Mad cow controversy continues Jean Weese Alabama Cooperative Extension System | Feb 04, 2004 Several years ago, as media-driven paranoia over mad cow disease in the United Kingdom reached its peak, British Health Consultant George Venters asked a question, the same question Americans are asking today: Can eating beef cause people to develop the human equivalent of mad cow disease? The answer he formulated after extensive investigation ignited a firestorm of debate that is still raging. The prevailing view — one that Venters challenges — is that a mysterious proteinlike particle, known as a prion, found in the brains of cattle infected with mad cow disease, somehow crossed over into humans, causing a new variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, commonly known as nvCJD. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a devastating condition by any measure, one that destroys the human brain in much the same way mad cow disease affects bovine brains. This much is true. And, yes, what has been perceived as a new form of CJD, detected in relatively larger numbers of people at about the same time as the mad cow media frenzy in Britain, bears an especially eerie resemblance to the bovine disease. This has naturally led many scientists to speculate that eating beef from infected animals somehow is related to CJD in humans. But what began as speculation never has been proven conclusively — precisely the point Venters is trying to make. First, as Venters argues, a very robust species barrier exists between humans and other mammals — a fact that has been borne out in studies with laboratory mice. Mice that were genetically altered to carry the human prion associated with nvCJD have not contracted BSE, even after they were injected with the prion associated with the cattle disease. Venters even questions whether the so-called new variant CJD associated with mad cow disease really is new and variant. Granted, new CJD cases involving mostly young people occurred at about the same time in Britain that BSE was diagnosed in cattle. This led many scientists to speculate there was a link between the two. Until then, CJD cases typically were associated with much older people. Even so, one of these young victims was a vegetarian, and the percentage of victims who had eaten hamburger was, statistically speaking, no different than the general population. Venters uncovered even more tantalizing clues in the course of his investigation. As he learned, the first recorded case of CJD in the 1920s — long before BSE was detected in Britain — involved a 23-year-old patient whose clinical symptoms were entirely consistent with those of younger CJD patients in Britain in the 1990s. These findings and many more led Venters to conclude that nvCJD was not new and variant after all — a rare disease, yes, but one that has simply not been adequately diagnosed. Venters' main argument has been supported by Britain's Edinburgh-based National CJD Surveillance Unit. The scientific panel associated with this unit concluded that there was little evidence to establish a positive link between eating beef and nvCJD, though they were not willing to exclude such a link. They were, however, unable to identify other dietary or occupational factors that may contribute to the disease. Media hype notwithstanding, CJD remains a mystery disease with no known cause. And it may be years or even decades before the actual cause is known.

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2017-04/3221/en_head.json.gz/19904

Cattle markets adjust to larger supplies: Outlook Jan 13, 2017 Crop protection industry needs to stay united to protect products Jan 12, 2017 OUTLOOK 2017: Ag economists explore the best options for producers Jan 12, 2017 Texas Ag Commissioner hopes to talk trade initiative with Israel Jan 10, 2017 Wheat state lawmakers form Grains Caucus WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of High Plains and western congressmen and senators have announced the formation of a Congressional Grains Caucus to promote the long-term economic viability of domestic grain producers and the grain industry. "I am pleased to join with my colleagues, Congressmen Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., to establish the Congressional Grains Caucus to focus attention on the small grains industry in our country and the issues that impact it from the field to the mill," said Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Texas. Senate co-chairs are Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and Max Baucus, D-Mont. Members of the Congressional Grains Caucus will work on behalf of wheat, barley, oats and other small grains producers, as well as the processing, handling/shipping and milling sectors of the grain industry. Most of the caucus members are from wheat-producing states, although their efforts do not appear to be limited to wheat. Stenholm, ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, said caucus members will also attempt to educate other Members of Congress about the importance of grain in people's diets, the effects of trade and food aid on the domestic grain industry, and the effects of domestic policy on farmers, growers and millers. "Given the constant discussion of carbohydrates in people's diets today, members of the Grains Caucus will remind our colleagues that grain products are an essential part of our diets, and that a calorie is a calorie, whether it comes from the bread or the turkey you use to make your sandwich," Stenholm said. Texas produced 97 million bushels of winter wheat out of 1.7 billion bushels produced in the United States in 2003. Wheat production accounts for nearly $300 million in producers' pockets, and the wheat industry generates almost $1 billion for the Texas economy. Thousands of jobs are involved, from the seed and fertilizer dealers to the longshoremen who load the wheat on to ships for export at our port cities, according to the caucus members. Congressman Stenholm is expected to be involved in a close race for re-election in November after the Texas Legislature combined portions of his district with that of freshman Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock. Neugebauer won the seat of former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest, who retired in May 2003. e-mail: [email protected]

农业

2017-04/3221/en_head.json.gz/20363

CIB Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain The ground beetle Pseudophonus rufipes revealed as predator of Ceratitis capitata in citrus orchards Castanera P.,CIB Biological Control | Year: 2011 The Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) is a major citrus pest in Spain. Although medfly is being controlled chemically, alternative biorational strategies should be developed, like those based on conservation biological control of polyphagous predators. The ground beetle Pseudophonus rufipes (De Geer) is the most abundant carabid inhabiting the ground of citrus orchards in eastern Spain. However, little is known about its activity-density and predatory role against C. capitata in the citrus agroecosystem. Here, we report on its predatory potential on the medfly's developmental stages that take place in the citrus ground. This carabid species preyed efficiently on C. capitata third instar larvae and especially on pupae but not on teneral adults. Moreover, predation under field conditions was evaluated by detecting C. capitata DNA remains using PCR-based gut-content analysis. Half-life DNA detectability of C. capitata was of 32.33. h. Pseudophonus rufipes specimens were field-collected after C. capitata sterilized pupae were deployed in a commercial citrus orchard. Thereafter, the carabids captured by pitfall traps were analyzed, being DNA-remains of C. capitata detected in 22.2% of them. Data reported here clearly suggest that P. rufipes could play an important role in regulating medfly populations in citrus orchards. This information is particularly useful when biological control conservation strategies are being considered to control this pest. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. Comparative analysis of production and purification of homo- and hetero-polysaccharides produced by lactic acid bacteria Notararigo S.,CSIC - Biological Research Center | Nacher-Vazquez M.,Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology IATA | Ibarburu I.,University of the Basque Country | Werning M.,CSIC - Biological Research Center | And 6 more authors. Carbohydrate Polymers | Year: 2013 Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce homopolysaccharides (HoPS) and heteropolysaccharides (HePS) with potential functional properties. In this work, we have performed a comparative analysis of production and purification trials of these biopolymers from bacterial culture supernatants. LAB strains belonging to four different genera, both natural as well as recombinant, were used as model systems for the production of HoPS and HePS. Two well characterized strains carrying the gft gene were used for β-glucan production, Pediococcus parvulus 2.6 (P. parvulus 2.6) isolated from cider, and the recombinant strain Lactococcus lactis NZ9000[pGTF] (L. lactis NZ9000[pGTF]). In addition, another cider isolate, Lactobacillus suebicus CUPV225 (L. suebicus CUPV225), and Leuconostoc mesenteroides RTF10 (L. mesenteroides RTF10), isolated from meat products were included in the study. Chemical analysis of the EPS revealed that L. mesenteroides produces a dextran, L. suebicus a complex heteropolysaccharide, and the β-glucan producing-strains the expected 2-substituted (1,3)-β-glucan. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. Azeri oil disaster an open wound for survivors Site: http://www.reuters.com A fire still burns from the worst ever accident in Azerbaijan's oil industry. An enquiry continues on the Dec. 4 disaster which took around 30 lives when a 27-hour storm raged across the Caspian Sea. "When the fire started, we sat in two lifeboats, but did not put them down on the sea surface as we were afraid that a storm could break them into pieces," Allakhverdi Mamedov, who was in charge of the stricken platform above the Guneshli oil field, told Reuters. "We were sitting and waiting for rescuers, when the hawsers of the other boat ripped, it dropped into the water and collapsed. Hawsers, which were holding other boats, broke as they did not withstand the pressure from the storm." That lifeboat was sent plunging into the sea where the impact broke it up, spilling those on board. Only two workers from that boat survived. Those in Mamedov's lifeboat spent the night dangling from the platform. They were only rescued the following day when, after the storm had subsided somewhat, a rescue helicopter was able to land on the platform. Thirty workers were lost after Guneshli, operated by Azeri state energy company SOCAR caught fire after the storm caused some of the its production equipment to collapse, damaging a natural gas pipeline. "I thought it was the last day of my life. We were afraid that the platform would blow up. The picture was horrible – heavy wind, high waves ... My very close friends died. It’s very painful to recollect that events," another worker, who declined to give his name, said. Rescuers have discovered nine bodies and search for 21 more as well as three workers who were swept into the sea from another platform some 11.5 miles (18.5 kilometers) away. The rig accident was the worst since the U.S. drilling ship Seacrest capsized during a typhoon in the Gulf of Thailand in 1989, killing more than 90 people. The previous biggest accident on an offshore oil platform in Azerbaijan killed 22 men in 1957. "This is the biggest tragedy in SOCAR's history. The fire on Guneshli platform was the biggest in Azerbaijan's oil industry since 1949, when the country started offshore oil production," SOCAR's vice president, Khalik Mamedov, told Reuters. "We lost 33 men in one day and that's horrible." "The chances of finding anyone alive equal zero," said SOCAR's first vice president, Khoshbakht Usifzade. "We lost our friends ... But we do our best to find bodies and hand them over to relatives." . Azeri and American specialists worked together to put out fires from oil and gas wells. "Thank to these efforts, the fire was extinguished on several wells, including one, where there was the risk of an oil spill, but some gas wells are still on fire," said Balamirza Agaragimov, chief engineer at Azneft, SOCAR's production union. "There were abnormal weather conditions that day and we could not expect that. The wind, which lasted for 27 hours, lifted waves to 8-10 meters height," SOCAR's Khalik Mamedov said. Critics questioned safety measures on the platform, which was built in 1984 with a 50-year operation term. "There were some shortcomings in the gas pipeline on the platform, which were difficult to identify, when the weather was normal," said Mirvari Gakhramanly, head of Azerbaijan's Oil Workers' Rights Protection Committee. Gakhramanly, who was the first to report fatalities, said that mistakes had been made during the evacuation. Usifzade said the company would review safety measures on its platforms, many of which were built in Soviet times. "We are not going to sit on our hands, of course ... Our engineers will think about new safety measures on platforms in case of very high waves," he said. He added the company also planned to buy new lifeboats. "Those lifeboats were modern and had been purchased in South Korea. But it seems we need to buy other lifeboats with a different modification, which are more suitable for our weather conditions," Usifzade said. The platform had daily production of 920 tonnes of oil and 1.08 million cubic meters of gas. It is one of 14 platforms on the Guneshli oilfield. SOCAR produces about 60 percent of its oil from Guneshli. Unlike for other major oil producers, foreign companies do not provide servicing for SOCAR-led platforms, a total number of 193 and most of them build in 1980s. British oil major BP, which accounts for around 75 percent of Azeri oil production, runs a total of eight platforms. BP said that its operations were not affected by the outage. Valery Nesterov, a veteran analyst with Moscow-based Sberbank CIB, said that offshore oil and gas production is always associated with big risk, even if safety is on the highest level. "Such accidents are again raising a big question over the need to explore Arctic offshore," Nesterov said. Development Bank Nafin Issues Mexico's First Green Bond News Article | November 9, 2015 Site: http://cleantechnica.com The global green bonds market continues to expand into the developing countries which hold immense potential to attract several new investors. Mexico’s state-owned development bank Nacional Financiera S.N.C, or Nafin, recently issued the first green bond of the country. The bank issued bonds worth $500 million for a coupon rate of 3.41% for a period of 5 years. Rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch rated the bond A3 and BBB+, respectively. The bonds are also the first in Latin America to have received Climate Bonds Certification. The coupon rate of the bond issue possibly seemed very attractive to investors as the issue was oversubscribed 5 times; that is prospective investors were ready to pour in as much as $2.5 billion in the issue. The coupon rate was 190 basis points more than that of the 5-year US Treasury Bond. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, and Daiwa Capital Markets America were the lead managers for the issue, while Sustainalytics provided a second review for the bond issue. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is among the top 5 underwriters for green bonds issued this year so far. The proceeds of the bond issue will be used to finance 9 wind energy projects located in various parts of Mexico. According to the Climate Bonds Initiative, the total green bonds issuance this year has now crossed $33 billion, just shy of the 2014 total issuance of $36.59 billion. As per a report recently published by the United Nations, demand for green bonds is significantly higher than the supply. And Moody’s expects developing countries, especially India and China to play a major role in the expansion of the global green bonds market. Get CleanTechnica’s 1st (completely free) electric car report → “Electric Cars: What Early Adopters & First Followers Want.” Come attend CleanTechnica’s 1st “Cleantech Revolution Tour” event → in Berlin, Germany, April 9–10. Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter. NHTSA Recommends Automatic Braking To Be Part Of Five Star Safety Requirements Site: http://www.techtimes.com/rss/sections/auto.xml In a bid to make the streets safer, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration intends to recommend and include automatic emergency as part of the five-star vehicle safety ratings. This addition to the safety ratings will start with 2018 models. The NHTSA announced in September that it has reached agreements with 10 carmakers to use the AEB technology as a standard feature in their vehicles. "We are adding automatic emergency braking features to the 5-Star Rating System because crash-avoidance technologies can save lives and should be widely accessible. AEB can substantially enhance safety, especially with the number of distracted drivers on the road," Anthony Foxx, U.S. transportation secretary, says in a news release. AEB technology is a semi-autonomous system that can put a vehicle to a complete stop or slow it down before a rear-end crash occurs, significantly saving a lot of lives. It is estimated to reduce rear-end collisions, which cause the death of 1,700 car occupants on a yearly basis, up to 80 percent. This technology can automatically engage the brakes when it detects possible collision using both radar and camera sensors, regardless of whether the driver is aware or not. It's divided into two systems: crash imminent braking (CIB) and dynamic brake support (DBS). CIB is responsible for applying brakes when the driver is unaware of an imminent rear-end collision, whereas DBS is in charge of making sure that the vehicle is using enough braking power when the driver is not applying enough to avoid a rear-end collision. The NHTSA has been recommending advanced safety technologies since 2011, including electronic stability control (ESC), lane departure warnings and forward collision warnings. Also, the agency replaced ESC with mandated rearview video systems in 2014 — a requirement starting with 2019 vehicles. To make advanced safety technologies more widespread to the public, the NHTSA created a website as well as a video about AEB technology. The video below demonstrates how AEB technology works, explaining how the two systems will function to prevent rear-end crashes.

农业

2017-04/3221/en_head.json.gz/20777

Market Fresh: Santa Rosa plums July 21, 2012 | 9:00 Luther Burbank was one of the most prolific plant breeders ever, responsible for developing the russet potato that bears his name as well as more than 800 varieties of fruits and vegetables. But while he is probably best remembered for that potato -- it and its progeny are still the most widely planted varieties in the world -- fruit lovers would argue that his crowning achievement was the Santa Rosa plum. Introduced in 1906, the Santa Rosa is still the gold standard for farmers market plum flavor, though it has fallen out of favor commercially. As late as the 1960s, the Santa Rosa still accounted for more than a third of California's plum harvest; now it has dropped to only a percent or two, as growers have abandoned it in favor of bigger, firmer fruit. Fortunately, they are still available at farmers markets. And after you bite into a rich, tangy Santa Rosa, almost anything else tastes insipid. How to choose: Santa Rosas should be slightly soft and fragrant. If there are white spots on the skin, don't worry. Those are just naturally occurring yeasts that have collected there. Actually, it's a good indicator that the fruit hasn't been overhandled. How to store: If they're a little too firm, leave plums at room temperature for a day or two and they'll continue to ripen. Once they're fully ripe, refrigerate them. How to prepare: Plums make terrific crisps -- chop them, sweeten them with a little sugar and toss with a little flour or cornstarch to thicken the juices. Put the plums in a baking dish and top with a crumbly mixture of ¼ cup butter, ½ cup flour and ¼ cup sugar that you've cut together in a bowl or in a food processor. Bake at 350 degrees until the fruit is melted and fragrant and the topping has browned and crisped. -- Russ Parsons Photo: Santa Rosa plums. Credit: Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times

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2017-04/3221/en_head.json.gz/21091

Agweb HomeFarm Journal HomeNewsIs Machine Learning the Future of Soil Fertility? Is Machine Learning the Future of Soil Fertility? The future of farming will rely on easy-to-use tools that give farmers quick, easy access to a variety of information. © SoilCares An agtech company from the Netherlands is about to make landfall on U.S. soil with a new technology it says could change the way farmers manage soil fertility. With its initiatives Springg and SoilCares, the company, Dutch Sprouts, works with Talend, a big data integration company, to blend a mix of hardware and software to gather and analyze soil samples around the globe. It all starts with a handheld scanner that allows farmers to analyze soils on the go, according to Angelique van Helvoort, head of marketing and communications with Dutch Sprouts. “You simply scan the soil and transfer it to our database,” she says. “Within minutes, a readout and fertilizer advice is sent to the user’s smartphone. In total, the process takes about ten minutes. It’s really quite easy.” The scanner uses mid-infrared reflectance and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy to “see” detailed information about the soil’s organic components and texture. It also enables farmers to learn about their soil’s concentrations of pH and the main nutrients. By using the same scanner but different algorithms, farmers will soon also be able to determine nutrient levels in animal feed. The key to success is having a broad database so the samples are correctly calibrated and can make accurate predictions about nutrient levels in the soil. To do this, thousands of samples must be taken. Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, each subsequent sample gets more and more accurate. “It improves with every sample added to the database,” van Helvoort says. van Helvoort says the company has finished a successful pilot program in Kenya. She hopes farmers in this market will find the technology to be a game-changer, where they are suddenly exposed to soil fertility information they’ve never had access to before. In fact, according to former Springg CEO Wouter Kerkhof, of the world’s 500 million farmers, only about 20 million of them can afford the time or money it takes to test soil samples through traditional laboratories. The goal is to take this agtech and stretch it worldwide. One of the next target markets – the United States. Currently, samples are being collected in the Fargo, N.D., area, a necessary step before launching broadly in the U.S. “We need a good database before we can enter a new market,” van Helvoort says, adding that the future of farming will rely on easy-to-use tools like this that give farmers quick, easy access to a variety of information. 12 Ways Remote Technology Can Improve Your Irrigation 10/26/2016 4:45:00 PM Comments

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Producers turn up the hay production in 2016 Jan 19, 2017 Weekly Cattle Market Wrap-Up | Winter storms impact feeder, slaughter receipts Jan 19, 2017 Obama’s national monument designations total 550 million acres Jan 17, 2017 Who are the biggest seedstock suppliers in the U.S.? BEEF ranks the top 100 Jan 16, 2017 Livestock>Cow-Calf Temple Grandin Biopic To Debut On HBO On Feb. 6 The U.S. beef industry will be front and center of America on Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. (EST). That marks the premiere on HBO of a biopic entitled “Temple Grandin.” The work chronicles the developmental and early professional Joe Roybal 1 | Dec 30, 2009 The U.S. beef industry will be front and center of America on Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. (EST). That marks the premiere on HBO of a biopic entitled “Temple Grandin.” The work chronicles the developmental and early professional years of Temple Grandin, the noted animal behaviorist and designer of livestock-handling facilities. Probably no person has had a greater effect over the past few decades on livestock handling in the U.S. or worldwide than Grandin, a Colorado State University professor of animal science. Grandin-designed facilities are in use throughout the world; in North America, almost half of all cattle are handled in a center-track restrainer system she designed for meat plants. Her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling. But Grandin’s accomplishments are particularly noteworthy because she’s one of the world’s highest functioning autistics. She’s worked to foster a better understanding of autism among the general population and is a prominent advocate for autism rights. And it’s that vein that the HBO presentation explores using the livestock industry as a backdrop to her personal discovery and development. “It’s a really important story to tell. We’ve got to get kids into good educational programs and we’ve got to show that people with autism can do things. There are a lot of successful people who have even mild autism; I see them in all kinds of fields – construction, computer programmers and engineering. I even recognized autism traits in some of the people on the HBO set,” she says. “Temple Grandin” is directed by Mick Jackson from a screenplay by Christopher Monger and William Merritt Johnson that’s based on the books “Emergence,” by Grandin and Margaret Scariano, and “Thinking in Pictures” by Grandin. The production is studded with big names: Golden Globe winner Claire Danes portrays Grandin in a two-decade period that chronicles Grandin’s challenges, growth and triumphs in the 1960s and ’70s. Julia Ormond plays Grandin’s mother Eustacia, Catherine O’Hara is her Aunt Ann, and David Strathairn is her influential high school science teacher and mentor Dr. Carlock. The film’s publicity notes describe the work this way: “The film chronicles Temple’s early diagnosis; her turbulent growth and development during her school years; the enduring support she received from her mother, her aunt and her science teacher; and her emergence as a woman with an innate sensitivity and understanding of animal behavior.” The film provides a fascinating and unique blend of storytelling sprinkled with first-person perspective. Viewers are schooled on Grandin’s autism by being taken inside her mind with a series of snapshot images that trace her self-perceptions and journey from childhood to the beginning of her career. Director Jackson explains: “Before Temple, nobody had said, ‘this is how it feels. This is what day to day, moment to moment, second to second, an autistic person goes through.’ And yet, through her writings and lectures, Temple had done that, and I thought this would be a wonderful and unique opportunity. We could use all the techniques of cinema to try and bring this very different perception of the world to light for other people.” Credit for realization of the work goes to executive producer Emily Gerson Saines, mother of an autistic child. She was given Grandin’s book “Thinking in Pictures,” which helped her maneuver through her son’s very difficult early years. “When I read Temple’s book it became my singular source of hope. It allowed me to believe that my son could one day contribute something to society,” she says. Hoping to bring the moving story to life, Gerson Saines reached out to Grandin, whose familiarity with Gerson Saines’ cofounding of the Autism Coalition was the ticket to their collaboration. “Temple’s story was that of a woman who didn’t overcome her autism, but who used her autism to great effect,” explains Gerson Saines. “Temple not only changed the face of the livestock industry, but she really changed the face of autism. She was able to tell people what it was she was feeling and, to a greater extent, how it made her feel.” Grandin is very effectively portrayed in the film by Danes. In fact, anyone who actually knows Grandin should be awed by Danes’ accurate depiction of her mannerisms and speech. I have seen an advance copy of the film, and Danes’ depiction of Grandin is spot on; it’s an amazing and moving acting performance. Danes says her experience in becoming Grandin was “both a visual and auditory exercise.” The duo met for half a day in Danes’ New York apartment, and Grandin provided Danes with hours of her videotaped presentations. During their meeting, Danes recorded some of their conversations, which her vocal coach then broke down into segments for her to download onto her iPod. Through a series of daily drills, Danes quickly adopted Grandin’s cadence and speech patterns. Besides repeatedly viewing Grandin in videotapes and studying her language and body movements, Danes says she spent weeks reading literature on autism, observing at autistic schools, meeting with autistic teenage girls, and working with coaches to reproduce Grandin’s speech and body movements. "Temple describes herself as a visual thinker and that language is basically secondary for her," Danes says. "I tried to see like that, to render that. Sometimes I would attempt to think the way that she does and I would find myself making sort of visual puns when I was in that mode." Grandin says she’s impressed by the final work. “I hope this movie will do a lot of things, better awareness of autism being one thing. But, I thought it was wonderful. I was watching Claire being me and it was like traveling in a time machine back to the 1960s and ’70s.” Grandin’s involvement in the work was integral. “I read over the script and they changed things I hated. I was adamant that they depict me as I was. I never did a lot of boy chasing and dating; tons of romantic stuff is not part of my life. I have to admit I occasionally used a few swear words. “And the cattle had to be right. I didn’t want Holstein calves or a situation like in the movie ‘City Slickers’ where the cattle weren’t right,” Grandin says. Overall, the production is true to actual events, though there is some time compression of events in order to fit the story, she says. “I think the beef industry comes across very well in this movie. I had a lot of input into making my cattle stuff accurate and they showed a feedyard as a door to opportunity, so the beef industry was presented very well,” Grandin says. RelatedSponsored ContentProtecting against scoursDec 21, 20166 Trending Headlines: Learning from some really, really old bacteria; PLUS: Last-minute VFD adviceDec 19, 2016Autogenous vaccine is another pinkeye control optionSep 12, 2016Market-leading vaccine package gets new lookAug 25, 2016 Load More

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2017-04/3221/en_head.json.gz/21375

David Taylor stands outside the first portal entry to the Live Earth mine of humic and fulvic shale.The original building in Emery for Live Earth Products.By PATSY STODDARDEditor Live Earth Products of Emery is celebrating 20 years in business. Live Earth has grown from a one-man operation to a company that sells and ships products worldwide. The company focuses on three main areas of production and distribution. Product is sold for agricultural uses for the crop land. Product is used as a supplement for animals and thirdly the product is produced for human consumption. David Taylor is the founder of Live Earth Products and is assisted in the business by sons Russell and Keith. Taylor started the company in 1986 under Miracle Rock Mining and Research. A family friend had done research on the product looking for an alternative to petroleum based fertilizer products. There had been much research done on this product, but it never made it out of the research phase until Taylor decided to develop the product. He began producing liquid fertilizer in an old bath tub. He discovered what works and what doesn't. The first customer was a company out of New York that bought the fertilizer. They specialized in organic lawn care. The product is very environmentally friendly. The mineral rich product adds nutrients to the soil and builds it up. Taylor said when you watch the Rose Bowl football game this New Year's Day, then look at the turf on the football field. The Rose Bowl swears by Live Earth Products and uses it to maintain their field through the hard wear and tear of the football season. The announcer at last year's game said the turf on the Rose Bowl field compared to the Augusta golf course where he would be attending the Master's Golf tournament. Live Earth Products can be compared to a very rich compost like matter. You can compare 1,500 pounds of compost to 50 pounds of Live Earth product. The product enables the plant to easily uptake the nutrients in the fertilizer. In 1990, Taylor put together a deal with Emery Town and economic development to acquire land for their new building. Emery Town donated the land. Prior to building the new building the product was processed at the mine site. Taylor mined the ore himself and on weekends his two sons who were 8 and 10 years old at the time, helped dig. Russ still lives in Emery and Keith lives in Ferron. Taylor is proud of the family business that has allowed him to raise his family out of the city. Taylor began adding employees after purchasing the building. "Morgan Hatch has been here since the beginning and he's really my right hand guy. We now have 12 employees and sales representatives all over the world. We have a number of trucks in and out of here each day. There's really not much competition in our industry. We are the Cadillac of our industry," said Taylor. On this day, Bruce Steward from Indiana with REK Express was loading product bound for Minnesota to feed the pigs as a mineral feed supplement. Steward said the pigs really thrive when the supplement is added to their regular diet. Russ said, "A lot of our work is seasonal in the fall and in the spring is when the agricultural customers will add the fertilizer to their soils. We usually see about five trucks a day during this time. The product is bagged or bulk. Our product is shipped worldwide and it goes overseas, by ship or by air. The building where the food grade products are produced has a bucket elevator on the outside where the product enters the building. It is then stored in a tank which holds 10 ton of product. Purified water is added to the product by a reverse osmosis process filtration system. The product sets for 24-48 hours and then is drained into large drums or smaller buckets of liquid product. This liquid product can be used to drink as a dietary supplement for the healthy minerals found within and the product is also used in beauty cremes and cosmetic products. A powdered version of the product is also used in cosmetics. Russ said the human consumption part of the business is USDA inspected and regulated. The mining side of the business is regulated and inspected by MSHA. Many of the human consumption products are shipped to South Africa, Amsterdam, Poland and Taiwan. They use the product in drink form, or powdered capsules. Russ described the product as humic and fulvic shale, which is an organic shale made up of plant materials 75 million years old. The products were deposited when the whole area was under a large lake which extended as far as the Grand Junction area. The product contains 72 trace minerals and micro and macro nutrients. After a farmer has a soil composition test completed then Live Earth can recommend the best product for their needs. They will also mix their product with other products such as potassium sulfate to develop just the right formula to meet the farmers needs for their land. Russ said it's a matter of farmers learning and understanding how the product works. The product really contributes to the soil. The product distribution runs between 250-400 pounds per acre depending on the soil in addition to your regular fertilizer schedule. The product breaks up nutrients in the soil and makes them more available for use by the soil. It also helps mitigate the affects of salt in the soil. The product hasn't really caught on yet in Utah. Utah only accounts for one half of one percent of sales for Live Earth. Live Earth does sell to some local hay producers and a lot in Richfield. The product is becoming more popular as more and more people use it. Idaho and Iowa and the surrounding states use a lot of the product. Potato growers have found they produce more baking potatoes, number one grade with the use of the fertilizer. Live Earth products are certified organic. David said in 1964, Dr. TL Sand researched the fertilizer and found it will increase the yield of a crop, but more importantly it increases the quality of the product and growers produce a higher quality product. If plants are healthier then they are more resistant to insects and disease. On the human consumption and health use benefits of the product, health benefits and claims can't be made, because the product isn't a drug. But, the mineral water has been found to be very useful in the treatment of burns. Powdered product is used in many famous cosmetics including the Estee Lauder anti-aging creams. Diabetics have also used the product to regulate their blood sugars. Many symptoms and illnesses can be traced back to mineral and vitamin deficiencies. There is also a spray available which contains the dry powder. "It's a very versatile product and some people swear by it," said David. He told of a doctor in Malaysia who used the powder and made it into a spray and used it to treat baldness. Some people who start using the product said it restored their hair color and the grayness went away. LiveEarth also produces organic beef on the side. They are the only organic beef producers in the state. This organic operation is made possible by use of the product both on the grazing pastures and as a nutritional supplement. The beef is sold to people in half or wholes and to high end restaurants. The Alta ski resort buys from the Taylors. The Taylors maintain a 30 head mother herd and irrigate 200 acres of pasture. There is an open container of the mineral supplement which the cattle can consume at any time. Taylor told of a hog operation that mixes 2 percent product with their food and the hogs were raised medicine free and garnered a high dollar and were shipped to Japan. The meat is considered blue carcass and is 30 percent leaner than regular. "I think everything just fell into place as we started this business and I am supposed to do this job. Russ and Keith are very involved in the business and they have been since the beginning. My employees are just magnificent and they are my greatest asset. I couldn't do it without them," said David. David likes to fish and hunt when he isn't traveling for the business. LiveEarth is a big community supporter. They donate to baseball and every year they buy the fireworks for the Emery 24th celebration. One organization that David really supports has a deep personal meaning, he lost his wife Kellie to cancer six years ago. Each year he donates to the Relay for Life in Kellie's name. David believes in offering good benefits to his employees and has health, dental and vision insurance for them. "I am happy and content here and couldn't ask for a better life. I was raised in Salt Lake, but have been here in Emery County 34 years now. I wanted to get my family out of the city and I have been fortunate to keep everyone fed over the years. With our company I am able to give that same opportunity to my family. I think our greatest export in this county is our children. My sons are able to stay here with the company. My daughters have married and Jessica is a teacher in Fountain Green and Chantel is an RN in the emergency room in Grand Junction. I have eight grandkids. I was a coal miner for 10 years at the Wilberg Mine and a welder/fabricator/electrician. I do miss my old friends from the coal mine. "I really enjoy working now with my sons. We get along great, there isn't any arguing and it's great being part of a family business," said David. He is leaving more of the overseas travel to his sons now so they can gain some experience and make those connections overseas. Keith is 34 now and Russ is 32. David is leaving shortly for a trade show in Michigan. He will help out companies at the trade show. There are eight companies in the Midwest that purchase 80 percent of what LiveEarth produces. These companies resell the product under their private labels which Taylor said doesn't bother him. He said an old timer once told him, it doesn't matter who's name is on the bag, it matters who's name is on the check. The mineral was mined underground for 17 years under approximately 65 feet of cover. It was a drill and shoot, room and pillar mining operation. Taylor holds leases on 160 acres of SITLA land and has 124 acres leased privately near the dinosaur quarry. All the ore is brought into Emery to be processed. The ore is now being mined above ground. Eight hundred thousand ton of liquid fertilizer is shipped annually. These are shipped by tanker and some smaller bottles are sold to golf courses. Additional facts about LiveEarth. Live Earth Products Maintain an Ideal Carbon/Nitrogen Balance. Most traditional chemical fertilizers lack carbon, while containing higher levels of nitrogen than plants can process at application time, which leads to waste. The carbon in animal-based products is not only accompanied by too many salts and heavy metals, it's also not in the form of carbon chain sugars for maximum benefit. Live Earth products introduce a high-energy, carbon food source into plants, turf and soil that balances nitrogen levels, for efficient uptake of already-present nitrogen. Live Earth's Organic Products Are Composed of Thoroughly Composed Matter. Live Earth provides an organic mixture only found in completely decomposed, ancient plant life. While other products' sources are usually not entirely broken down, rendering them largely ineffective, Live Earth products contain only the purest plant matter such as humus, nutrients, enzymes, minerals, natural surfactants, bio-stimulants, and fulvic, ulmic and amino acids. Some companies offer fertilizers high in animal protein, or sometimes no protein at all, which may take years to break down; Live Earth products are rich in everything you need, ready to go now. Live Earth Products Offer High Concentration of Pure Humates. Many company's products don't contain humates, and nowhere will you find a purer source of high-grade humates than Live Earth. We use highly effective extraction methods to go after only the most mature and beneficial humates. Live Earth Products Work Without High Levels of Salts. Healthy microorganisms are essential to plant growth. Live Earth leaves out the high levels of salts and heavy metals. As a result, the microorganism population in the soil is allowed to thrive while effectively processing the soil to make nutrients more available to root systems. The benefit to you? Plants that are more stress-tolerant, respond to significantly lower levels of N-P-K fertilizers, and therefore cost much less to maintain. Live Earth Products Provide Easier Uptake with Chelated, Complexed Fulvic Acid. In contrast to traditional fertilizers, which contain EDTA or citric acids or no chelating agents at all, Live Earth products are rich in fulvic acid. This allows plants to easily assimilate those nutrients that are being introduced, as well as those already in the soil. The energy saved in this process is then redirected to enhanced growth, and production of proteins and carbohydrates. Chemical fertilizers have no positive effects on the soil. Live Earth humic acid products can improve the soil while adding nutrients to the soil. Our products increase the fertilizer and water holding capacity of the soil. Live Earth mines and manufactures humic and fulvic ingredients for agriculture, animal feeds, cosmetics, dietary supplements, bio-remediation, organic gardening, and lawn care. Humic acids are becoming a significant bio-stimulant to mainstream agricultural practices because of the many benefits that it contributes to the soil. Currently a crop is removed from the field and no plant material is returned to the soil. The humification process is hindered if no material is added and as a result the soil has reduced levels of organic compounds that will transition into humic acid. This process creates soils low in organic matter that may lack sufficient levels of humic acids to maintain proper fertilizer retention. Adding humic acid to a fertilizer program may help increase nutrient availability and retain the nutrients in the root zone.

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Monsanto adds analytics, risk management horsepower through pending acquisition Published online: Oct 14, 2013 Monsanto announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Climate Corporation for a cash purchase price of approximately $930 million. According to the company, the acquisition will combine The Climate Corporation's expertise in agriculture analytics and risk-management with Monsanto's R&D capabilities, and will provide farmers access to more information about the many factors that affect the success of their crops. Monsanto expects to expand the The Climate Corporation's work in the area of data science, which its says represents the agriculture sector's next major breakthrough, and will immediately expand both the near- and long-term growth opportunities for Monsanto's business and Integrated Farming Systems platform. "The Climate Corporation is focused on unlocking new value for the farm through data science," said Hugh Grant, chairman and chief executive officer for Monsanto. "Everyone benefits when farmers are able to produce more with fewer resources. The Climate Corporation team brings leading expertise that will continue to greatly benefit farmers and their bottom-line, and we want to expand upon this tremendous work and broaden their reach to more crops and more world areas. We look forward to working closely with our distribution partners and others in the agricultural industry to bring this suite of information resources to the farm." The Climate Corporation was founded in 2006 by a team of software engineers and data scientists formerly with Google and other Silicon Valley technology companies. Since that time, the company has built an advanced technology platform for agriculture, combining hyper-local weather monitoring, agronomic data modeling, and high-resolution weather simulations to deliver a complete suite of full-season monitoring, analytics and risk-management products. "Farmers around the world are challenged to make key decisions for their farms in the face of increasingly volatile weather, as well as a proliferation of information sources," said David Friedberg, chief executive officer for The Climate Corporation. "Our team understands that the ability to turn data into actionable insight and farm management recommendations is vitally important for agriculture around the world and can greatly benefit farmers, regardless of farm size or their preferred farming methods. Monsanto shares this important vision for our business and we look forward to creating even greater experiences for our farmer customers." The Climate Corporation has a core set of support tools for agriculture, including products that help farmers boost yields on existing farmland and better manage risks that occur throughout a crop season. The Climate Corporation will continue to offer its current risk-management products, including an online service that provides crop planning, monitoring, and recommendations, and insurance offerings through its network of independent agents. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of Monsanto's 2014 fiscal year. Following the acquisition, The Climate Corporation will operate its business to retain its brand identity and customer experience. The company will continue to maintain headquarters in Silicon Valley and all of its employees will be offered continued employment. Monsanto says that the acquisition of The Climate Corporation represents a natural extension of its vision to increase crop productivity, conserve natural resources and improve the lives of people around the world. It should also result in the expansion of The Climate Corporation's capabilities in data science, agriculture's next major growth frontier, an area that Monsanto says represents a potential opportunity of $20 billion beyond the company's core focus today. The companies estimate the majority of farmers have an untapped yield opportunity of up to 30 bushels to 50 bushels in their corn fields, and they believe that advancements in data science can help further unlock that additional value for the farm. The combined capabilities will immediately expand both the near- and long-term growth opportunities of Monsanto's Integrated Farming Systems platform and research and development pipeline in the coming years. Longer-term, the combination is expected to broaden the product choices available to farmers beyond Monsanto's current row crop and vegetable portfolio, both inside and outside of the United States. Source: www.precisionag.com

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Sealed with the Holy Spirit Ephesians 1 BQ111412 The following is an excerpt from The MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Ephesians 1 .You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13–14) As one means of guaranteeing His promises to those who have received Jesus Christ, God has sealed [them] in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Every believer is given the very Holy Spirit of God the moment he trusts in Christ. “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwell-s in you,” Paul declares (Rom. 8:9a). Conversely, he goes on to say, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (v. 9b). Incredibly, the body of every true Christian is actually “a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in [him]” (1 Cor. 6:19). When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in his life. Life in Jesus Christ is different because the Spirit of God is now within. He is there to empower us, equip us for ministry, and function through the gifts He has given us. The Holy Spirit is our Helper and Advocate. He protects and encourages us. He also guarantees our inheritance in Jesus Christ. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16–17). The Spirit of God is our securing force, our guarantee. The sealing of which Paul speaks here refers to an official mark of identification that was placed on a letter, contract, or other important document. The seal usually was made from hot wax, which was placed on the document and then impressed with a signet ring. The document was thereby officially identified with and under the authority of the person to whom the signet belonged. That is the idea behind our being sealed in Him [Christ] with the Holy Spirit of promise. The seal of God’s Spirit in the believer signifies four primary things: security, authenticity, ownership, and authority. Security. In ancient times the seal of a king, prince, or noble represented security and inviolability. When Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, King Darius, along with his nobles, placed their seals on the stone placed over the entrance to the den, “so that nothing might be changed in regard to Daniel” (Dan. 6:17). Any person but the king who broke or disturbed that seal would likely have forfeited his life. In a similar way the tomb where Jesus was buried was sealed. Fearing that Jesus’ disciples might steal His body and falsely claim His resurrection, the Jewish leaders obtained Pilate’s permission to place a seal on the stone and to guard it with soldiers (Matt. 27:62–66). In an infinitely greater way, the Holy Spirit secures each believer, marking him with His own inviolable seal. Authenticity. When King Ahab tried unsuccessfully to get Naboth to sell or trade his vineyard, Queen Jezebel volunteered to get the vineyard her way. “So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal” and sent the letters to various nobles who lived in Naboth’s city, demanding that they arrange false accusations of blasphemy and treason against him. The nobles did as they were instructed, and Naboth was stoned to death because of the false charges. The king then simply confiscated the vineyard he had so strongly coveted (1 Kings 21:6–16). Despite the deceptions contained in the letters Jezebel sent, the letters themselves were authentically from the king, because they were sent with his approval and marked with his seal. The seal was his signature. When God gives us His Holy Spirit, it is as if He stamps us with a seal that reads, “This person belongs to Me and is an authentic citizen of My divine kingdom and member of My divine family.” Ownership. While Jerusalem was under siege by Nebuchadnezzar and Jeremiah was under arrest by King Zedekiah for prophesying against the king and the nation, the Lord gave special instructions to His prophet. Jeremiah was told to buy some land in Anathoth for which he had redemption rights. The contract was agreed on, and the stipulated payment was made in the court of the palace guard before the required number of witnesses. In the presence of the witnesses the deed was signed and sealed, establishing Jeremiah as the new legal owner of the property (Jer. 32:10). When the Holy Spirit seals believers, He marks them as God’s divine possessions, who from that moment on entirely and eternally belong to Him, The Spirit’s seal declares the transaction of salvation as divinely official and final. Authority. Even after Haman had been hanged for his wicked plot to defame and execute Mordecai, Queen Esther was distressed about the decree that Haman had persuaded King Ahasuerus to make that permitted anyone in his kingdom to attack and destroy the Jews. Because the king could not even himself revoke the decree that was marked with his own seal, he issued and sealed another decree that permitted and even encouraged the Jews to arm and defend themselves (Esther 8:8–12). In both cases the absolute authority of the decrees was represented in the king’s seal. Those who possessed the sealed decree of the king had the king’s delegated authority set forth in the decree. When Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit they are delegated to proclaim, teach, minister, and defend God’s Word and His gospel with the Lord’s own authority. Related Products (for purchase): Ephesians Commentary (Hardcover)

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NeFU: NeFU Brings Country Support for COOL to DC For Immediate Release Contact: John Hansen 402-476-8815Nebraska Farmers Union Brings Country Support for COOL to Washington, DC LINCOLN (May 22, 2015) – Nebraska Farmers Union (NeFU) sent two of their state leaders to Washington, DC this past week as a part of the National Farmers Union (NFU) targeted Spring Fly-In on Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) to show the strong support that family farmers and ranchers from across the country have for COOL. The message from NeFU President John Hansen and NeFU Secretary Mike Sarchet of Minatare joined sixty other local and state Farmers Union officers from 27 states to ask their elected officials in Congress to allow the World Trade Organization (WTO) process to conclude their established process without interference from Congress. “Family farmers and ranchers as well as consumers continue to strongly support COOL. U.S. consumers want to know where the food they are buying for their families came from. U.S. family farmers and rancher food producers want to be able to identify and differentiate their own food products in their own domestic marketplace just as their competitors do in 70 countries of the world that have some sort of mandatory COOL,” said John Hansen, NeFU president. “We need to remember that the WTO decision did not outlaw COOL. It did say the U.S. would need to make changes, not repeal the law altogether.” The Farmers Union delegation met with both Nebraska Senators and all three Congressmen to ask them to allow the WTO process to continue forward. While Canada has made ever changing claims as to damages they have incurred from COOL, they are not entitled to any more damages than they can prove. “There is a lot of difference between what you can say in a press release and what you can prove in an international court of arbitration,” said Mike Sarchet, NeFU Secretary from Minatare. “We want the process to go forward so that the negotiations can go forward. We know one thing for sure, if the shoe was on the other foot, the Canadian government would be dragging the process out as long as it possibly could, as they should if they thought their interests were at risk.” Based on the recent study done by C. Robert Taylor at Auburn, the economic collapse of 2008, not COOL caused a decrease in Canadian cattle exports to the U.S. as U.S. consumers tightened their pocketbooks and ate less beef. The study will make it difficult for Canada to prove that COOL has caused real economic harm to their agriculture sector. Canada is not entitled to any damages unless they can prove them. “While the recent WTO decision was disappointing, it is clear there is still a path forward for U.S. COOL,” said Hansen. “If 70 countries around the world can figure out how to implement mandatory COOL and be WTO compliant, we know the U.S. can figure out a way to implement COOL too. If the House Agriculture Committee wanted to be helpful, they would help find a way to implement COOL in a fashion that is WTO compliant. Instead, they chose to insert itself in the middle of the WTO process in an inappropriate and unprecedented fashion with the 38-6 passage of H.R. 2393 that would repeal COOL. That effort breaks faith with U.S. consumers, U.S. food producers, and Congress that has passed COOL multiple times before,” Hansen concluded. Nebraska Farmers Union is a general farm organization with 5,671 farm and ranch family members dedicated to protecting and enhancing the economic well-being and quality of life for family farmers and ranchers, and their rural communities. Since 1913, Nebraska Farmers Union has helped organize over 445 cooperatives.

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Hay Shortage Hits Texas Hay Pasture and Forages Print Email As Texas residents battle extreme drought conditions, horse owners are struggling to get their hands on enough hay to feed their animals. "The drought is quite widespread and covers nearly the entire state," said Dennis H. Sigler, PhD, a professor in the department of animal science at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and the TAMU Extension Horse Specialist. "Although some areas are much worse than others, all but just a couple of counties out of 254 are under a severe drought, with little relief in sight." Added Travis Miller, professor and associated head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at TAMU and Extension Program Leader, "We are experiencing the most severe one-year drought in Texas history. June 2011 was the warmest June and the fifth warmest month is our history of recorded weather. July 2011 set the record for the warmest month in recorded Texas history. While we made some good hay in 2010, our hay barns were empty from a very severe drought in 2009. We have been feeding livestock since October, and 2010 hays supplies are gone." For area horse owners, this means having to make tough decisions, dig deep into resources to find hay to purchase and deep in their pockets to pay for the forage they've found. "(Horse owners) are cutting back on horse numbers, shipping in hay from out of state, feeding bagged alfalfa cubes, and/or feeding lower quality forages than they have in the past," Sigler reported. "In the last couple of weeks I have heard of Bermuda grass hay square bales quoted at $7.50 to $9.00 from hay producers and up to $10 to $11 from feed stores, when (and if) available. Alfalfa hay (all shipped in from out of state) is priced at $10 to $14 a bale. Last year at this time grass hay was in the $5.00 to $6.50 range." Larry A. Redmon Ph.D., State Extension Forage Specialist, added that alfalfa pellets have become a popular option for owners looking for a forage source. Miller explained that while options are dwindling, Texas horse owners have some outlets available for assistance in finding forage: "The Texas Department of Agriculture keeps a Hay Hotline open, which is an exchange for buyers, sellers, and donors of hay. We also keep dozens of publications on drought management (which are available online)." Finally, he suggested horse owners consult their county extension agents: "These agents have quite a lot of resources to help horse owners." "Our only hope at this point is for tropical weather to bring large amounts of rain," Miller concluded. "We cannot predict when this drought will break."

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Pessimism Reigns Among Citrus Growers as Crops Continue to Decline Nearly a decade into the era of the bacterial disease citrus greening, Florida growers are pondering the existential question: Is there a future in Florida citrus? By KEVIN BOUFFARDTHE LEDGER ALTURAS | Nearly a decade into the era of the bacterial disease citrus greening, Florida growers are pondering the existential question: Is there a future in Florida citrus?The question has taken on more urgency following the past two seasons of unprecedented pre-harvest fruit drop from diseased trees."It's a plague of biblical proportions," said Scott Young, 57, an Alturas-based grower with 350 grove acres in Polk County, referring to the toll citrus greening has taken on his harvests in the past two seasons. "It's already critical. We're still in it, but we're clawing to hang on."As a third-generation citrus grower whose family business stretches to the 1930s, Young is committed to hanging on for another season or two, he said, because growing citrus is the only occupation he knows. But he's not optimistic, and neither are many of his fellow growers."For the first time ever in the citrus industry, you see despair because we've tried everything, and there's no silver bullet on the horizon," Young said. "This is doomsday; this is going to kill us."Just getting by for the next couple of seasons will mean downsizing, selling some of his best groves to raise the upfront cash needed for grove caretaking costs before more revenue comes in with the new fall harvest, Young said.Peace Valley Enterprise Inc., the family company, already has sold about 50 acres in recent years to raise cash for the new crop, he added."We're going to have to sell property that's been in the family for three generations," Young said.Peace Valley also will have to consider cutting back on its caretaking measures in the face of next season's declining crop and revenues, he said. That represents a genuine dilemma, as any letup in anti-greening caretaking measures could allow the disease to spread or cause more damage to the trees, which could further diminish the 2014-15 harvest.The rise in pessimism about the future of Florida citrus comes after growers hoped they could manage greening's deleterious effects through the decade, long enough to allow scientists to come up with a better strategy for counteracting or even curing the disease. Pre-harvest drop, which surfaced during the 2012-13 season, dashed such hopes."Two years ago, the industry was thinking we've got a Band-Aid and the crops were going to hold up," said Tom Spreen, emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of Florida in Gainesville and an authority on Florida citrus. "I think what's changed here is the expectation. I don't think anybody had foreseen production falling off the map the way it has."Although still bullish on Florida citrus, Ben Hill Griffin III agreed that the growers' mood has turned sour."There's a lot more pessimism in the citrus industry today because of pre-harvest drop," said Griffin, CEO of Ben Hill Griffin Inc. in Frostproof, one of the state's biggest growers, whose family firm dates to the 1930s.NEAR TOTAL INFECTIONGreening is a bacterial disease that weakens a citrus tree and eventually kills it.The disease was first discovered in Florida in the fall of 2005 near Homestead, but it had a history of devastating commercial citrus industries in Asia and Africa since its initial discovery in China in the early 20th century. Growers and researchers think greening has infected virtually all the state's 524,640 commercial citrus acres.In those first years into the era of greening, Florida growers thought they could manage the disease through more frequent pesticide spraying to tamp down populations of the Asian citrus psyllid, the bacteria's host that spreads the disease, and an enhanced fertilizer regimen that appeared to keep fruit on infected trees healthy. In 2007-08, Florida growers produced 170.2 million boxes of oranges, just 30 percent lower than the 242 million orange boxes harvested in 2003-04, before greening's arrival. In 2012-13, however, growers noticed an alarming level of pre-harvest drop of seemingly healthy fruit from diseased trees, even those getting enhanced fertilization. What the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected as a 154 million box orange crop at the beginning of the season finished at 133.6 million boxes, or 13 percent lower.When the recently completed 2013-14 season began in the fall, many growers had hoped pre-harvest drop was a single-season event. No such luck."We're pretty much at a low point right now," said Jay Clark, a Wauchula grower and former member of the Florida Citrus Commission. "There's probably more pessimism than there has been because we've just finished one of our worst years. This is a defining moment in the Florida citrus industry."Officially the USDA initially estimated 125 million orange boxes in the 2013-14 season. It finished with just 104.3 million boxes of oranges, nearly 17 percent less. Those averages mask more severe drop problems among some growers like Young.Young reported 2012-13 orange production in his groves declined 50 percent from the previous season largely because of pre-harvest drop, despite the fact that he took all recommended caretaking measures against greening. The drop problem grew worse this past season with production off 70 percent, Young said. Before greening, pre-harvest drop attributable to weather, pests and other diseases amounted to about 5 percent of his crop, he added.Rising farm prices for citrus fruit just barely helped take the edge off the crop losses."We're just not getting any kind of returns (profits) because the groves aren't picking out," Young said. "We'll be in the black (in 2013-14), but it will be slightly."Pre-harvest drop has caused the Florida Department of Citrus to reduce its 10-year projection of the state's citrus harvest drastically. Previous 10-year projections, updated annually, had accounted for declining production because of greening but had not accounted for pre-harvest drop. Whereas earlier projections put next season's orange crop at 138.2 million boxes, the revision done earlier this year puts the 2014-15 harvest at 106.6 million boxes, or 23 percent smaller, according to a report prepared by Matt Salois, the department's chief economist until his June resignation.The new projection for the orange crop in 10 years is 85.4 million boxes, down 32 percent from the previous estimate of 125.6 million boxes.The new projections are based on average drop rates for the past two seasons, said Salois, who acknowledged even those grim numbers may be optimistic. They are based on an economic model the department has employed for decades."The model needs to be reformulated. Until that's done, it isn't really relevant," he said. "The trouble we're experiencing with production is a yield-based issue, and we only have two (pre-harvest drop) data points on yields in the past two years."In fact, even Salois' revised projection overestimated the past season's orange crop. It projected 110 million boxes of oranges, lowered from the previous estimate of 139.1 million boxes but 5 percent above the latest USDA forecast of 104.3 million boxes.Indeed, many growers consider the Citrus Department's 10-year projection to be decidedly optimistic. Quentin Roe, CEO at Wm. G. Roe & Sons Inc. in Winter Haven, a family citrus business for nearly a century, projected the 2014-15 orange crop at less than 100 million, with declines continuing thereafter."The question is: How fast do you get to 80 million boxes?" Roe said. "I think we're going to get there in three years, no more than 4 years."At 80 million boxes, Roe said, the Florida citrus industry will see significant downsizing, not just among growers but also fresh fruit packinghouses and juice processing plants. Roe operates groves, packinghouses and a small processing plant.BETTING ON A CURENot everyone is so bearish on the future of Florida citrus, however."If you go back and look at all the earlier 10-year projections, they've never been correct. They've been all over the board," Griffin said. "I don't disregard it entirely. It's certainly trending that way. It would be ridiculous to say we'll produce 150 million boxes next year."But Griffin and other optimists base their hopes on what poker players call "betting on the come" — that the next card dealt will turn a weak or worthless hand into a winner. They're hoping scientists soon will come up with an effective treatment either for the drop problem or a wider solution to counteract greening's damage to their trees."I see advancement in many areas of scientific research that we didn't have three or four years ago," Griffin said.He cited heat treatment, which has been shown to kill the bacteria in single young trees but remains difficult to apply on a large scale; anti-bacterial agents that could kill the bacteria in mature trees; hampering or eliminating the psyllid's ability to host the greening bacteria; and breeding new tree varieties more tolerant or resistant to the disease.Meanwhile, Griffin said, growers can enhance their ability to survive economically through a proven method, denser planting of new groves, as many as 325 trees per acre. Denser plantings were not uncommon before greening, but even those groves had fewer than 200 trees per acre."We would have never planted 300 trees per acre 10 years ago," he said.Caretaking costs for denser groves stay close to the traditional architecture — currently about $2,200 per acre, more than double the costs before greening — but production and returns per acre remain profitable even if yields per tree diminish because of greening and pre-harvest drop, Griffin said. More trees per acre enable a grove to absorb greening-related losses and still have a profitable harvest."If we lose a tree and have that many trees per acre, we're still in the game," he said.Still, the costs of replacing existing groves remain daunting, Young said. That includes the cost of removing existing trees, a new irrigation system and the price of the new trees."It costs $35 to get a new tree into the ground before it takes a drink of water," Young added. "We're too small to be able to weather this kind of trauma. There's too much overhead."[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at [email protected] or at 863-401-6980. Read more on Florida citrus on his Facebook page, Florida Citrus Witness, http://bit.ly/baxWuU. ]

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Mangosteentree and fruit Garcinia mangostana, men-gu Mangosteen, (species Garcinia mangostana), handsome tropical tree of the family Clusiaceae, native to Southeast Asia, and its tart-sweet fruit. In Myanmar (Burma) it is called men-gu. Under favourable conditions, the slow-growing mangosteen tree can reach a height of 9.5 metres (31 feet). Individual trees have been reported to yield more than 1,000 fruits in a season.Siniguelas (Spondias purpurea, below) and purple mangosteens (Garcinia …© Daniel Zuckerkandel/Shutterstock.comThe tree has thick, dark green, glossy leaves, 15–25 cm (6–10 inches) long, borne in opposite pairs along the stem, and large, rose-pink flowers. The fruits are the size of a small orange, round or flattened on the ends. Mangosteens have a thick, hard, deep red rind surrounding snow-white flesh, which is in segments resembling those of a mandarin orange.Highly valued for its juicy, delicate texture and slightly astringent flavour, the mangosteen has been cultivated in Java, Sumatra, Indochina, and the southern Philippines from antiquity. It is a common dooryard tree in Indonesia. The mangosteen was fruited in English greenhouses in 1855, and subsequently its culture was introduced into the Western Hemisphere, where it became established in several of the West Indian islands, notably Jamaica. It was later established on the mainland in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Ecuador. The mangosteen generally does not prosper outside the tropics.Because the fruit must ripen on the tree and keeps only a short time, it is found only in local markets. Seedlings take 8 to 15 years to bear fruit. Mangosteens usually produce good crops only in alternate years. Any of several species of small trees or shrubs of the genus Citrus of the family Rutaceae and their nearly round fruits, which have leathery and oily rinds and edible, juicy inner... Malus domestica fruit of the domesticated tree Malus domestica (family Rosaceae), one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. The apple is a pome (fleshy) fruit, in which the... Vitis any member of the grape genus, Vitis (family Vitaceae), with about 60 species native to the north temperate zone, including varieties that may be eaten as table fruit, dried... American Cancer Society - Mangosteen Juice British Broadcasting Corporation - Mangosteen NewCROP - Mangosteen Phytochemicals - Mangosteen Tree and fruit Food Around the World Take this Food quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of the origins of chocolate, mole poblano, and other foods and dishes. A World of Food Take this Food quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of global cuisine. A Serving of Fruit Take this Food quiz at Encyclopedia Britannica to test your knowledge of cherries, peaches, and other fruits. Nutritional Powerhouses: 8 Foods That Pack a Nutritional Punch Sure, we all know that we’re supposed eat a balanced diet to contribute to optimal health. But all foods are not created equal when it comes to health benefits. Some foods are nutritional powerhouses that... https://www.britannica.com/plant/mangosteen

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Agweb HomeFarm Journal HomeNewsDairy Plant in the Works for SE Kentucky Dairy Plant in the Works for SE Kentucky A dairy processing plant planned for southeastern Kentucky intends to develop a low-calorie, lactose-free skim milk produced from Kentucky cows. Kentucky Dairy Product Innovations will open its plant in Laurel County where it has a lease-purchase agreement to acquire a 12,000-square-foot facility. Gov. Steve Beshear's office says the company plans to hire up to 20 workers and invest nearly $4 million into the project. The company expects to be operational by the end of the year. Beshear's office says the company's initial customer will be Fizza, which is also based in London, Kentucky. It produces a sparkling dairy nutrient beverage approved for sale at middle and high schools. The beverage is being co-packed by Prairie Farms Dairy of Somerset. The state has approved tax incentives of up to $200,000 for the project.

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Search FSE Data Themes and Projects Topics and Regions Rural Education Action Program < All FSE News May 1, 2014 U.S. corn yields growing more vulnerable to heat and drought Laura Seaman Cornyield_headliner.jpg An underdeveloped cob of corn sits in a field in 2012. Research by David Lobell of Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment indicates corn harvests are increasingly sensitive to heat and drought, which are becoming more common. Photo credit: Reuters/Darren Hauck Online: Greater sensitivity to drought accompanies maize yield increase in the US Midwest Corn yields in the central United States have become more sensitive to drought conditions in the past two decades, according to a new study in the journal Science from a team led FSE associate director David Lobell. "The Corn Belt is phenomenally productive," Lobell said, referring to the region of Midwestern states where much of the country's corn is grown. "But in the past two decades we saw very small yield gains in non-irrigated corn under the hottest conditions. This suggests farmers may be pushing the limits of what's possible under these conditions." He predicted that at current levels of temperature sensitivity, crops could lose 15 percent of their yield within 50 years, or as much as 30 percent if crops continue the trend of becoming more sensitive over time. As Lobell explained, the quest to maximize crop yields has been a driving force behind agricultural research as the world's population grows and climate change puts pressure on global food production. One big challenge for climate science is whether crops can adapt to climate change by becoming less sensitive to hotter and drier weather. "The data clearly indicate that drought stress for corn and soy comes partly from low rain, but even more so from hot and dry air. Plants have to trade water to get carbon from the air to grow, and the terms of that trade become much less favorable when it's hot," said Lobell, also the lead author for a chapter in the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, which details a consensus view on the current state and fate of the world's climate. Rain, temperature, humidity The United States produces 40 percent of the world's corn, mostly in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. As more than 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land relies on natural rainfall rather than irrigation, corn farmers in these regions depend on precipitation, air temperature and humidity for optimal plant growth. According to the research, over the last few decades, corn in the United States has been modified with new traits, like more effective roots that better access water and built-in pest resistance to protect against soil insects. These traits allow farmers to plant seeds closer together in a field, and have helped farmers steadily raise yields in typical years. But in drought conditions, densely planted corn can suffer higher stress and produce lower yields. In contrast, soybeans have not been planted more densely in recent decades and show no signs of increased sensitivity to drought, the report noted. Drought conditions are expected to become even more challenging as temperatures continue to rise throughout the 21st century, the researchers said. Lobell said, "Recent yield progress is overall a good news story. But because farm yields are improving fastest in favorable weather, the stakes for having such weather are rising. In other words, the negative impacts of hot and dry weather are rising at the same time that climate change is expected to bring more such weather." Extensive data Lobell's team examined an unprecedented amount of detailed field data from more than 1 million USDA crop insurance records between 1995 and 2012. "The idea was pretty simple," he said. "We determined which conditions really matter for corn and soy yields, and then tracked how farmers were doing at different levels of these conditions over time. But to do that well, you really need a lot of data, and this dataset was a beauty." Lobell said he hopes that the research can help inform researchers and policymakers so they can make better decisions. "I think it's exciting that data like this now exist to see what's actually happening in fields. By taking advantage of this data, we can learn a lot fairly quickly," he said. "Of course, our hope is to improve the situation. But these results challenge the idea that U.S. agriculture will just easily adapt to climate changes because we invest a lot and are really high-tech." Lobell and colleagues are also looking at ways crops may perform better under increasingly hot conditions. "But I wouldn't expect any miracles," he said. "It will take targeted efforts, and even then gains could be modest. There's only so much a plant can do when it is hot and dry." This animation shows the increasing sensitivity of U.S. corn to drought over time. Animation by Carlo Di Bonito. Share this News Recent News How China is Poised for Marine Fisheries Reform Joann de Zegher selected as SAWIT Challenge Finalist Stanford researchers find 15 million children in high-mortality hotspots in Sub-Saharan Africa USAID Releases 2016 Global Food Security Act Strategy Milestones, Markets and Malaise Stanford scientists combine satellite data, machine learning to map poverty What we need to know about the economics of climate change Ling Cao joins board of Aquaculture Stewardship Council All FSI News Contact us

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Shelby Farms Park Conservancy Signing Is Time To Celebrate The Power Of The Grassroots Art Wolff is a pain in the neck.As he once put it, he set out to be one and he’s gotten awfully good at it.For almost 35 years, he has upbraided mayors, disabused city and county engineers of any notion that they are godlike and lived the life of a pariah at hundreds of public meetings he attended.AnticipationBut last Friday, he sat in the audience and led the applause as his beloved Shelby Farms Park finally was preserved once and for all for future generations.It was a long time coming, but the anticipation only made the satisfaction sweeter, he said. The lesson to the rest of us: sometimes it is the rebel, the squeaky wheel and the in-your-face advocate who is a key in making something historic happen.For him, it all began in 1973 when Shelby County Government announced plans to use a 4,500-acre tract of public land at the heart of the Memphis region for a planned development. The outcry was immediate, and in time, county officials backed down after a firestorm of criticism, saying that the land would be “set aside for public use.”Public UsesIn the ensuing years, that “public use” included proposals for a zoo, a golf course and conference center, baseball stadium and community college; for selling off some of the land to pay for park development and for running a major highway through the heart of the park. Every time, Mr. Wolff was there leading the opposition, ratcheting up the heat and demanding for the land to be protected.Today, about 3,000 acres is largely as it was in 1973. About 1,000 acres is being used by Agricenter International, which signed on to the conservancy agreement and maintains control of the area earmarked for agricultural research and as a showcase for innovation.Sitting in the audience Friday with fellow elderly activists, Ken and Lois Kuiken, Mr. Wolff understood it was a day for dignitaries and speeches. To some in the room, it was also a day to celebrate a fact of life about cities that is too often forgotten – one person can still make a difference.Emphatic AnswersIn what seemed a direct response to questions asked by Mr. Wolff and others since the mid-1970s, Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton said: “Today is about more than the signing of this important conservancy agreement. More to the point, it’s county government’s answers to two questions first asked 34 years ago and every year since.“Today we deliver two answers: One, Shelby Farms Park is now and forever preserved and protected for all future generations of this county, and two, through this conservancy, Shelby Farms Park will be transformed into one of America’s great urban parks.”Effective August 1, the newly formed, 34-person Shelby Farms Park Conservancy will take charge of the operations, management and leadership of Shelby Farms Park. The nonprofit group will lead the development of a masterplan of national importance and will raise local and national funding to implement the plan, and it will operate all concessions, set all fees and make all decisions about the parkland. In addition, Shelby County Government agreed to keep its funding at its current level.History In The MakingSuccess on the conservancy was a major victory for Mayor Wharton’s style of leadership, the quiet influence of the Hyde Family Foundations on all things Memphis and the grassroots group, Friends of Shelby Farms Park, that morphed from an anti-everything organization into the platform for a new organization, Shelby Farms Park Alliance, that built consensus for the new direction for the park.An earlier effort – in 2002 – had failed after it turned into a political controversy more related to old political grievances than the merits of the actual proposal. Bruised and beaten, advocates for protecting the park regrouped, developed a new plan of action, recalibrated its message, communicated its vision and slowly and methodically put together a new collaboration of supporters over the past four years.There were milestones of progress as the pace quickened in recent years. The highly intrusive plans for the highway through the park were scrapped, replaced by the area’s first context sensitive design committee appointed by Mayor Wharton. After about a year of give and take, the committee produced a new road recommendation that balances transportation and environmental concerns.The Stars AlignedBuilding on that momentum, after decades of resisting a conservation easement for the park, county government signaled its interest in an agreement between key players at the park, and an easement was approved last December. The newfound optimism was warranted, because on March 26, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners – led by Commissioner Mike Carpenter – overwhelmingly voted in favor of the conservancy.First items on the conservancy agenda are to hire someone to lead the master planning process and to hire staff for the new organization. Faced with the opportunity to convert a black canvas of 3,000 acres of parkland into a great urban park, there should be no shortage of interest.Mayor Wharton said that over the past four years, time and time again, the right person emerged at just the right time to move things ahead. As he spoke, it was hard for us not to think of Laura Adams.Inching AheadOver that time, as progress was often measured in inches, small victories and the change of a word in an official document, she worked skillfully as president of Friends of Shelby Farms Park. Quickly, she became known for her diplomacy, persistence and commitment to success.In time, her explanations about what could be accomplished at the park were taken up by every one involved, and in time, she convinced her members that there was a better way to succeed than the regular confrontations which had defined the group for decades.To prove her point, she convinced the members to shift gears and she guided them to a more modulated attitude, reaching for compromise and ultimately, becoming a totally different, more business-oriented organization, the Shelby Farms Park Alliance, where she was named as executive director. That group now disbands and give the Conservancy its support and help.In truth, she was another contribution that Mr. Wolff made to protect the park. After all, Mrs. Adams is his daughter. That's some serious persistence. Congratulations on a job well done!

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Industry Climate, weather and farming: What is history telling us? By Michigan State University Extension December 20, 2012 | 12:41 pm EST As we finish 2012, a year in which the growing season began with an abnormally warm March, was plagued by a severe drought that impacted much of the corn belt, and ended with farmers reporting both record high and record low yields in corn and soybeans, it is fitting to discuss climate and weather and its impact on our agriculture industry. Last year, the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (a NOAA-funded collaboration of Michigan State University and the University of Michigan) and the USDA National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment assembled a team of experts to provide input to the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s forthcoming National Climate Assessment. This Midwest Technical Input Team produced a series of reports in 2012, representing the current state of knowledge on what climate change and variability mean to the most critical sectors in the region. According to the team’s report on historical climate trends, weather and climate remain among the most important uncontrollable variables involved in the region’s agricultural production systems. This is particularly critical for the Midwest as agriculture is a major player in this region’s economy, with over $200 billion in farm gate value. Let’s begin by discussing the difference between climate and weather. Climate is long-term, based on statistics of observations taken over a large number of years. It is what you can “count-on” in Michigan, for example cool crisp falls, snow in the winter, etc. Weather, on the other hand, is what you get on a day-to-day basis. The abnormally warm March of 2012 was a weather event; this was not typical of Michigan’s climate. This article is the first in a series where Michigan State University Extension will discuss the report as it relates to agriculture in the Midwest. The full report is available on the Great Lakes Integrated Science Assessment website. In the Midwest, mean temperatures have increased since 1900 and the rate of increase is greater from 1980 through 2010. Precipitation has also increased since the late 1930s. In fact, the last three decades have been the wettest on record. However, the changes in rainfall and temperature have not been the same in all regions or in all four seasons of the year. In Michigan, annual precipitation has remained the same, but we are getting less rain in the fall and more precipitation in the winter and spring. Michigan has gotten warmer over the last 30 years as well with the winter and spring temperatures increasing the most. Whether you are growing a garden, corn or fruit trees, growing season length is an important factor in the success of your operation. In our region, the growing season has been getting longer. Much of the change has been due to earlier springs. As a result, green-up of overwintering crops in the Midwest is occurring 10 days earlier than just a few decades ago[ja1] . While the increase in growing season has benefits, there is also a downside. When it gets warm early, perennial plants break dormancy early and are then more vulnerable to freeze. Rain is necessary for crop growth, but is not easily stored. The frequency and intensity of storms has increased since the beginning of the 20th century. On average, about 30 percent of the annual precipitation total across the region comes from just 10 daily events, and the number of these events has increased in recent decades. For Michigan, we see a range of 24 to 36 percent of our annual rain in just 10 daily events. This is a summary of what historic data tell us about trends over time for the Midwest and, more specifically, Michigan. More details can be found in the full report. Watching the weather is still an important part of day-to-day management decisions. However, studying historical trends may provide some insight into longer-term planning. weatherclimate managementagricultureplanning About the Author: Michigan State University Extension

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Forestry Commission England England's Woods & Forests Phytophthora ramorum Share Phytophthora ramorum in the New Forest 1. What is Phytophthora ramorum? It is a fungus-like pathogen from the large Phytophthora group of organisms. It causes 'bleeding cankers', or oozing lesions, on the trunks of infected trees, necrosis (dieback) of leaf tips, and stem wilt and stem lesions on infected shrubs and plants, and some trees. It is spread through the air, probably in rain-splash and mist-laden winds, or via watercourses. It can also be spread through human and animal movements. 2. Where exactly in the New Forest is this incidence of the disease? An initial outbreak of the disease was found on rhododendron bushes growing near the Tall Trees Trail, on the Rhinefield Drive at Brockenhurst (26 November 2008). The infected bushes were identified during a routine plant health inspection of the area. Previous inspections going back to 2003 had failed to find any evidence of infection 3. What are the authorities doing about it? A survey of the immediate area was carried out, during which further samples from symptomatic plants were taken for analysis. Routine monitoring surveys are being carried out by Food & Environment Research Agency (Fera) officials on rhododendron in the area, and survey zones are being extended outwards until we have a 3-kilometre infection-free zone. The infected rhododendron bushes, along with plants in precautionary buffer zones, have been cut down, and the resulting material has been burnt on site. Herbicides have been applied to the cut stumps to kill the root system of the infected plants. Maintenance work over the next three years will entail herbicide application to any re-growth to ensure the plants are eradicated. A survey of Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) was also carried out across a number of areas of the New Forest in the Spring of 2010 (see Q9). Whilst initial observations recorded that there were some possible symptoms of die back on some of the Vaccinium, all samples have resulted in a negative response for the Phytopthora ramorum pathogen. Further monitoring is being carried out. 4. How does this affect people visiting the New Forest? The public may continue to enjoy the majority of New Forest's attractions as usual, although small areas will be cordoned off for safety/ bio-security reasons during plant removal and containment operations. Currently the western side of the Tall Trees Trail is partially closed to the public. There is a diversion in place and notices are displayed to advise the public to: stay on the main paths; not take plant cuttings; and keep dogs on leads. It is important that visitors and animals are kept out of the fenced or closed-off areas, and heed any warnings. This is a precaution to help prevent the spread of the pathogen. Phytophthora ramorum can be found in leaf litter and in soil up to a depth of 15cm, so it can be moved about on the footwear of humans and possibly on the feet of animals, and potentially by vehicles. All staff carry out strict decontamination procedures before leaving the site of infection. There is no risk to human health from this disease. These simple precautions will need to stay in place until the incidence of the disease is reduced, which might be several months. 5. How could the disease affect the trees and woods of the New Forest? It is still too early to tell. Although the risk to native oaks is small, there is evidence that other native species such as ash and beech trees, and some non-native species which occur in the New Forest, are susceptible to P. ramorum. Nevertheless, there are still no confirmed cases of P. ramorum on trees in the New Forest and Dorset. However, a significant number of Japanese larch trees (Larix kaempferi) and small numbers of western hemlock (both of which are conifer species) have been found with P. ramorum infection in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. Although these species are not present in significant numbers in the New Forest, we are taking the precaution of surveying larch crops in Hampshire and Dorset, especially those which have rhododendron shrubs. Further information about the South West England outbreak is available at www.forestry.gov.uk/news. In the New Forest context we are also concerned that the pathogen can infect bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), an important heathland plant in the New Forest. (See also Q.9) Meanwhile, we and our partners in Fera and the Scottish Government are monitoring for outbreaks throughout Britain. As well as working to contain or eradicate any outbreaks we find, we are urgently researching all we can about the pathogen and its behaviour so that we can formulate advice and guidance for its management. The key to preventing the spread of the disease is the removal of Rhododendron ponticum host plants, and the timely eradication of infected plants capable of producing inoculum. This reduces the number of spores produced that could be spread to surrounding trees by rain-splash or the movement of infected plants. 6. Will this mean the end of the rhododendrons of the Rhinefield Drive? All infected rhododendron bushes, and others in the immediate vicinity, have been destroyed to get rid of the infection and prevent the organism from spreading. Clearance of the west side of the trail is complete. This, as well as continued surveillance and follow up work on individual bushes and spraying of regrowth should help to ensure the long-term future of the trees on Rhinefield Drive. 7. How did P. ramorum get into the New Forest? It is still not known how the pathogen reached the New Forest, or when. We do know that its spread is usually facilitated by the movement of infected planting stock or animal and people movements, but we are confident that the plants which have been removed are unlikely to have been infected when they were first planted in 2001. Further research into P. ramorum is continuing nationally. 8. Are there any impacts from the disease on commoning or the free-roaming livestock of the New Forest? No. The disease has been found within one of the New Forest woodland inclosures (an area not grazed by commoning stock), so the practice of commoning is not affected. 9. Are there any potential impacts from the disease for the New Forest’s heathlands? Yes. Among the non-tree species that have been affected in other parts of Britain are vaccinium (bilberry) species, which are reasonably common on the New Forest's heaths. This is another reason why we are anxious to control this infection before it spreads. 10. Why is this disease sometimes called "sudden oak death"? P. ramorum got its nickname in the United States because it has killed significant numbers of North American native oak (Quercus species) and tanoak trees (Lithocarpus densiflorus, which are not true oaks at all). However, Britain's two native oak species have proved to be much less susceptible than their American cousins. Our native oaks usually only become infected if they are standing very close to heavily infected shrubs such as Rhododendron ponticum. Britain’s native oak species are sessile oak (Quercus petraea) and pedunculate oak (Q. robur), which is also known as ‘English’ or ‘common’ oak. 11. What should people do if they suspect a tree or shrub is infected by Phytophthora ramorum? A number of other plant diseases and disorders can cause similar symptoms to those caused by P. ramorum, so the public should not jump to the conclusion that an unhealthy-looking tree or plant is infected with it. If they are concerned about a particular plant or plants, we recommend they first consult the on-line information at www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/pRamorum.cfm If they continue to be concerned, they should contact the relevant authorities as follows: for suspect symptoms on plants (i.e. not trees), contact Fera’s Plant Health HQ on 01904 455174 or the local Fera Plant & Seeds Inspector. Contact details are available at www.fera.defra.gov.uk/contactUs/contactPlh.cfm; and for suspect symptoms on trees, contact the Forestry Commission's Plant Health Service on 0131 314 6414; [email protected]. There are a number of sources of further information about P. ramorum: the plant health section of the Forestry Commission's website, www.forestry.gov.uk/planthealth (click on the ‘Pests & diseases’ link on the left-hand side of the screen); the Fera website, www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/pRamorum.cfm; and the Forest Research website, www.forestresearch.gov.uk/fr/INFD-737ESG. Forestry Commission16 December 2009 Last updated: 18th November 2016 England's Woods and Forests are cared for by Forest Enterprise England, an agency of the Forestry Commission. How we manage forests Get the latest information & offers

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Quincy farm announces end-of-year closing -A A +A By Angye Morrison Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:00 am Griffin Land & Nurseries Inc. announced today that it will close its Quincy farm, part of its Imperial Nurseries Inc. division, by the end of the year. The company moved to scale back its Quincy operation in September, but said its board has now decided that it no longer makes economic sense to run the site. High energy costs have been blamed for the cuts in production and, ultimately, the closing of the operation.

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HSUS, UEP Hatch Plan to Set National Egg Production Standards Planned ballot measures in Washington, Oregon, would be suspended if bill passes The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the United Egg Producers (UEP) have forged what the groups are terming an “unprecedented agreement” to work together to enact comprehensive new federal legislation for all 280 million hens involved in U.S. egg production, which if passed, will mark the first federal law addressing the treatment of farm animals. Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO, said the bill “would be an historic improvement for hundreds of millions of animals per year. It is always our greatest hope to find common ground and to forge solutions, even with traditional adversaries. We are excited about a new and better pathway forward, and hope the Congress seizes the opportunity to embrace this sort of collaboration and mutual understanding.” The proposed legislation would require conventional cages (currently used by more than 90 percent of the egg industry) to be replaced, through an ample phase-in period, with new, enriched housing systems that provide each hen nearly double the amount of space they’re currently allotted. Egg producers will invest an additional $4 billion over the next decade and a half to affect this industry-wide make-over. In addition, all egg-laying hen farmers would be required to provide, through the new enriched housing system, environments that will allow hens to express natural behaviors, such as perches, nesting boxes, and scratching areas. Labeling on all egg cartons nationwide would also be mandated to inform consumers of the method used to produce the eggs (i.e., eggs from caged hens, eggs from hens in enriched cages, eggs from cage-free hens, and eggs from free-range hens). If passed, the legislation would also: prohibit feed- or water-withholding molting to extend the laying cycle, a practice already prohibited by UEP’s certified program adhered to by a majority of egg farmers; require standards approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association for euthanasia for egg laying hens; prohibit excessive ammonia levels in henhouses; and prohibit the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don’t meet these requirements. The two groups will jointly ask Congress for federal legislation which would require egg producers to increase space per bird in a tiered phase in, with the amount of space birds are given increasing, in intervals, over the next 15 to 18 years. Currently, the majority of birds are each provided 67 square inches of space, with roughly 50 million receiving 48 square inches. The proposed phase-in would culminate with hens nationwide being provided a minimum of 124 - 144 square inches of space, along with the other improvements noted. “America’s egg producers have continually worked to improve animal welfare, and we strongly believe our commitment to a national standard for hen welfare is in the best interest of our animals, customers and consumers,” said Bob Krouse, chairman of UEP and an Indiana egg farmer. “We are committed to working together for the good of the hens in our care and believe a national standard is far superior than a patchwork of state laws and regulations that would be cumbersome for our customers and confusing to consumers.” If passed by Congress, the legislation would supersede state laws including those that have been passed in Arizona, California, Michigan and Ohio. In recognition of ballot Proposition 2 passed by voters in that California in 2008, UEP and HSUS will ask Congress to require California egg producers – with nearly 20 million laying hens – to eliminate conventional cages by 2015 (the date Prop 2 is scheduled to go into effect), and provide all hens with the space and environmental enrichments that the rest of the egg industry will be phasing in over the next 15 to 18 years. The requirements will also apply to the sale of all eggs and egg products in California under the proposed federal legislation. The agreement to pass comprehensive federal legislation for standards of egg production puts on hold a planned ballot measures related to egg-laying hens in both Washington and Oregon.

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Home Archived Issues Ag/Rural Show Guide FTP Upload Information Best of NAMA 2015 Latest Ag Agencies Listing Forms Agri-Marketing Conf More NAMA CREATING A RED LEGACY SINCE THE '60SMay 2005After graduating with a teaching degree from the University of Nebraska -- where he was a standout football player -- Jim Irwin signed with the "then" Los Angeles Rams. "I made it to the last cut, and was let go in mid-September," he says. "School had already started, so I couldn't get a teaching job." Then a semi-pro football team, the Omaha Mustangs, asked Irwin to join the squad. "I said I'd play if they would find me a job," Irwin explains. "This led to an interview with International Harvester, at the stock office in Omaha. They hired me in the fall of 1964." Not long after he sold his first tractor, and that sale is still one of the most unforgettable moments in his career. "That's probably my favorite memory, selling that 1965 IH 806 gas Farmall tractor, with a narrow front end and a two-point fast hitch. It's the first piece of new equipment I sold, and it helped launch a sales and marketing career that I have thoroughly enjoyed." RELAUNCHING A HISTORIC BRAND In a business where traditions run deep and bind the generations, Irwin made a decision that has been warmly embraced by many whose memories of farming are decidedly red. The Farmall name was reborn in 2004 on a line of tractors that promises to be as versatile and widely used as the originals. Besides beginning Irwin's career in sales, a Farmall tractor was also the first tractor he ever drove. Back on his family's farm in Genoa, Neb., Irwin proudly sat behind the wheel of the family's "M." Legendary WGN farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson explained the powerful symbolism of the Farmall name when he received the F20 Farmall his parents bought new in 1939, fully restored by the IH antique tractor club as part of an Ag in the Classroom fundraiser. "When they rolled it out, it brought a tear to my eye," Samuelson says. "On that seat, I saw my dad, my mother, my sister, myself … we all drove it. I'm grateful that Jim recognized the importance of the Farmall name to a lot of people." That emotion is not uncommon among farmers and agriculturists with a red background. "After all, Farmall tractors revolutionized agriculture beginning back in the 1920s," says Irwin. "That brand essentially drove the transition from horse-drawn era to mechanized agriculture as we know it." Introduced in 1947 as a Farmall line extension, Cub tractors are an early precursor to today's rapidly expanding compact tractor market. "Cub" tractors were designed for farms of 40 acres or less. "The Cub was the smallest in the Farmall line," Irwin says. "It also was one of the most popular tractors ever, with more than 200,000 sold." The Cub eventually set the record for the longest production run of any tractor produced in the United States. IH further extended that line in 1960 with introduction of the Cub Cadet tractor, allowing the company to venture outside of traditional agriculture. The Cub Cadet name and Louisville manufacturing facility were purchased by MTD International prior to Case Corporation acquiring select agricultural assets of International Harvester Company through its parent, Tenneco. TRACTOR TO CARRY ON THE TRADITION Irwin made sure that the new Case IH Farmall subcompact, compact and utility tractors more than live up to Farmall's reputation. "This market segment represents almost three-quarters of all tractors sold in North America, so we needed to make sure that we were poised to take full advantage of this growing segment." Irwin's instincts were right on the money. Since the brand's launch last year, Case IH North America has more than doubled its market share in under 40 horsepower tractors. "If you look at history, there have been very few brands that have been as successful as Farmall. To me, it was a natural step in solidifying the Case IH master brand as being a leader in the business. It was something that could help take us to the next level." The Farmall brand is clearly near and dear to Irwin's heart, but it's only one of many product and service innovations that Irwin had a hand in during his long history with the company. FARMALL TRACTORS OF THE PAST 1924 Farmall Regular, photo courtesy of Derwood Heine, Waverly, IowaIn 1923, International Harvester filed patent applications for the first "Farmall" tractor, beginning the era of one of the most popular tractors in history. In that same year, 22 tractors were hand built for field testing and the famous name was trademarked. Unlike agricultural tractors of the time, which were designed exclusively for high-power tasks like plowing, the Farmall was truly "all-purpose." IH Farmall tractors were designed to drive a variety of implements and attachments, allowing farmers to replace their horses. THE EVOLUTION 1924 -- Regular production and sales began for Farmall tractors. 1926 -- Farmall Works built in Rock Island, Ill., solely for the production of Farmall tractors. By 1974, more than 5 million tractors had been produced in that facility. 1931 -- Farmall F-30 introduced as a more powerful version of the original Farmall. It was a three-plow machine, designed for farmers with greater than 200 acres in mind. 1937 -- First Farmall tractors were painted trademark red. The color was changed from "battleship gray" because of safety concerns with so many Farmall tractors on the road. 1938 -- Farmall F-14 replaced the F-12 1939 -- The famous Farmall Letter Series, the first full tractor line up from IH, was introduced including the M, H, B and A. 1947 -- Farmall Cub was introduced for farms of 40 acres or less. Farmall Super A replaced the A. Louisville Works began production of the Farmall A, B and new Cub. 1948 -- Farmall C replaced the B. The C was more like the H and M. 1951 -- Farmall Super C replaced the C. 1952 -- Farmall Super M replaced the M. The diesel version was called the Farmall Super MD. 1953 -- Farmall Super H replaced the H. 1958 Farmall 350 Hi-Utility, photo courtesy of rollie Moore, Oneida, Ill. 1954 -- Farmall Number Series was introduced.Farmall 100 replaced Super A.Farmall 200 replaced Super C.Farmall 300 replaced Super H.Farmall 400 replaced Super M. 1956 -- Replacement models Farmall 350 and 450 were introduced. 1973 -- Last year that tractors manufactured by International Harvester Company carried the Farmall name. AMTweet Proudly associated with: All content © Copyright 2017, Henderson Communications LLC. | User Agreement

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Hartford Magazine Gardening Together Helps Families Grow Stronger Growing Together: Sowing Seeds In A Family Garden ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE KLUG ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE KLUG SARAH WESLEY LEMIRE A fruitful family activity: Gardening together It wasn't that long ago that in the absence of personal technology and social media, parents and kids had no choice but to actually talk and interact with one another. These days, however, it's not uncommon to find entire families staring at their screens without exchanging a single word.And while that just might be the new normal, it doesn't have to be. Taking time out from activities, jobs and other obligations to simply spend time together is an important way for families to connect, and one way to do that is by starting a family garden. "A family garden gives us an opportunity to put our phones down and engage with each other, face to face," said Dr. Barbara Tarkin, a licensed psychologist in Bloomfield. "And that's a really nice thing."Tarkin said that although many families are involved in sports or other school-related activities, it's not necessarily focused time together, as parents are often on the sidelines while their children are participating. She also said that although some families spend time together watching television, it is a more passive activity. "It isn't always interactive. Doing something like a family garden requires active participation, and that's always valuable."Putting in a garden might seem like a big undertaking, but it can be as simple as grouping a few pots together on a windowsill or as elaborate as clearing a small area of land. What matters is working together as a family to create something.Jena Barretta, co-owner of Barretta Companies, a garden and landscaping center in Derby, offers a few suggestions on how to get started. She recommends making a list of needed items and then taking a shopping trip."It's important for children of various ages to pick out their own gardening tools. It creates excitement and teaches your children to be involved. They need to be a part of the garden because they learn responsibility and structure; it's a good process to go through."For gardens more involved than a few deck pots, Barretta said it's important to have the soil tested, and after receiving the results, make any adjustments to ensure that it has the proper nutrients and balance to grow plants. "You need to figure out what you need to be successful. Take the time to do it right and you'll get what you want out of your garden."Once the soil has been tested and treated, and an area has been designated for the garden, the fun part is choosing what goes in it.Everyone in the family can participate, but picking the right plants will make a difference in the outcome."You want to choose plants or seeds that are easy to grow and trouble-free," Barretta said. "You don't want to pick out difficult things to grow; it might be discouraging."For flower gardens she recommends marigolds, pansies, tulip bulbs, sunflowers and poppies, which are all fairly easy to grow and hard to kill. Trouble-free vegetable seeds include radish, squash, peas, beans and lettuce.For planting later in the season, most nurseries and garden centers sell six-packs of flowers and vegetables, which can be put in the ground and enjoyed almost immediately instead of waiting for seeds to grow.Even if the garden doesn't turn out perfectly, it can be a great learning lesson, according to Tarkin. "We can say it's an interesting thing we tried and we learned from it. A garden is a safe way to let people try some things, make some mistakes, because what's the worst that can happen — nothing will grow?"Tarkin also said parents should allow for where their children are developmentally and not sweat the small stuff, like rows planted crooked and other minor imperfections. "It can take away from the sheer joy of the activity and the pleasure that families can get from being in one another's company."And finally, putting in a garden can also foster an important life skill — patience. "It teaches delay of gratification. Everything is immediately at our fingertips; if we don't know something, we Google it and find the answer. With a garden, we plant today and don't harvest tomorrow. We have to wait until it grows and learn to wait for the fruits of our labor."Most of all, what matters is spending quality time together as a family, and Tarkin said that can be a lot of things, not just gardening. "It can be family game night, bowling night, pizza night; some activity or time that helps cement a family as a family."

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In Food Policy This Week: 5 News Bites A roundup of news clippings we're reading that affect the way we eat. Leah Douglas Last weekend's New York Times Magazine was the annual food and drink issue. Michael Pollan wrote a long piece examining California's Proposition 37, which is a ballot item in November that would require the labeling of genetically-modified ingredients on processed foods. Pollan wonders if this issue might be the one that finally pushes the alternative food movement bring change to industrial agriculture. He discusses how Americans will have to move beyond "voting with their forks" to "voting with their votes" for change in the food system. In his piece for the Food issue, Mark Bittman explores California's Central Valley, where over 230 crops are produced in a 450-mile-long fertile valley. The area produces 85% of the nations carrots, among other staggering amounts of produce. Bittman spent time with conventional and organic farmers in the area, and discusses the difference between "the spirit and the letter" of organic farming. He wonders how much longer the valley will remain this productive, given the taxing nature of intensive industrial agriculture. In Richmond, California, the November ballot contains a proposal to tax sweetened beverages one cent-per-ounce. The pro-tax lobby has spent about $25,000 on advertising, campaigning, and spreading the word about the tax. But the anti-tax lobby, driven by a corporately-organized Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes, has spent a combined $2.2 million in anti-tax efforts. The money has been used on public relations, TV and radio ads, and lobbying. This unmatched battle will come to a head in the November vote. Big Agriculture has realized that consumers are unhappy with the bland taste of grocery store tomatoes, and is attempting to improve product quality through genetic modification and plant breeding. Companies like Monsanto and Bayer AG are working on developing fleshier, tastier, and disease-resistant varieties. Tomatoes are the biggest seller in the produce sector, accounting for over $1 billion in sales in a $5 billion market. A reported global "wine glut" is expected to end this year. Overproduction of wine coupled with decreasing consumption after the 2008 recession led to several years of a flooded market. The US is set to continue its high level of production, but other wine-producing countries in South America and Europe will lessen production. Wine supply across the world is likely to be lower than it has been in almost a decade. About the Author: A student in Providence, Rhode Island, Leah Douglas loves learning about, talking about, reading about, and consuming food. Her work has also been featured in Rhode Island Monthly Magazine. Leah Douglas Food Policy Wonk/Book Reviewer Leah loves learning about, talking about, reading about, and consuming food. For Serious Eats, she primarily covers food policy and writes reviews of food-related books. Her other work can be found at her website. Here are my columns! Serious Reads food policy What the Farm Bill Passage Means For Farmers and You More "food policy" Salmon Struggles, Pea Powder Power, and More in Food Policy This Week Walmart Goes Organic, Farmer Suicides Increase, and More in Food Policy This Week Eat More Sodium (Maybe) and More in Food Policy This Week

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South Carolina cotton, peanut meetings set for Jan. 24, 26 Jan 12, 2017 Should we rethink fertility for new, higher-yielding cotton varieties? Jan 12, 2017 Big farm-related tax changes proposed by Republicans, Trump Jan 10, 2017 Peanuts versus enough off-target dicamba can cost yield, timing matters Jan 10, 2017 Growers seeking simple, low-tech approach to precision agriculture Elton Robinson Farm Press Editorial Staff | Mar 09, 2005 Many cotton producers trying precision agriculture today are doing what they've always done when a new thing comes along — test first, keep it simple and start with a low-tech, low-cost approach. Examples of this approach were evident during InfoAg Midsouth 2005, a regional precision agriculture conference held in Tunica, Miss. Friars Point, Miss., cotton producer John McKee, who spoke about his experiences with variable-rate applications, said enthusiasm for precision agriculture should be tempered with the realities of the cotton economy. “Other things are far more important to me — commodity prices, whether or not farm programs are going to be here in two years and the fact that biotechnology is getting more and more expensive in our area. To be honest, glyphosate drift has been so bad that I've had no choice but to use Roundup Ready crops.” McKee, whose background is engineering, started working with precision agriculture seven years ago and prefers a low-tech, low-cost approach. “I'm a skeptic, and we try to do things on the cheap as much as possible.” For example, McKee used a Veris machine (which measures soil electrical conductivity) to map a farm two years ago, then used a software program from FarmWorks to contour the data into management zones based on three soil types. “I didn't use any fancy tools. I just sat down at the computer and for each zone, I assigned a rate for nitrogen or Treflan. That may not be the best way to do it, but it's the way we've been doing it for years. It's the low-tech approach.” McKee is no longer soil-sampling on 2.5-acre grids, instead referring to Veris data to help him determine where to take samples. “Veris data doesn't show me where phosphorus and potassium are low, but it does show clay content and is affected by salt content. “I saw from the tractor seat that when the soil was dry, Veris correlated well to what was happening in the field. And with Veris, I'm getting a point every second. I have a very dense data set. With 2.5-acre grid sampling, I'm getting great results from the soil sample, but I'm not getting many of them.” McKee uses aerial imagery supplied by In-Time for variable-rate applications of plant growth regulator, insecticides and defoliants. “If I was doing variable-rate only for plant growth regulators, it wouldn't be worth the money. It's a good thing to be able to hammer some Pix in some rank areas, but the money saved on just Pix alone probably is not worth the setup.” However, variable-rate applications on plant bugs and worms reduced costs about 20 percent for McKee. “In some situations, we may be able to piggyback a plant growth regulator and an insecticide.” Variable-rate defoliation may not necessarily save money, according to McKee. “The objective is to rob Peter to pay Paul, to really stick the rank areas with defoliants.” McKee believes yield monitors provide good information to farmers about drainage and soil type. “For me, it's a tool to quantify how drainage is hurting me in places, so I can determine whether or not I want to fix it.” The producer is not using elevation models, residual nitrogen soil samples or late-season images to show rank growth. “All those seem to have merit to me, but they're over my head right now.” For Arkansas crop consultant Chuck Farr, GPS and GIS can take on another meaning — Going Poor Soon or Going Insane Soon — if components of a precision agriculture system can't “talk” to each other effectively, or are too complicated. “I want something that is easy to learn and easy to use. My experience with precision agriculture has been fun, but I've had some headaches. A lot of farmers think that precision agriculture takes too much time and trouble. How do you hook the Trimble up to the Veris machine? How do you hook the Veris machine into the iPac? How do you hook all that together? Let's find an easy solution for hardware to communicate with other hardware.” Louisiana crop consultant Harold Lambert added that his core business is still focused on pest management service. “I find myself behind the curve on the latest precision agriculture technology. On the other hand, I have too many stink bugs and plant bugs to take my eye off them. The big problem is that the value of precision agriculture is not known.” Lambert said in his experience with soil electrical conductivity mapping and elementary yield mapping analysis, “for every dollar I have invested in the technology, I have about $1.30 in revenue. There's not enough in that margin for me. “One problem with calculating profitability with precision ag is that the demand for the services varies from one locale to another. If you don't have the people within your current clientele to make a go of it, are you going to have to fan out and offer precision ag services to other growers? Do other growers already have a crop consultant and is that an ethical issue?” e-mail: [email protected]

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Almond industry puts bee health front and center Jan 05, 2017 Duvall: Agriculture gains clout to address over regulation, labor needs Jan 10, 2017 Western food supply safer since 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach Jan 04, 2017 New HLB positive tree found in urban Cerritos, Calif. Jan 02, 2017 House committee compromises on payment rules Forrest Laws 2 | Jul 24, 2007 The House Agriculture Committee voted to end conservation and farm program payments for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $1 million and bar all producers from receiving payments for more than one farm entity. The new payment limits rules are among a long list of changes approved for the committee’s version of the 2007 farm bill that left the basic structure of the legislation largely in tact. Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, who has said he favored using the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 as a base for the new law Congress is scheduled to pass before Sept. 30, said the committee bill contains some new features for farmers left out of previous bills. “This farm bill provides strong programs that will help American agriculture meet the 21st Century needs of the United States and the world with a safe, stable food supply, nutrition assistance, environmental benefits and renewable energy products,” said Peterson, a Democrat from Minnesota. “We have incorporated some new ideas and important reforms in this farm bill, focusing farm program benefits so they get to real farmers and boosting investment in programs that help those who haven’t received benefits through the farm bill.” The new farm bill, which is expected to go to the House floor before the scheduled Aug. 4 recess, would also provide farmers with a choice of safety net programs: either the traditional, price-based counter-cyclical payment or the revenue-based CCP supported by the National Corn Growers Association and USDA. The bill would also provide for the first time more than $1.6 billion “to strengthen and support the fruit and vegetable industry in the United States.” The committee’s efforts to focus farm program benefits do not go far enough to suit environmental and other interest groups such as the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the Environmental Working Group that have been demanding farm bill reforms that would eliminate “big payments to wealthy farmers.” EWG President Ken Cook complained that the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of savings of $45 million per year for the House ag committee new payment limit amount to no savings at all. “At the level of these savings, it is obvious that Mr. Peterson’s proposal will have no effect on the flow of taxpayer funds to the largest, wealthiest subsidized farms in the country, and once again leave less for people and priorities that have gone begging for farm bill support year after year,” said Cook. The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition noted the committee bill would increase the current limit on direct and counter-cyclical payments from $210,000 to $250,000 a year and remove any cap on marketing loan gains while focusing attention on a means test for adjusted gross income. “The House should not be fooled by watching the hand that goes after millionaires, while missing the hand with the extra $40,000 in goodies for the mega farms,” said the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Ferd Hoefner. “Bribing mega farms in order to be allowed to try to catch a few millionaires is a raw deal.” Farm-state members such as Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said the change in payment limit rules reflects the reality commercial, row-crop farmers face in the debate over the 2007 law. “We were able to work with commodity groups and their leadership to come up with a compromise on this issue,” he said. “(House) Speaker Pelosi says that she will back this bill in its current form. It is important to have the leadership behind us as we take the farm bill to the House floor.” The ag committee also adopted an amendment barring the closing of any county field office of the Farm Service Agency, the Rural Development Agency or the Natural Resources Conservation Service for one year after passage of the new farm bill. e-mail:[email protected]

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Research Highlights 2009: Agricultural ... About UsPublications & ReportsAnnouncementsFeature ArticlesProgramsSoftware and ToolsResearchersFAQs Research Highlights 2009: Agricultural and Rural Development Themes | Highlights | Team | Notes | Current Research Program | 2009 Publications Full Report Research on agriculture and rural development is critical to the Bank’s mission because poverty remains largely a rural phenomenon, with 75 percent of the world’s poor living in rural areas and many depending on agriculture for their livelihoods. Improving outcomes for the rural poor depends on increasing agricultural productivity, raising the performance of input and factor markets, increasing the quality of rural infrastructure, and reducing the damage of price distortions, all of which are covered in the research program.ThemesThe research program on agriculture and rural development reflects key operational aims of the World Bank in achieving food security and meeting the growing global demand for food: promoting agricultural development in Africa, land policy, rural infrastructure, rural-urban transformation, community-driven development, climate change and agriculture, and understanding the impact of agricultural price distortions on markets and food supply.Research on promoting agricultural development in Africa asks why Africa failed to have the type of green revolution that transformed agriculture and the economy more generally in Asia, and what might be done to bring about a similar transformation in Africa. Recognizing that secure access to land is key to agricultural productivity the research on land policy examines approaches to and the benefits of improvements in land tenure arrangements. Research on rural infrastructure examines the benefits, the costs, and the poverty impacts of investments in rural roads, power, and water delivery. Studies on rural-urban transformation consider the costs and other impediments to migration out of agriculture, and the patterns of rural industrialization.A new policy research report underway on community-driven development examines what has worked well—and not so well—with this approach. Research on agriculture and climate change assesses the impacts of climate change on agriculture and emphasizes the scope for adaptation, and the potential role for agriculture in climate change mitigation.Agricultural trade and price distortions have historically taxed agriculture heavily in developing countries. Research on distortions to agriculture begins by measuring these distortions, and then seeks to explain the determinants of the level and volatility of these distortions. Related work examines the impact of proposals for liberalization of agricultural trade. Additional research focuses on how local institutions shape the consequences of trade for vulnerable places and people.HighlightsA low-cost land titling process can bring big payoffs Given the challenges of climate change and the new demand for land by global investors, low-cost ways to secure rights and allow better functioning of land markets can have significant payoffs. Many African countries have adopted innovative laws to increase tenure security and investment as well as transferability and productivity, but few have fully implemented them. In a natural experiment to assess the effects of low-cost land titling in Ethiopia, certificates to more than 25 million rural plots have been distributed over a five-year period in a highly participatory way. We find that doing so has significant benefits not only in terms of traditional measures such as increased tree planting and soil conservation investment, but also in terms of resolving disputes and empowering women (who, for example, are able to hold on to land rights in cases of inheritance). These findings have influenced World Bank lending, facilitated significant support by other donors, and prompted the Government to re-think its strategy in this area.1 Road connectivity is crucial for improving rural welfareStudies from a number of South Asian countries show that better connectivity of rural areas with growth centers improves rural welfare by reducing transport costs, enhancing inter-regional migration, reducing regional income inequality, and promoting better farm to non-farm linkages in areas with greater agricultural opportunities. Better connectivity also benefits the poor more than the non-poor, which is part of the reason the Bank has a large portfolio of road projects in rural areas. In Bangladesh a World Bank-financed rural road and market improvement project enhanced agricultural output by raising agricultural prices and reducing transportation expenses, and increasing farm and non-farm wages by promoting farm and non-farm employment.2 Distortions to agricultural incentives impose costs on developing countriesA new global study on agricultural trade distortions greatly increases our knowledge of agricultural trade distortions worldwide and their impacts on developing countries. This study finds that the oppressive taxation of agriculture in developing countries reported in earlier research covering the period to the mid-1980s has almost been eliminated, with the average rate of taxation of developing country agriculture falling close to zero. In some high-income countries the trade-distorting assistance provided to their farmers has also been substantially lowered, reducing the competitive disadvantage of farmers in developing countries. One worrying trend is the move to protect domestic agriculture against imports by many developing countries, with the result that the costly dispersion of agricultural distortions has remained constant over time. Another piece of troubling news—which relates directly to the 2008 food price crisis—is that both developing and high-income countries continue to insulate their domestic markets from year-to-year fluctuations in world prices. While this helps individual countries stabilize their domestic prices relative to world prices, it has contributed to the disturbing volatility of world prices since 2007.3 A series of new books offer more detailed regional and global views of agricultural trade distortions and their impacts on global food markets.4 Connecting the dots between trade, vulnerable places, and vulnerable peopleSome argue that trade liberalization has raised incomes and improved environmental protection in developing countries, while others claim it generates neither poverty reduction nor sustainability. The detailed case studies in this book demonstrate that neither interpretation is universally correct, given how much depends on specific policies and institutions that determine “on-the-ground” outcomes. Six case studies set in fragile ecologies trace how local policies and practices influence the ways in which international trade affects local livelihoods and the natural resources upon which the poor depend. The studies underscore the importance of evaluating trade through the lens of environmental and social vulnerability and the linkages between poverty reduction and environmental protection. Lessons drawn can help shape policies that mitigate incentives to use natural resources in unsustainable ways, including incentives linked to international trade.5 William J. Martin, Research Manager, Jun.-Dec. 2009Peter Lanjouw, Acting Manager, Jan. - May 2009Amer AhmedDaniel Ayalew Ali Aparajita GoyalHanan JacobyDonald LarsonHussain SamadKlaus Deininger Maros IvanicShahidur KhandkerGhazala MansuriForhad Shilpi Notes1.This work is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, and further studies on the impacts of land interventions are underway in other parts of India as well as in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Holden, Stein T., Klaus Deininger, and Hosaena Hagos Ghebru. 2009. “Impacts of Low-Cost Land Certification on Investment and Productivity.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 91(2): 359–73.2.Khandker, Shahidur, Zaid Bakht, and Gayatri Koolwal. 2009. “The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 57(4): 685–722.3.Anderson, Kym, and William J. Martin, ed. 2009. Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia. Washington, DC: World Bank. Anderson, Kym, and William Masters, ed. 2009. Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. Anderson, Kym, ed. 2009. Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: A Global Perspective, 1955-2007. Washington, DC: World Bank.4.A book on the implications of the remaining distortions for inequality and poverty is being published in March 2010. A book on the political-economy determinants of agricultural distortions is forthcoming (Cambridge University Press). The detailed data underlying the studies, together with the underlying country spreadsheets, are available at www.worldbank.org/agdistortions.5.Cook, Jonathan A., Owen Cylke, Donald Larson, John D. Nash, and Pamela Stedman-Edwards, ed. 2010. Vulnerable Places, Vulnerable People: Trade Liberalization, Rural Poverty and the Environment. Washington, DC: World Bank; North Hampton, MA: Edward Elgar. Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/JWE49UC4J0

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Industry USFRA kicks off The Food Dialogues on 9/22 By Colleen Scherer September 09, 2011 | 4:10 pm EDT The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) will host The Food Dialogues, a town hall-style discussion to address Americans' questions about how their food is grown and raised and the long-term impact of the food they are eating – on their own health and the health of the planet. These topics, as well as findings from recent surveys of farmers, ranchers and consumers conducted by USFRA, will all be discussed during this interactive event taking place at four locations across the U.S. and online on September 22. "Americans want to know where their food comes from, how it was raised and if it is good for their health long-term," said Bob Stallman, chairman of USFRA and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. "We realize farmers and ranchers haven't always done the best job answering Americans' questions about how food is grown and raised, and hope The Food Dialogues event will be the start of an ongoing dialogue that addresses these questions and more. We hope everyone who cares about the future of food and how we provide healthy choices for people everywhere will join the discussion, including farmers of all sizes – small and large, conventional and organic, consumers and food decision-makers." The Food Dialogues will include four panel discussions, featuring leaders in food, food service, media and policy, farmers of all types and business leaders, who will share different viewpoints about the current and future states of food, and how food is grown and raised. These discussions will take place at four U.S. locations including Washington, D.C., New York, the Midwest and California, as well as online via Facebook and USFRA's new Web site, www.fooddialogues.com. To date, USFRA has secured several high-profile participants including Claire Shipman, television journalist and senior national correspondent at ABC's "Good Morning America," who will moderate the event from Washington, D.C. and Chef John Besh, who will moderate from New York. Additional participants include Max Armstrong of Farm Progress Companies and Jane Wells of CNBC. Other panelists include: Washington, D.C. (Emcee: Claire Shipman) Bob Stallman Tres Bailey, Director of Agriculture and Food, Wal-Mart Frank DiPasquale, president, School Nutrition Association TBD, American Humane Association Jon Scholl, American Farmland Trust Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture New York (Moderator: Chef John Besh) Bart Schott, president, NCGA Lynn Silver, New York City Department of Health Sarah Murray, Author: Moveable Feasts Patricia Cobe, senior editor , Restaurant Business Magazine (tentative) U.C. Davis (Moderator: Jane Wells, CNBC) Eric Benson, Egg Producer Michael Dimock, president, Roots of Change Dr. Neal Van Alfen, Dean, UC Davis School of Agriculture Stuart Woolf, president, Woolf Farming Rick Stott, Executive Vice President, Agri Beef Co. Fair Oaks, Indiana (Moderator: Max Armstrong) Panelist: Malcolm DeKryger, Pork Producer Phil Bradshaw, USFRA Vice Chairman Galen Miller, president, owner, Miller Poultry Casie Conley, Future Farmers of America Indiana State President Mike McCloskey, president, owner, Fair Oaks Farms The panel discussion will initiate in Washington, D.C. at 11:30 a.m. EDT and will conclude with the final panel taking place in California. The entire event will stream live online from 11:30 a.m. EDT through 5:00 p.m. EDT, providing opportunities for farmers, ranchers and the general public to register to watch and participate in the discussion online. "This event will allow anyone with an internet connection the ability to join a conversation about food and where it comes from," said Stallman. "Consumers rightfully want to know that farmers and ranchers are treating animals well, maintaining food quality and safety and doing our jobs in ways that don't harm the environment. This is an opportunity to ask questions, challenge current thinking and truly engage in a real-time, two-way conversation taking place on www.fooddialogues.com and USFRA's Facebook page about food with farmers, ranchers and other major thought leaders in the food and agriculture industry." New Survey Data to Drive Conversation The town hall-style discussion will also feature findings from recent surveys of farmers, ranchers and consumers, conducted by USFRA in July and August 2011. USFRA will first announce findings of the farmer/rancher survey which aimed to identify topics the agricultural community wished Americans had more information about when it comes to how food is grown and raised. Top-line findings of the farmer/rancher survey conducted in July 2011 reveal that farmers and ranchers believe the average consumer has very little knowledge on several topics related to food production, including the effect of pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics on food; where their food comes from in general; and proper care of livestock and poultry. These and other concerns highlighted in a new national consumer survey conducted in August 2011 will be at the forefront of discussion topics. Topics: u.s. farmers & ranchers alliancefood dialoguesclaire shipmangood morning americachef john besh About the Author: Colleen Scherer

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Climate change a threat to rooibos tea Feb 27 2012 07:57 Related Articles Reading the tea leaves Clanwilliam - Farm workers swing their sickles through red branches, bundling them up before laying them out in the sunshine to dry.The annual harvest at Groenkol Rooibos tea estate in the Western Cape helps quench the world's growing thirst for rooibos tea, but farmers fear that climate change could destroy the delicate ecosystem that their crop depends on.Annual exports of rooibos have quadrupled in the last 13 years. The tea is popular for its perceived health benefits as well as its refreshing taste, and has become a trendy drink in many countries. It contains no caffeine and just a tiny amount of tannin.But rooibos tea only grows in this Western Cape region - nowhere else in the world."Rooibos is endemic to this area, it grows wild here and only here," said Chris du Plessis, who runs Elandsberg Eco Tourism."If you go up that hill and down the other side you'll find that 90% of the plants that grow there don't grow on the other side."Very few plants can survive in the dry, sandy terrain but rooibos bushes thrive in this area, living in symbiosis with micro-organisms in the soil. Farmers have tried to grow rooibos in Australia, the United States, even China - each time they've failed.Willem Engelbrecht inherited Groenkol Rooibos Tea Estate from his father. Since taking on the farm, he's noticed distinct changes in the weather."Over the last 10 years, there are more and more strange things happening," said Engelbrecht.The area already endures extreme weather conditions. The temperature drops to freezing in the winter, and reaches 48 degrees in the summer.Now summers are hotter, and winters drier. As a result, Engelbrecht has had to adapt his farming techniques.How long the boom can last?"In the past we used to plough the soil, these days we plough less and we keep material on the soil to act as isolation, basically to preserve the moisture."But if temperatures continue to soar, farmers like Engelbrecht will find it difficult to cope, posing risks to the R600m rooibos industry.Climate change experts warn that the Western Cape will be hit hard over the next 100 years."A plausible scenario is a further 3 degree (Celsius) temperature increase over much of this region," said Francois Engelbrecht of South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research."At the same time, this region is projected to become generally drier. So the general picture that is painted for all of the Western interior and coastal regions of South Africa is indeed not a very positive one."But those who depend on rooibos for their livelihood are trying to remain positive. The rooibos industry is booming, with the Cederberg area producing 12 000 tonnes of tea a year, half of which is sold for export. That's enough to make 4.8 billion cups of tea a year.Tea production also provides an estimated 4 500 jobs to the area, with much of the harvesting and drying done by hand."Rooibos is now gaining ground in a lot of countries and is grown from a very small base, so I think business can grow exponentially," said Willem Engelbrecht.The question for farmers like Engelbrecht is how long this boom can last, before climate change kills off their crop. Read more about: farming | climate change NEXT ON FIN24X

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Hometown Farmer - Redline Aviation PENDER, NE — Redline Aviation is one of the few family-owned crop dusting operations around, and the owner says he's all about helping the farmer.When Ryan Lihs flies crop-dusting airplanes over fields in Siouxland, he's only 10 feet above the ground, cruising at roughly 160 miles per hour.But the spraying process starts long before the plane takes off.For Lihs, the spraying process starts at a computer.He uses a GPS system to map out each job exactly, down to how much chemical to load on board the plane.Redline mainly uses two Air Tractors for spraying.They hold about 500 gallons of spray each, and the tools they use on board are very precise."Completely down to the size of the droplet," said Lihs, talking about an adjustment that can be made to the spraying boom.Then there's a preflight check before the planes takes off the ground."We're looking for any nicks, or anything in the exhaust system," said Lihs. "Any dents, any loose screws."When you're a family owned-business, with just four employees, you can't take a safe flight for granted."I think it's as dangerous as you want to make it," said Lihs. "It's something we take pride in, it's something that we have years and years of training to do this, and it's just, I think, it's a very safe job."Once the plane is fueled up and loaded with spray, it's up in the air.Helping farmers grow a cleaner crop, more efficiently."We can cover a lot more ground through the air than they can through a ground machine," said Lihs.And even after more than a decade of flying, Lihs says he still loves every time he gets to go up in the air."It's really nice flying in the mornings, on a really nice calm day," said Lihs. "It's really nice flying."Story and video: http://siouxlandnews.com

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I thought you might be interested in this page from Yolo County. Here's the link: http://ceyolo.ucanr.edu/?blogasset=17496&blogtag=malnutrition Security Code: PYVLKR Enter Code: Delta Crops Resource Management Livestock and Range Management Master Gardener Program Norton Hall UC Nutrition Education Program Small and Organic Farms Water Agency Eurasian Mussel Action Program Contact Us Yolo County Staff List UCCE Offices in California About Us About Cooperative Extension UCCE Funding Sources Newsletters Additional Resources Email Security Code: XSOHTT Enter Code: Newsletters Additional Resources University of California Posts Tagged: malnutrition Return to Yolo County Addressing nutrition and poverty through horticulture Nutrition, food security and sufficient family incomes are challenges in many parts of the world. Half the world’s people live in rural areas in developing countries. Because hunger and malnutrition are often linked to poverty, providing economic opportunities through horticultural production not only helps family incomes, but also addresses food security and nutrition. Training women to produce and market horticultural crops in the developing world also helps provide a much-needed income stream for families with children. UC Davis is addressing food security and economic development in Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America, and elsewhere, by coordinating an international horticulture program. The Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program (Hort CRSP; pronounced "hort crisp") is one of 10 CRSP programs that focus on global food production and solving food and nutrition problems in developing countries. UC Davis leads the Hort CRSP, with funding support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Examples of projects conducted by researchers and educators throughout the world include: Inexpensive cold storage systems in rural, developing areas to prolong food longevity; see page 2 Concentrated solar drying of fruits and vegetables in East Africa; see page 3 Improving safety and quality of tomatoes in Nigeria; see page 3 Smallholder flower production in Honduras for export markets; see page 3 The overarching goals of the Hort CRSP are to reduce poverty and improve nutrition and health of the rural poor, while improving the profitability and sustainability of horticulture in the developing world. Priorities in the Hort CRSP include gender equity, sustainable crop production, postharvest technology, food safety, market access, and financing. The program awards research funding in the U.S. and abroad to: Realize opportunities for horticultural development Improve food security Improve nutrition and human health Provide opportunities for income diversification Advance economic and social conditions of the rural poor, particularly women Dr. Elizabeth Mitcham, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis and director of the Hort CRSP, notes, “By harnessing the research, training, and outreach expertise of the land-grant universities in the U.S. to work with partners in developing countries, we can improve horticultural capabilities in much the same way that the land-grant system helped revolutionize American agriculture.” In the three years since the program’s inception, several projects have been completed, and many are ongoing. The program’s website offers a plethora of information, along with newsletters that highlight individual projects. The program also has a YouTube channel, with videos on Hort CRSP projects. Some of the videos are about projects that are especially important in developing countries, including: The TRELLIS project — bringing together graduate students and in-country development organizations; YouTube link Using cell phones to give real-time information to growers in rural areas of India; YouTube link Inexpensive cultivation practices for smallholder farmers; YouTube link Indigenous products increase incomes in Ghana; YouTube link Saving indigenous crop seeds in Southeast Asia for resource-poor farmers; YouTube link UC Davis, ranked first in the U.S. on research related to agriculture, food science and nutrition, and plant and animal science, is positioned to serve global needs related to food and nutrition. Of the 10 CRSP programs administered by USAID, two of the programs are based at UC Davis — the Hort CRSP program, and the BASIS CRSP, which was highlighted in a recent Food Blog post and addresses financial issues related to agricultural productivity. Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 9:02 AM Author: Ann King Filmer Tags: Africa (2), Beth Mitcham (1), cold storage (1), Collaborative Research Support Program (1), developing nations (1), economic development (1), food security (1), food sustainability (1), global health (2), hunger (1), malnutrition (3), nutrition (2), postharvest (1), Postharvest Technology Center (1), solar drying (1), Southeast Asia (1), UC Davis (1) Milk’s secret for fighting childhood infections UC Davis microbiologist David Mills received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to test whether certain milk sugars can prevent life-threatening diarrheal diseases in young children. Globally, these gastrointestinal infections are the second leading cause of death among children under the age of five, each year killing 1.5 million children. Mills, an authority on the molecular biology of lactic acid bacteria used in foods, said, “We will examine the ability of these compounds from milk to prevent gastrointestinal infections and to establish healthy bacteria in the intestines.” He and his colleagues are working to move the basic research toward practical applications in human health. Earlier research has shown that similar oligosaccharides in human breast milk play an important role in supporting growth of protective bacteria in babies’ digestive tracts. Such bacteria are known to minimize the risk and severity of diarrheal disease and other gastrointestinal infections in infants. The UC Davis researchers are hopeful that milk from cows will provide an abundant source of oligosaccharides that have comparable therapeutic characteristics for young children who are no longer breast-feeding. Mills noted that if the researchers’ hypothesis proves correct, they plan to explore how oligosaccharides can be incorporated in a healthful, cost-effective manner into various food products designed for nutritional therapy and for use in international famine and malnutrition relief efforts. For more information, read the full press release. Posted on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 2:34 PM Tags: David Mills (1), global health (2), malnutrition (3), milk (1) UC Davis' Nutributter to go beyond Africa UC researchers who created Nutributter and tested it successfully in several African nations are now preparing to reformulate and evaluate the dietary supplement for Bangladesh and Guatemala. The research aims to determine whether specially developed Nutributter can prevent stunting and abnormal motor development in a variety of cultures where children are at risk for malnutrition. The Africa Nutributter studies found that children preferred a sweet paste, but the scientists believe regional flavors may make the supplement more appealing. For Guatemala, they plan a cinnamon-flavored Nutributter; for Bangledesh, the paste will be flavored with cumin and cardamom. UC Davis nutrition professor Kathryn Dewey, who leads the project, said it remains to be seen whether Nutributter will be adapted for American consumers. “I personally think it is marketable,” she said. Each four-teaspoon serving of Nutributter paste, which comes in a ketchup-packet-like pouch, contains 40 essential vitamins and minerals. Unlike most other nutrient supplements, the product also provides 120 calories of energy plus protein and essential fatty acids. Nutributter is not meant as a replacement for local foods or breast milk, but rather to be added to youngsters’ and pregnant mothers’ traditional diets. "More than 3 million children die each year of malnutrition due not just to a lack of calories, but also to poor diet quality, particularly insufficient intake of micronutrients like zinc and iron, which are so critical to healthy growth and development," Dewey said. The idea for the nutrition supplement came from the successful use of Plumpy'nut, a peanut-based food developed by French researchers for famine relief. Each Plumpy-nut packet has 500 calories and children can gain 1 to 2 pounds a week by eating it twice daily. Plumpy-nut is meant to temporarily serve as the sole food source in emergency situations. The UC Davis Nutributter team heads the International Lipid-based Nutrient Supplements Project (iLiNS). Last year, the project won a $16 million Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant. A 2008 UC Davis news release announcing the Gates Foundation grant gives more details about Nutributter and its use in African nations. More information is also available on the iLiNS Web site. Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 12:00 PM Author: Jeannette E. Warnert Tags: Africa (2), Kathryn Dewey (1), malnutrition (3), nutrition (2) UniversityofCalifornia Webmaster Email: [email protected]

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CARD: Center for Agricultural and Rural Development Products/Output Iowa Land Value Ag Policy Review Iowa Ag Review Summer 2003, Vol. 9 No. 3 Living with Hogs in Rural Iowa Antibiotics Restrictions: Taking Stock of Denmark's Experience Iowa's Agricultural Situation: Crop projections increase, national hog inventory declines Integration in the North American Livestock and Meat Industries U.S. Agriculture and the Value of the Dollar And the Survey Said... Bruce A. Babcock [email protected] Joseph A. Herriges [email protected] Silvia Secchi [email protected] Approximately 65,000 farmers raised hogs in Iowa in 1980 with an average of 200 hogs residing on each farm. In 2002, the number of farms with hogs had fallen to about 10,000, and the average number of hogs per farm had risen to over 1,400. In the not-so-distant past, the presence of livestock on farms was the social norm. When living or traveling in rural areas, you would expect to smell the smells, hear the noises, and see the sights that accompany such operations. Rural neighbors registered few complaints when nearly everyone had livestock. But the dramatic increase in the concentration of ownership now means that far fewer rural residents have a large financial interest in livestock. What once was the smell of money is now the smell of somebody else's money. Complaints and lawsuits about livestock operations are now much more common. The best known case involves the four farm couples-two of which had raised livestock-who sued Iowa Select Farms in 2002 for the production of offensive odors, noxious gasses, and excessive flies on the company's 30,000 head hog facility in Sac County, Iowa. The plaintiffs were awarded $1.06 million in actual damages plus $32 million in punitive damages. Lawsuits are a costly means of settling disputes. But many residents feel that they have no alternative because state law largely controls the siting of livestock operations. Currently, livestock producers have the right to construct facilities that meet state environmental standards. Supporters of state control argue that making Iowa a location that consistently applies standards for siting livestock facilities makes economic sense because livestock production is one of the industries for which Iowa has a competitive advantage. Opponents of state control argue that increased local control of livestock operations makes sense because local governments are in a better position to gauge the local costs and benefits of local economic activities. Many feel, however, that, at least for hogs, modern feedlots in Iowa offer few local benefits. Sow facilities generate far more economic activity than do finishing operations. Increasingly, Iowa is becoming home to finishing operations, while the large sow facilities are locating in North Carolina, Missouri, and Canada. And concentrated ownership of finishing operations means more central purchasing of feed, veterinary services, and other supplies. Central purchasing helps larger commercial centers but not necessarily smaller communities. Thus, the benefits associated with increased economic activity from livestock production flow to larger commercial areas, and to the state as a whole, whereas the costs from odor, flies, and the risk of water contamination are borne locally. Clearly, under these circumstances, more local control would mean more restrictions. The difficult question that Iowa must address is, How can a competitive livestock industry be supported while accounting for local costs? Regulation through Assigned Property Rights Suppose that a hog farmer wants to build three new finishing houses on a site. The farmer knows that the hogs will generate a significant amount of odor intermittently throughout the year. This odor will affect the residents of four nearby families. Under current law, as long as all state environmental requirements are met, the farmer can build the facility. To some this means that current state law assigns this hog farmer the right to generate odor. But suppose state law gave the four families the right to be free of odor? Initially you might think that such a proposal would bring a halt to any expansion in the hog industry, as residents would veto any new construction. But is this necessarily the case? A right to be free of odor can be considered a property right, in which the property is odor-free air rather than real estate. Just as real estate can be traded, so too could the right to odor-free air. Is it possible that private negotiations between the hog farmer and rural residents could result in a solution where everybody is better off? Suppose that at this location, the hog farmer expects to generate profits equal to $10,000 per year from the operation, after accounting for all costs of building and operating the facility. A payment to the residents of anything less than $10,000 per year would leave this farmer better off than if the project were blocked. Economists call this $10,000 the farmer's maximum willingness to pay to be able to build this facility. Further, suppose that each of the four families would accept nothing less than $1,000 each per year as compensation for having to breathe hog odors. Economists call this $1,000 payment the minimum willingness to accept the odor. There is room for mutually beneficial trade when the willingness to pay exceeds the willingness to accept, as is the case in the example. Suppose the hog farmer offered each family $1,500 per year as compensation for the odor. The farmer's profit would decrease by $6,000 but would still be positive. Each family would have $500 per year over and above the actual amount of harm caused by the odor. Note also that giving families the right to be odor free encourages the farmer to invest in cost-effective practices that eliminate odor. Suppose that an investment of $3,000 per year would eliminate odor. The farmer would have an incentive to make this investment because it would be less than the $6,000 paid to the families as compensation for the odor. This beneficial solution follows from the assignment of a property right to the rural residents. But the property right also could be assigned to the hog farmer. Suppose the hog farmer has the right to generate odor. The farmer would have no immediate incentive to compensate the odor-affected families, but the families would have an incentive to induce the farmer to adopt odor-reducing technologies. If the odor generates $4,000 in damages and costs $3,000 to eliminate, then there is room for mutually beneficial trade to take place. In this case the payments would go to the farmer from the residents. Again, the assignment of property rights is the key to reaching an agreement. The Magnitude of Damages Is there room for beneficial trades that could help solve the problem of locating livestock facilities in Iowa? There is unless the damages caused by proximity to livestock operations are much greater than the profits generated by such activity. How can we measure such damages? There is no market price for hog odor, so we cannot look at market reports. Surveys that ask residents how much they would be willing to pay to be free of hog odor would be a poor basis on which to base damage estimates. What is needed is a measure that is based on actual transactions between individuals-such as residential real estate transactions. If odor causes damage, then one would expect that, all other things being equal, a house that is exposed to odor would sell for less than a house that is not. Therefore, measuring the impact of odor on property values should yield the needed damage estimates. We do not have a measure of odor at each property. Instead, we created a proxy measure of odor exposure by calculating the number, distance, and direction of feedlots relative to residential properties that have sold. We obtained data for every rural residential house sold in Webster, Humboldt, Hamilton, Franklin, and Hardin counties from the mid-1990s until the summer of 2002. Along with the actual sale price for each home, we collected information on those attributes that typically affect a home's value, such as the square feet of living space, number of bedrooms, and proximity to schools and commercial centers. Finally, we used Department of Natural Resources data on the location and size of livestock operations requiring either an operating permit or a manure management plan to determine how close each home was to each of these livestock facilities. For each house, we identified the nearest livestock operation, recording the operation's distance from the house, its size (live weight), and whether it was upwind of the home during the winter (that is, northwest) or summer (that is, south) seasons. We also computed the number of operations within a three- and ten-mile radius. We then determined (using regression techniques) if there is a statistically significant effect of proximity of livestock operations on property values, and if so, the magnitude of the effect. Only owner-occupied, single-family detached residences were included in the study. Details of the analysis are contained in CARD Working Paper 03-WP 342. There is an important qualification to report about the results of this study. The statistical techniques used to estimate these results give insights into the average effects, not the effects on any particular residence. The actual affects will be higher or lower, depending on the type of facility, the type of livestock located in the facility, how well the facility is managed, topographical features of the site, and other factors that are not explicitly included in our statistical analysis. Results of CARD's Analysis Reasonable results emerge from our analysis. Overall, the data suggest that livestock facilities can affect property values. The closer the facility is to a residence, the greater the effect. And the effect is zero unless the residence is downwind of the closest facility. We can best illustrate the magnitude of the effects by posing the following scenario. Suppose a residence has a three-mile buffer zone with no livestock facilities. Our results indicate that if one facility with 450,000 lbs live weight of livestock moved to within one-half mile, the value of the residence would decline by an average of 8 percent if the facility were located to the northwest and by 5 percent if the facility were located to the south. These declines in average property values increase to 11 percent and 7 percent if the facility were located within one-quarter mile. At a distance of 1.5 miles, the declines fall to 3 percent and 2 percent. The large amount of variation in the data hampers our ability to measure precisely the effects of livestock facilities on property values. However, it is somewhat reassuring that our average results are about the same as those of a previous study conducted in North Carolina by Palmquist, Roka, and Vukina ("Hog Operations, Environmental Effects, and Residential Property Values," Land Economics, vol. 73, February 1997, pp. 114-124). In this earlier study, the results indicated that rural residential property values declined by as much as 9 percent because of the siting of hog facilities within one-half mile of a residence. A Possible Trade-off? With these potential property damages in mind, would a policy that gives existing homeowners the right to be free of damage from livestock operations put a stop to all facility construction? Our results suggest that there may be significant room for beneficial trade between livestock farmers and homeowners. Suppose that a farmer wants to locate a site a half mile upwind from two residences valued at $100,000 each and that there are no other facilities located in the area. The farmer is a good neighbor and promises to manage the operation to minimize odor, flies, and the risk of a manure spill. But the realties of livestock production in this case impinge on the owners of the residences. Given the right to be free of any effect from livestock operations, the homeowners would be able to block construction of the facility. But suppose the farmer offers each homeowner a one-time payment of $10,000 (10 percent of the value of the home) as compensation for any potential damages. The homeowners might well choose to take the money and live with the livestock. The farmer would then be able to construct the facility at the chosen site, at a modest increase in construction costs. And the state of Iowa would get the benefits of attracting a competitive industry. Exact rules and legal obligations would have to be worked out before any compensation program could be implemented. However, given the current stalemate, whereby homeowners feel powerless to affect land use decisions and livestock producers feel that their investments are not welcome in the state, the payoff from such voluntary agreements could be large. ♦ Contact Us · Site Map · RSS News Feed · Links · Staff Intranet Copyright 2017. CARD is a center located within the Department of Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.

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Industry Emergency plans vital to protect farms By Kansas State University Extension March 30, 2011 | 11:42 am EDT MANHATTAN, Kan. – Every farm should have a disaster plan to protect assets from natural disasters and other emergencies, said a Kansas State University extension communication specialist. Producers should also develop a disaster plan as a way to find potential problems that could prove to be costly in the event of an on-farm emergency, said Mary Lou Peter, who also serves as K-State Research and Extension’s point of contact with the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN). EDEN is a collaborative multi-state effort by extension services across the country to reduce the impact of disasters through education. Find Risks Ahead of Disasters “Creating a plan helps producers find risks they may have overlooked or not thought about,” Peter said. Disaster planning starts with identifying high on-farm risks and acknowledging past emergencies. In many states, the most common natural disasters are floods, straight-line winds, fires and winter storms. Crop insurance can be one of the best ways to protect income if field crops become damaged. Farm disaster planning should include an analysis to determine if crop insurance is best for a particular farm. Peter also recommends producers take risk mitigation steps, such as buying a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio, labeling all truck and equipment keys, resolving electrical issues and cataloging assets that could be damaged. Farmers, like other business owners, should back up computers and use off-site storage for electronic and hard copy records that are irreplaceable and easily protected but often forgotten. Peter suggests inviting emergency personnel to visit farm properties and help determine major risks. For example, this might help firefighters understand how to respond to a fire at a specific farm. “If there is a fire near chemicals, it may be better to let it burn out rather than using water,” she said. “Thinking through these steps before an emergency can help farmers avoid the environmental issues with chemicals getting into the groundwater.” Review Plans Annually Once in place, disaster plans should be reviewed and exercised at least once a year. “It does not have to be an elaborate exercise,” Peter said. “Just ask questions about who is going to execute certain tasks. When disaster strikes, it won't be the plan that saves lives and money, it will be the thought process and experience gained knowing the plan.” The hardest part about creating a disaster plan can be taking the time to write it down, but two publications developed by Purdue University Extension can help, she said. “Plan Today for Tomorrow's Flood” is a flood response plan for agricultural retailers but which farmers also can use. “Rural Security Planning” is designed to protect family, friends and farms in the event of an emergency. Both publications are available for free download from Purdue Extension at The Education Store at https://mdc.itap.purdue.edu/. Hard copies are available for $1 each. “Using the publications and common sense, a producer can have a farm-ready emergency plan in about three hours,” Peter said. More information for farmers and others about emergency preparedness and disaster recovery is available at http://www.extension.org (click on disaster issues) and http://www.eden.lsu.edu. More information for Kansas is available at http://www.kseden.ksu.edu. Kansas State University Extension

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Posted on October 20, 2012October 20, 2012 by sanyasiSocialism, Secularism and the Shifting Goalposts of Indian Democracy CM announces a series of writings on political life and public culture in South Asia, guest curated, gathered, and edited by Sanyasi. The idea is to present here a range of perspectives –by writers, journalists, academics, artists, and others–on the entanglements of culture, public life, and the political in and about the vast swath of humanity that lives in that impossible imagined community called South Asia. Inaugurating the series is Prayaag Akbar’s examination of the place of secularism and socialism in Indian democracy. The essay earlier appeared in The Sunday Guardian. Of the five descriptors for the Indian state enthroned in the Constitution – ‘sovereign’, ‘socialist’, ‘secular’, ‘democratic’ and ‘republic’ – which one would you say our polity, in this the 65th year of its making, has most failed to achieve? Is India any, or all, of these things? Along three of these parameters there can be no arguing that India has established itself well, even irrevocably, in the years since Independence. It is certainly a republic: matters and debates of state are of and for the public, no matter how many times critics point to the overreach of a few political families. It is also undoubtedly sovereign on both domestic and foreign policy. This debate reaches most urgency when India forms a loose alliance with a state of far greater political power, such as, arguably, we once formed with the USSR and, again arguably, we today form with the United States; yet such things are natural in a world order wherein coalitions of interest can be made, and the Indian state’s willingness to enter into them should be seen as an exercise in the nation’s sovereignty, not detraction from it. It would also be fallacious to argue India is not democratic: despite the many failings of its electoral system, India’s people and politicians almost across the spectrum have continually displayed a commitment to the procedures put in place in 1950, even if these institutions need bolstering for our governments to be genuinely representative. These three, then, could be seen as the positive descriptors of the Indian state – the qualities that, princely pockets aside, no one with a stake in the heady politics of the 1940s and ’50s took issue with. It is when we get to the other two that the debate becomes more interesting. ‘Secular’ and ‘socialist’, as descriptors of a state, are laudable goals, at least to my mind, but they should not, because of their preclusive nature, be placed at the origins of a state. It is to say that a non-socialist government cannot be formed in Delhi – a laughable assertion – and that a party espousing non-secular values cannot be a legal member of the Indian political community – even more laughable. It comes as no surprise then that these two terms were added to the Preamble to the Indian Constitution, as if in dilution, during the only time in its independent history that India’s democratic and republication aspirations were genuinely under threat, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. Within the vast draconianism of the Forty Second Amendment of the Constitution of India (1976) lay this bold and determinedly political move. Here, then, was the enshrinement of a set of political values substantively different from the character of the Indian state proscribed by the Constituent Assembly. In the intended formulation of the Constituent Assembly, ‘sovereign’, ‘democratic’ and ‘republic’ are suprapolitical terms, in that they speak of the essence of the Indian state, not the nature of its government. ‘Socialist’ and ‘secular’ do not pass this test. (Caveat: I write that ‘it comes as no surprise’ to learn of this part of the Amendment, but it was a great surprise when I first read of it, as an undergraduate abroad – you’d think in seven years of CBSE-shaped Civics and History lessons through school we might have discussed the implications of such an important development once or twice, but no.) This trope, that India is socialist and secular, is trotted out so often, in articles and in books, that it demands examination. Socialism is not on the radar of today’s political establishment – so far off it, in fact, that we might actually get a supermajority, even in our mutinous Parliament, were we to put to vote the excision of this term from the Preamble. It is an anachronism, a rotary phone in the Android age. Perhaps it was ever thus. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems that India’s pretensions to socialism were always somewhat innocuous, a superficial, ideological sheen given to half-hearted populism. Certainly there was no upsetting of the applecart as far as the real elites were concerned, whether in politics, industry, commerce or agriculture. A blind eye turned to the real entrenchments of capital, and a wildly deleterious emphasis on collective ownership that stymied the economic growth of a talented populace. Indian secularism has its roots in the French separation of Church and State, but here we mean that the state has no official religion, and that it will not discriminate against any citizen on the basis of her religion. Every religion is valued equally by the state. But – and this is the point – in the political discourse of our times, secularism has come to mean something quite different. Now, here, it means opposition to electoral appeals made on the basis of Hindutva, the “saffron” policies that are the primary electoral plank of parties like the BJP and Shiv Sena. This, I believe, is an act of intellectual dishonesty. Truth told, after the Left’s winnowing to irrelevance, there is not a single major secular party in India. We are now an ethnic party system: parties ride to power on the basis of appeals to ethnicity, whether religion, region, caste or some interplay of two or even all three. Every pronouncement by a television psephologist on how various caste groups will vote en masse is a blow against secularism. The Congress, which long positioned itself India’s secular champion, has in actuality made appeals and calculations all over the country on ethnic considerations. In the last UP Assembly elections it wore the garb of the Dalit Muslim party, but over 65 years it has made appeal to almost the entire gamut of Indian ethnicity – a feat of electoral gymnastics that is quite unmatched. This narrowing of the definition of secularism into anti-Hindutva tells, perhaps, of the extent to which the Congress has moulded liberal thought in India. But it is also heartening, because it suggests that the liberal Hindu has a real aversion to majoritarian rule, that the spectre of a trishul-wielding, minority terrorising gang of thugs in government is antithetical to his idea of democracy in India. This is perhaps why, as a liberal Muslim, the scenes in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan made me think of all this. The vengeful Muslim mob is nothing I wanted to see again, yet it is an indictment of the nature of Muslim politics since 1947. For 65 years most Muslim votes have gone to one party, based on non-secular appeals. These appeals have largely been emotive instead of substantive: Shah Bano became a national issue while the vital findings of the Sachar Committee were ignored, the reform of Madrassah education, urgently required, is deemed too sensitive a topic, even as “secular” politicians and their flunkies in the mohallas are allowed to stoke up fear and anger about majoritarian encroachment. And now we’ve ended up with this: at the bottom a rudderless community, quick to incite to violence, mired in medieval mores, devoid of intellectual leadership; in between, the gangster-politician, protector not provider; and at the middle and top Muslims like me, eager to remain part of the national conversation, desperate to dust from our hands any responsibility for this malfeasant cohort. Let me be clear, this is no clarion call for Hindutva. I do believe, especially at the local level, when festival can turn to flare-up, that Muslims, Christians and other minorities are safer under the Congress than under the BJP. But I also believe, 65 years down the line, an Indian Muslim should be entitled to ask for more than safety. We could begin by looking at the deceptions contained in our Preamble. India is no more secular than it is socialist. Let us acknowledge that first, and then move from there. Categoriespotpurri 3 Replies to “Socialism, Secularism and the Shifting Goalposts of Indian Democracy” Shama Zaidi says: October 25, 2012 at 11:24 pm The words “socialist” and “secular” were debated in the Constituent Assembly and not included for the reasons given in this article. During the “Emergency”Indira Gandhi changed the Constitution; some of her changes were subsequently thrown out but these two words remained as part of the Preamble. the original preamble needs to be restored. chaitanya says: October 21, 2012 at 7:29 am possibly secularism has two dimensions – 1. state not favouring any religion, a kind of atheism 2. state favouring all religions, the kind Gandhi advocated. The second is more relevant to India as something to have evolved over period of time in its history, while the first, preferred by Nehru and all others after him, is more like someone else’s Idea of secularism imposed on India. Due to this brand of secularism followed by every so called secular political parties, India appears to be in a more schizophrenic state not knowing whether to appear religious or just plain denounce it? Alok says: October 21, 2012 at 12:43 am There’s another way to examine the “socialist” and “secular” words, keeping in mind particularly the context in which the 42nd Amendment came into the picture. “Socialist” and “secular” were to be to the goals which the government of the day could aim to while subverting or doing away with the “democratic” and “republic” parts of the Constitution. The reason why “secular” has become a bad word is precisely because of the bad faith in which it was espoused (one could equally say the same of “socialist” but other factors also come into play) by the Congress party under Indira Gandhi. I disagree that Indian secularism (as reflected in the Constitution at least) is picked up from the French Revolution’s separation of Church and State. It is true of Nehruvian secularism, but not true of Gandhian (or as some would disparagingly call it, Hindu) secularism which found its way into the Indian Constitution. The abolition of untouchability, the protection of the cow, the iron-ringed-fence around minority educational institutions and the advocacy of “social reform” of all religions were all pet projects of a Gandhian/Hindu secularism that Nehruvian/French Revolution secularism would’ve found distasteful. Nehru preferred that the State stand above and aloof from religion, dictating terms but offering no special favours. Gandhian secularism called for greater involvement of the State with religion, but with all religions equally. The latter approach was adopted in the Constitution. Previous PostPrevious On Dreams and Other TruthsNext PostNext The Stain of Memory contact CM

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Corn For Ethanol, Changing The Dynamics Of Markets, Producers And Users Source: Purdue University | Apr 17, 2007 Increased ethanol demand in the U.S. will most likely put strains on the agricultural sector – from markets to the environment to crop production and food products. One Ohio State University agricultural economist suggests increasing expenditures on crop yield research to soften the blow of such impacts and keep the country internationally competitive. "The idea is to build yield down the road so that we can accommodate food demand, fuel demand and the environment, while minimizing other potential suppliers coming in and taking our market share," says Carl Zulauf, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. Creating a win-win solution through increasing yield is Zulauf's way of encouraging others to recognize the direction the country is taking to become more energy independent, the pressures that it will create on the agricultural industry, and more importantly, that the change is long-term. "We have made, as a nation, a generational policy decision in moving toward greater energy independence, and those types of decisions don't fade away. We change the way we think, act and organize ourselves when we make a generational policy decision," says Zulauf. "One component of energy independence is likely to be some form of renewable energy. It isn't clear yet what the mix of renewable energy will be, but at least in the short run you have to believe that corn-derived ethanol will be a component of meeting our desire for energy independence." Using corn as an energy source is already changing the dynamics of markets, producers and users. "The ethanol industry is growing so large and so fast that its demand is now outstripping the country's ability to supply that demand from historical increases in yields, which generally have been about 1.7% annually over the last 30 years," says Zulauf. Several options are brought to the table as a result of trying to meet that demand: Increase the number of acres planted to corn. Growers are already responding with the highest acreage intended for planting since WWII. Shift land from other uses into crop production. Potential candidates include pastureland, conservation reserve land and forests. Import more ethanol. Because of import tariffs and a drive for energy independence, imports likely will have a limited role. Ration corn demand in response to higher prices. Increase yields. "These adjustments, however, carry tradeoffs. If you ration demand, you will reduce the size of the U.S. livestock sector, the U.S. bioenergy sector, exports of crops or all three. If you bring additional land into production, you raise environmental concerns," says Zulauf. "The option that has the most likelihood of giving us the most positives is to increase the expenditures on yield research." Investing in yield research is not only designed to produce enough for both new and existing corn users, but is a way of avoiding a potentially smaller U.S. role in the global market. "If we don't invest more in yield research, we could be setting ourselves up for a similar situation that happened with soybeans. In the early 1970s we had a big run-up in soybean prices. What that did is send all kinds of economic incentives to farmers around the world to produce soybeans. The U.S. did not really ramp up its research on soybeans, and now Brazil and Argentina combined produce more soybeans than the U.S.," says Zulauf. "I'm concerned the same thing can happen with corn. At $4 a bushel, we are not only going to produce more corn in this country, we are also going to stimulate production of corn around the world. We could end up seeing our international comparative advantage sharply decline if we don't step up our research practices." Zulauf says, from a historical perspective, yield research on crops has resulted in substantially higher yields, specifically with corn. Between 1926 and 2006, the U.S. average corn yield increased from 26 bu./acre to 149 bu./acre, an increase of 473%. Both the private and public sectors need to spend more on yield research, says Zulauf. "The high price of corn and other crops will stimulate private sector research. But, you also need to increase public sector research," says Zulauf. "Private firms tend to underinvest in basic research because it is so risky. Thus, investing in basic research by the public is critical for long-term, continuing yield increase and thus to maintaining the comparative advantage of the U.S. farm sector."

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By Shirley Thomas Guyana Chronicle Articles on agriculture GUYANA is among 15 Caribbean countries to benefit from a Regional Special Programme for Food Security (RSPFS), under which the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the Italian Government will make available US$100M to boost agricultural production. The focus will be on water and water-related activities such as improving drainage and irrigation for farmlands, and already $50M has been disbursed. A team of officials from the FAO, a United Nations body, on Tuesday night arrived in Guyana for a two-day visit to assist with preparations for the RSPFS. The programme has three main components - enhancement of small-holder agricultural products, productivity and markets; trade facilitation and food policy development. The team, headed by Mr. Gian Luigi Ferretti, Senior Programme Officer, Field Programme Development Service/Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, yesterday paid a courtesy call on Minister of Fisheries, Crops and Livestock, Mr. Satyadeow Sawh at his Vlissengen Road, Georgetown offices. Others on the mission are Mr. Filippo Alessi, Senior Programme Monitoring Officer, Food Policy Assistance Division; Mr. Hesdie Grauwde, Policy Officer/Sub-Regional Officer for the Caribbean and Mr. J. R. Deep Ford, Food Systems Officer, Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service/Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. Minister Sawh, who said that the Italian Government has pledged US$100M to the project, explained that the focus on water and water related activities applies to the whole of the Caribbean. In Trinidad, Carib has received $395,000 to support the development of special market information on agricultural activities in the region. As it relates to Guyana, the visiting officials are looking at drainage and irrigation for the production of paddy/rice and other crops. Said Sawh: "If we have a good supply - infrastructural development - we could use water as we like, when we like, and this is what the bulk of the programme is about." Guyana's climatic conditions are characterised by prolonged dry seasons during which rice yields have been known to suffer. More recently, the El Nino weather phenomenon has also seriously affected the industry, one of Guyana's main foreign exchange earners. Sawh noted that the RSPFS will also enhance food security, since its arrangements will make for improved production of crops and vegetables. Officials will also help the countries of the region find international markets. Very often, even though Caribbean countries would have been working feverishly at improving production, one of the most important setbacks has been finding markets for the produce. And referring specifically to Guyana, Sawh noted that this initiative will boost considerably the country's trading capacity, since "Guyana has the potential to deliver". Other areas to be explored here include beef production with the setting up of a modern abattoir. "We are very enthusiastic about this idea," Sawh said, adding, "...we are going to see how the private sector in Italy can come and help us." Noting that money has already been allocated, he said that through the FAO's feasibility study, the project is likely to begin as early as this April. Sawh said the team which has already travelled to several of the Caribbean countries to benefit from the programme, is now meeting technical stakeholders in Guyana, and will ultimately assess the needs of the respective countries. Alluding to the local situation, the minister said: "This, I think, is going to make a substantial impact upon the lives of our farmers in this country." He sees the project as a fillip for agricultural development with many economies of scale in its favour. Recalling the myriad problems faced with drainage and irrigation and the difficulty in getting adequate supplies of water for crops under cultivation in the dry season, Sawh conceded that the project is "exciting". Expressing thanks on behalf of the people of the Caribbean to the FAO and the Italian team for their very meaningful contribution, the minister said: "We are looking forward to the success of the project which will begin about the middle of the year...I hope that down the road, true rural communities will be the ones to benefit..."

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Abies alba Abies balsamea Abies concolor Abies fraseri Abies grandis Abies nordmanniana Abies procera Acer campestre Acer platanoides Acer pseudoplatanus Aesculus hippocastanum Alnus cordata Alnus glutinosa Alnus incana Alnus rubra Alnus viridis Araucaria araucana Arbutus unedo Betula pendula Betula pubescens Calocedrus decurrens Carpinus betulus Castanea sativa Cedrus atlantica Cedrus deodara Cedrus libani Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Cornus alba Cornus mas Cornus sanguinea Corylus avellana Crataegus laevigata Crataegus monogyna Cryptomeria japonica Cytisus scoparius Easy method Euonymus europaeus Fagus sylvatica Frangula alnus Fraxinus excelsior Ginkgo biloba Hammamelis mollis Hippophae rhamnoides Ilex aquifolium Juglans nigra Juglans regia Juniperus communis Laburnum alpinum Laburnum anagyroides Larix decidua Larix kaempferi Larix x eurolepis Laurus nobilis Ligustrum vulgare Liquidamber styraciflua Liriodendron tulipifera Lupinus arboreus Malus sylvestris Metasequoia glyptostroboides Moderately easy method Morus nigra Nothofagus nervosa Nothofagus obliqua Picea abies Picea omorika Picea pungens Picea sitchensis Pinus contorta Pinus muricata Pinus nigra Pinus nigra ssp. laricio Pinus peuce Pinus pinaster Pinus radiata Pinus sylvestris Populus canescens Populus nigra Populus nigra var. betulifolia Populus tremula Pretreatment of deeply dormant species Pretreatment of hard-seeded species Pretreatment of shallowly dormant species Prunus avium Prunus cerasifera Prunus padus Prunus spinosa Pseudotsuga menziesii Quercus cerris Quercus ilex Quercus petraea Quercus robur Quercus rubra Rhamnus cathartica Robinia pseudoacacia Rosa arvensis Rosa canina Rubus fruticosa Ruscus aculeatus Salix alba Salix aurita Salix caprea Salix cinerea Salix fragilis Salix pentandra Salix purpurea Salix triandra Salix viminalis Sambucus nigra Seed dormancy characteristics Sequoia sempervirens Sequoiadendron giganteum Skilled method Sorbus aria Sorbus aucuparia Sorbus intermedia Sorbus torminalis Taxodium distichum Taxus baccata Thuja plicata Tilia cordata Tilia platyphyllos Tilia x europaea Tsuga heterophylla Ulex europaeus Ulmus glabra Viburnum lantana Viburnum opulus Seed storage and pretreatment for Pseudotsuga menziesii Douglas-fir Storage characteristics Storage moisture content and temperature 6-8% @ < 4°C Dormancy characteristics Pretreatment method 6 (3-9) weeks cold (c. 4°C)See pretreatment of shallowly dormant species Efficacy of pretreatment / remarks Generally effective, a significant proportion of live seeds should germinate Approximate date to initiate artificial pre-treatment (for 1 March sowing) Orthodox - seeds that can be dried without harm, and once dried can be frozen, stored for years with little deterioration and relatively easily revived. Pre-treatment method Figures in brackets indicate that different seedlots often require different pretreatment durations. There are three potential courses of action: Adhere to the pretreatment duration in bold, with the knowledge that the maximum potential germination of the seedlot may be sacrificed for the sake of simplicity. Inspect the pretreating seed regularly. Sow when c. 10% of seed is chitted, with the hope that this is indicative that the remaining seeds are now close to germination. Inspect the pretreating seed regularly. At suitable intervals, remove chitted seeds (by hand, flotation, and/or sieving). Sow chitted seeds and return balance to pretreatment until no more seeds germinate. Practice Guide Raising Trees and Shrubs from Seed (PDF-648K) Forestry Commission Practice Guide 18.

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Business Day|Rising Corn Prices Bring Fears of an Upswing in Food Costs Business Day Rising Corn Prices Bring Fears of an Upswing in Food Costs By WILLIAM NEUMANOCT. 12, 2010 A recent report cut the estimated size of this year’s corn crop. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News First it was heat and drought in Russia. Then it was heat and too much rain in parts of the American Corn Belt. Extreme weather this year has sent grain prices soaring, jolting commodities markets and setting off fears of tight supplies that could eventually hit consumers’ wallets.In the latest market lurch, corn prices dropped in early October, then soared anew, in response to changing assessments by the federal government of grain supplies and coming harvests.The sudden movements in commodities markets are expected to have little immediate effect on the prices of corn flakes and bread in the grocery store, although American consumers are likely to see some modest price increases for meat, poultry and dairy products.But experts warn that the impact could be much greater if next year’s harvest disappoints and if 2011 grain harvests in the Southern Hemisphere also fall short of the current robust expectations. Continue reading the main story “We can live with high commodity prices for a period without seeing much impact at the retail level, but if that persists for several months or a couple of years, then it eventually has to get passed on” to consumers, said Darrel Good, an emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois. The rise in prices is a good indication of how volatile the market has become for commodity futures in basic farm products like corn or wheat.Grain prices started to shoot up over the summer on reports of a catastrophic drought in the major wheat-producing regions of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Prices rose not only for wheat, but also for corn and soybeans, since those grains are interchangeable as animal feed and a drop in wheat production could mean increased demand for the other grains.Corn prices surged again on Friday after a new report from the United States Agriculture Department said this year’s corn crop would be smaller than expected. The harvest is forecast to be 3 percent lower than the 2009 crop, which set a record.The crop will still probably be the third-largest on record, but demand for corn to be used as animal feed on American farms, in ethanol production and for exports remains high, so supplies are expected to be tight.December corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade reached a high of $5.84 a bushel in trading on Tuesday. In late June, similar corn futures were trading as low as $3.43. That is a 70 percent jump.Dr. Good said the average price for the new crop, which will encompass sales through next August, is expected to be a record, at about $5 a bushel, well above the $3.95 average price for the last three crops.The government’s latest harvest forecast suggests that corn supplies into next year will be “precariously tight,” said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities, a consulting and brokerage firm in West Des Moines, Iowa. “At these levels, we have to cut back on our usage,” he said. “We can either cut back on exports, our ethanol consumption or our feed.” Higher prices are good for farmers who raise grain, but they pose a problem for those in livestock and dairy products. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News It is not yet clear who will be forced to cut corn consumption.Federal ethanol mandates mean that production of biofuel from corn will remain high, regardless of price. The export market is also going strong. Dermot J. Hayes, a finance and economics professor at Iowa State University, said there appear to be signs of what he called panic buying by some Asian purchasers of American grains for animal feed. He said they are continuing to buy even though prices are rising out of fear that prices could go much higher. “The psychology is, you need corn or soybeans for your diets and let’s just buy now rather than wait,” Professor Hayes said.A wild card in the export market is China, which has not historically been a significant buyer of American corn. China surprised experts when it made some purchases earlier this year, but it is not clear if it will be a major buyer of the current crop.“Everybody will be watching that closely, to see if China is in the market or not,” said Dr. Good.The price increases are good news for American grain farmers, who stand to get far more for their crops than they anticipated when they planted them in the spring.But they mean hard decisions for livestock and dairy farmers, who were hard hit during the recession and have only recently begun to recover.Those farmers are likely to respond to higher feed prices by cutting the size of herds, or at least not increasing the number of animals they raise, say farm economists and industry executives. Many farmers will also sell animals at a slightly lower weight. Both those factors will cut supplies of meat and dairy products, eventually pushing prices up.A similar outcome is expected for the poultry industry.Other foodstuffs are not likely to see as strong an impact, according to economists.That is because the cost of basic grains makes up only a small fraction of the total cost of most manufactured foods that contain them, such as breakfast cereals or bread. A large part of the cost of those items comes from transportation, processing and marketing. The federal government forecasts that food prices will rise as much as 1.5 percent this year and 2 to 3 percent next year. The average annual increase in food prices over the last 10 years was 2.9 percent.Despite the high commodity prices, economists do not expect a return to the raging food inflation of 2008, when worldwide demand surged and costs were propelled higher by peaking fuel prices. That led to a 5.5 percent increase in food prices in the United States in 2008 and much higher food inflation and food shortages in developing countries.The Agriculture Department is scheduled to release an updated estimate of this year’s crop yield next month.“There will be a lot of attention focused on the next crop report,” said Joseph Glauber, the department’s chief economist. “It just appears to be a very, very tight situation, and so there will be a lot of volatility.” A version of this article appears in print on October 13, 2010, on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Rising Corn Prices Bring Fears of an Upswing in Food Costs. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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NewsOpinionImport controls criticisedWORRIED farmers travelled to Gatwick Airport to highlight their concerns about lax controls on food imports in the wake of the foot-and-mouth crisis. ShareByWalesOnline00:00, 28 AUG 2001Updated10:18, 26 MAR 2013NewsOpinion ShareGet daily updates directly to your inbox+ Subscribe Thank you for subscribing!Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid EmailWORRIED farmers travelled to Gatwick Airport to highlight their concerns about lax controls on food imports in the wake of the foot-and-mouth crisis. Farmers' leaders believe the crisis was caused by infected meat being brought into the country - and are keen to ensure regulations are being observed to avoid another disaster. They are frustrated that after the horror of the present crisis another is a real possibility unless regulations are tightened up. A group of 30 farmers joined in the demonstration at the airport, handing out leaflets and holding up placards, to tell people what they are allowed to bring into the country. According to a National Farmers' Union survey half of all holiday-makers had no idea about what they were allowed to import and are ignorant of the fact they could face prosecution. Also, of those 1,000 surveyed who did think they knew the rules, when asked, most in fact got it wrong. NFU Cymru president Hugh Richards said, "It is common to bring home food and plants as gifts or simply as a reminder of a wonderful holiday. But in many cases people are unwittingly breaking the law, risking fines and even jail." The NFU has called for more resources to be pumped into the control system to ensure it is properly enforced. It has also put forward a series of proposals to Government to improve the system, including a sustained information campaign for travellers. "International travel is a boon of our time but it carries a host of hidden dangers including the threat of foreign animal, plant and even human diseases. Every suitcase entering the UK could have the potential to inflict disease. "Farmers are incensed that, while we are battling foot and mouth, it seems nothing is being done to close the door on imported diseases," said Mr Richards. It is a view emphasised by NFU London spokesman Simon Rayner, who said, "The door is still very much open to bring another case of foot-and-mouth into the country. "If somebody decided to bring back some infected salami or air-dried bacon it could start off the whole process again. "If you are a farmer struggling to come to terms with foot and mouth and have an uncertain future it's frustrating beyond belief. They don't want to see the same thing happen again." He added that the public had been receptive to the farmers and that there would be more demonstrations until the Government took action. "This is an on-going campaign to increase awareness and change the import controls for the UK. We want it to be like Australia and New Zealand where you can't bring any food in and there is no danger." Shadow agriculture spokesman Damian Green said he supported the farmers' calls for the tightening of regulations. "It's absolutely outrageous that despite foot-and-mouth disease and BSE the Government has done nothing to tighten controls over sub-standard meat imports. "Evidence shows that this latest agricultural crisis was caused from contaminated meat, most likely from South Africa and there is further news today of spinal cord being found in yet another consignment of imported beef. "The Government has failed at every stage to act. When will they wake up to the realisation that something must be done immediately? "Tighter import controls are the least they can offer the farmers and consumers who are left wide open to dangerous risks."Like us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDaily Newsletter Follow @WalesOnlineSubscribe to our Daily newsletterEnter emailSubscribe

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When it comes to the weather, we are basically cavemen on Sep 6, 2012 Share We scoff at the primitiveness of our ancient predecessors, coming up with complex theories for the motion of the sun or seeking shelter from the capricious, unpredictable rain. And then we spend all summer discussing global warming or the drought or hurricanes, with all of the effectiveness of scribbling a drawing on the wall with charcoal. Which brings us to today’s sun and rain update. Or, as I’ve taken to calling it: the 2012 Caveman Report.™ There was hope that Hurricane Isaac would put a dent in the drought. And, in some areas, that’s been the case. Several days of rain have given farmers in the nation’s midsection a welcome break from irrigating and hauling water for livestock as they contend with the worst drought in the U.S. in decades. The remnants of Hurricane Isaac dropped several inches of rain on wide areas of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri as the storm trudged north. Some spots got more than a half-foot of rain. For most farmers, the rain came too late to make a difference in their year. Corn farmers have been harvesting for weeks, and soybeans are far enough along that the rain won’t significantly improve their quality or growth. And, of course, the storm also did its own damage, because hurricanes are incorrigible jerks. In Arkansas, where farmers have been struggling with triple-digit temperatures and little rain, Robby Bevis, 35, saw the storm knock down several of his 150 acres of rice. Bear in mind, we’re only about halfway through hurricane season. There are currently two Category 2 storms cruising around the Atlantic, though neither appears to be headed for the United States. (Here’s a satellite photo of Hurricane Michael that’s a jaw-dropper.) There is one storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico which could make landfall in the United States: Hurricane Isaac. Yes, that same incorrigible jerk. Now, a remnant of Isaac has shifted into the Gulf of Mexico, approaching the location of its previous life as a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, with thunderstorms persisting. Bottom line…there is a chance this “piece of the former Isaac” could regenerate into a tropical depression, or perhaps weak tropical storm, over the next 1-2 days in the central Gulf. It’s unlikely — though in 2004, Hurricane Ivan douple-dipped, hitting Alabama as a Category 3 and then looping around to hit Louisiana as a tropical depression. Ivan was an overachiever. Isaac isn’t expected to be quite as energetic. It seems like it has been forever since we talked about the drought (besides a few paragraphs up). This is certainly in part because there wasn’t much new to say: “Yeah, it’s still ridiculously dry and there are no crops and someone name of Joad was trying to get in touch with you.” There’s still not much new. This was the map of drought disaster areas a month ago. (All maps via the USDA.) Click to embiggen. And here it is from last week. The number of counties has increased. But disaster areas are something of a trailing indicator — a county can be a disaster area even while the drought recedes. So here’s a map of the actual drought. Yeah, not really better. The Times has a story today about one way in which strained water resources are leading to conflict as frackers battle farmers in Colorado for access. A single [fracking] well can require five million gallons of water, and energy companies are flocking to water auctions, farm ponds, irrigation ditches and municipal fire hydrants to get what they need. That thirst is helping to drive an explosion of oil production here, but it is also complicating the long and emotional struggle over who drinks and who does not in the arid and fast-growing West. Farmers and environmental activists say they are worried that deep-pocketed energy companies will have purchase on increasingly scarce water supplies as they drill deep new wells that use the technique of hydraulic fracturing. … “It’s not a level playing field,” said Peter V. Anderson, who grows corn and alfalfa on the parched plains of eastern Colorado. “I don’t think in reality that the farmer can compete with the oil and gas companies for that water. Their return is a hell of a lot better than ours.” As Andy Revkin notes, the water use between the two contestants is hardly equivalent. Frackers use .1 percent of the state’s total. Farmers use 85.5. Though that brings the strain into sharper relief; the struggle is for small percentages of what would normally be available. Last week, Business Insider noted another impact of the long-term drought. Like thousands of other Americans getting stuck with huge repair bills, [homeowner Carol] DeVaughan learned that the intense drought baking much of the country’s lawns, fields and forests this summer has also been sucking the moisture from underground, causing shifting that can lead to cracked basements and foundations, as well as damage aboveground. Repairs often cost tens of thousands of dollars and can even top $100,000, and they are rarely covered by insurance, as shocked homeowners have been discovering. So let’s summarize. We haven’t learned how to deal with the sun; in fact, we’re making its impacts worse. We are still coming to grips with what happens in the case of extreme rain. And now it turns out that we don’t even have shelter figured out. Which is why I’m moving to a cave. If anyone has a Zippo I could borrow, I’d be very grateful.

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All posts tagged "Veggies" Where do yams come from? Yams and other tubers entered America during the Portuguese slave trade with Africa in the 1500s. The Americanized... What are the differences between yams and sweet potatoes? Yams, from a different family of plant entirely, are dry and starchy. They are imported to the United... What does one lemon zested mean? Zesting can be done to different types of citrus fruits, such as citrons, limes, oranges and lemons. The... What vegetables start with the letter “Z?” Zucchini and its uses in cooking can be traced back to Italy. You can use zucchini to make... What is the purpose of the little pocket on jeans? With the popularity of pocket watches fading, the small front pocket has taken on new names, including a... What fruit names begin with the letter Z? Zucchini is typically treated as a vegetable in culinary preparations because of its sturdy flesh and mild flavor... Is popcorn considered a vegetable? Within the fruit classification, corn is considered a grain, defined along with nuts and seeds as a dry... Can you eat zucchini skin? Zucchinis are waxed to extend their shelf life. Grocery stores and supermarkets that don’t buy local produce often... Where do plums come from? Within the United States, California produces the most plums, as its climate is ideal for the Japanese plum... What kind of worms are in wormy apples? Worms appear in apples after adults of the species lay eggs in the fruit. When hatched, the larvae...

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Cattle markets adjust to larger supplies: Outlook Jan 13, 2017 Crop protection industry needs to stay united to protect products Jan 12, 2017 OUTLOOK 2017: Ag economists explore the best options for producers Jan 12, 2017 Texas Ag Commissioner hopes to talk trade initiative with Israel Jan 10, 2017 Management Crop consultants going global Crop consulting taking on global perspective. Help growers navigate marketing and regulatory issues. Global Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants grew out of need to exchange information. Forrest Laws 1 | Feb 03, 2011 In the last 10 years, U.S. farmers have found themselves more and more at the mercy of the global marketplace. These days, U.S. cotton, soybean and corn producers can be affected more by a drought in China or India than one in their own country. Now U.S. crop consultants are beginning to see their businesses take on more of a global perspective as they reach out to other consultants and try to help their growers navigate through a minefield of marketing and regulatory issues. “People in my own organization used to come up and ask me, ‘Why do you do all this traveling?” said Allen Scobie, a crop consultant from Scotland, who has become a fixture at the annual meetings of the U.S.-based National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants. “Why do you go to America and these other places? “I tell them it’s because of the contacts I make,” said Scobie, who works with Bridgend Consultancy Services in Dundee in Scotland. “And it’s because of what I learn about my profession and about agriculture.” Scobie first came to speak to the NAICC as president of the Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants or AICC, the NAICC’s counterpart in the United Kingdom. He’s been coming back almost every year. This year he was joined by Patrick Stephenson, a crop consultant from Pickering, North Yorkshire, in the UK. Earlier this year, they and members of the NAICC, AICC and the Pole Du Counseil Independent Agriculture or PCIA in France helped form a new organization called the Global Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants. Scobie said the group grew out of a need to have a more formal means of exchanging information between consultants. “There are so many things happening in the world that affect farmers,” said Scobie, who also works in the Ukraine in the former Soviet Union and in other parts of the world. “Sometimes, those events can have a major impact on their bottom line.” Last summer, Scobie was traveling in the Ukraine, compiling a report on crop conditions and agronomic practices for his employer when he became aware of the dry conditions that were beginning to take a toll on the region’s wheat crop. “I came back and told my farmers, ‘Don’t sell your wheat, prices are going to rise,’” he said. “They paid attention and didn’t sell, and when the impact of the drought in Russia and the Ukraine became better known, wheat prices rose significantly. Information farmers need “That’s the kind of information farmers need, but they don’t always hear it through their normal marketing channels until they’ve already sold their crops.” “Someone’s downside is usually someone else’s upside,” said Stephenson, who gave a Global Perspective presentation during the NAICC’s recent annual meeting in Ft. Worth, Texas. “The flooding in Australia, as bad as that is, can be a boon to someone on the other side of the world. “We all try to save our clients a maximum amount of money. As tempting as it might be at times, we can’t take ourselves away from that decision-making process. We have to encourage our growers to lock in a profit. The basics don’t change that much. What your clients pay for phosphorous or potash or nitrogen is exactly what my growers pay.” Stephenson agrees that farmers need more information about what’s going on in the world of agriculture. Too often, the information they do get is obtained from government channels or based on conjecture. “The crop numbers released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, are good guesses,” he said, “but, nevertheless, they are their best guess.” There has never been a time when good agronomic information of the kind provided by experienced independent crop consultants was more important, said Stephenson. The growing demand for good food is creating a similar demand for good information. Short supplies of cotton, wheat and corn and sharply increased off take of soybeans and soy products for livestock production in China have sent prices for those commodities to unheard of levels in recent months. The resulting high food prices, Stephenson said, played a role in the recent over throw of the government in Tunisia. Since then, similar unrest has spread to Egypt, Jordan and Yemen in the Middle East. “Now is the time to make your voices heard,” said Stephenson. They (farmers) need you, the world needs you, and the world needs farmers.” Scobie said he and other leaders don’t see the new Global Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants replacing the NAICC or AICC. “We see it as providing a forum for consultants to be able to exchange information and ideas and provide more help to their clients,” he noted.

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Chilean Blueberries Air freight, timing of vessels could pose problems By Andy Nelson Finding enough planes and predicting how long it will take boats to make the journey to U.S. ports are among the problems facing exporters and importers of Chilean blueberries this season.There should be plenty of boats and containers to get Chilean blueberries to market this season, said Dave Bowe, owner of Coral Springs, Fla.-based Dave’s Specialty Imports Inc.But there could be some complications related to the speed at which those shipments are delivered.“It could be a major problem,” Bowe said.The problem, he said, comes down to how shippers and importers balance the competing interests of saving money on transportation and getting fruit delivered in good shape.“Some people have been sending it up the water fast, but it’s costing a lot of money,” he said. “But what some other people have done is ship it in slow motion, and it may take an extra seven days to arrive in Miami, or New York, or California.”Seven extra days could pose quality issues, Bowe said.“We don’t know when it was shipped,” he said. “It may have been good when it was packed, but seven days is a very, very long time when you’re talking about something that’s been on a bush.”Bowe has a clear-cut take on what he’d prefer, though he admits that as an importer, it’s easy for him to say.“From my point of view, I’d just as soon have it as fast and cold as we can get it here,” he said.One company that may not have the logistics headaches of other importers of Chilean blueberries is Tampa, Fla.-based Sun Valley International.That’s because Sun Valley’s parent company is Boca Raton, Fla.-based Cargo Transport Inc., a logistics specialist.With its own dedicated shipping lanes and trucking contracts, Cargo Transport is ideally situated to provide Sun Valley, now in its second year in business as a fruit importer, with smooth transit of blueberries from Chile to U.S. destinations, said Bob Ritchart, Sun Valley’s vice president of sales.“It cuts out a lot of costs,” Ritchart said. “We’re involved from beginning to end. With a lot of chains wanting to be more direct and cut out the middle man, we’re able to offer that.”With peak vessel volumes not expected until January this season because of cool weather, Washington, D.C.-based Sun Belle Inc. will have to rely heavily on airfreight to get Chilean blueberries to U.S. markets in time for the holidays, said Janice Honigberg, the company’s president.It won’t exactly be easy, she said.“Airfreight is very firm,” she said. “It’s hard to get. December is always a scramble.”Another input that continues to weigh on shippers and importers is fuel costs, Honigberg said.“Fuel costs continue to go up,” she said.In addition to tight airfreight and rising fuel costs, Honigberg said Chile’s robust economy also affects blueberry exports to the U.S.“The exchange rate is strong,” she said. “It makes it more expensive to export.”In early October it was still too soon to tell exactly what transportation costs would be during the Chilean season, but Nolan Quinn, berry category director for Vancouver, British Columbia-based The Oppenheimer Group, was optimistic heading into the deal, which for Oppenheimer was expected to begin in the first week of December.“I don’t think there will be any significant difficulties,” he said. Topics: air freighttiming of vessels could pose problems 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

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Almond industry puts bee health front and center Jan 05, 2017 Duvall: Agriculture gains clout to address over regulation, labor needs Jan 10, 2017 Western food supply safer since 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach Jan 04, 2017 New HLB positive tree found in urban Cerritos, Calif. Jan 02, 2017 Much more coming in cotton transgenics Brenda Carol Contributing Writer Western Farm Press | Jan 12, 2008 Transgenic cottons resistant to herbicides and insect damage have revolutionized cotton production. The numeric/alphabet soup of varieties now available is nothing compared to what's coming, according to plant breeders who spoke recently at the Central Coast Cotton Conference. “The technologies that we're talking about now, we won't even see for 10-15 years,” says Kater Hake, director of agricultural research for Cotton Incorporated. “We have to be incredibly visionary. Who would have thought back 10 years ago that alternative herbicide strategies would be critical? It wasn't that long ago that glyphosate was the solution. Now, we have a huge need for alternative herbicides.” That vision includes a virtual crock-pot of traits that address everything from stress tolerance to enhanced seed characteristics. In the realm of stress tolerance, researchers are looking at obscure factors such as antioxidants, heat shock proteins, ion exchange, oxygen boosters, transcription factors and more. “I think the biggest area of investment from the private sector right now is in the area of transcription factors,” Hake says. “These are the class of proteins that are responsible for the incredibly complex networks of controlling what individual cells do in neighboring cells. Transcription factors bind to the DNA and control how that DNA is read and recognized. It is a master regulatory sequence in plants.” So far, research in the laboratory has been impressive, according to Hake, but field results have yet to produce any discernable results. However, he said it's only a matter of time before it does. Salt tolerance is another area receiving considerable attention in transgenic research. “I think water is going to be more important than oil in the future,” Hake says. “The access to fresh water — that is where the real competition on a global basis is going to come from. Not only is it going to be important for consumption, but also to grow crops. That's where cotton has a tremendous opportunity in terms of salt tolerance. It can do things in a field that almost no other crop can do.” Transgenic traits also have the potential to greatly alter and add value to the cottonseed as we know it today, according to Hake. “It's an ideal crop for bioproducts,” he says. Bioproducts could be industrial oils, health supplements and industrial enzymes. Another area of ongoing research is the removal of gossypol from the seed, but leaving it in the rest of the plant. Much progress has been made in this area which could open up expanded feed markets in the future. Another area where biotechnology will most certainly impact future cotton varieties is in the realm of fiber characteristics. Genes that regulate the fiber beyond length, strength and micronaire have already been studied extensively and have set the foundation for future advances in fiber improvement through biotechnology. “There are three waves coming in biotechnology,” says Jane Dever, cotton breeding manager with Bayer Crop-Science. “We're already riding the first wave. We've been able to look at some of the genes that regulate the important fiber traits and have demonstrated that we can influence those.” The second wave in fiber improvement is figuring out how to stack more genes onto a single variety. The third wave could theoretically revolutionize the cotton products delivered to consumers. “I'm most excited about the third wave,” Dever says. “This is where we try to address the performance gap between cotton and some of the fibers we compete with. We've refocused our genetic engineering efforts in fiber quality to look at extracting value from that fiber further downstream. In particular, researchers are looking at ways to change cotton lint to reduce the cost and fiber damage in dyeing and adding wrinkle resistance to a fabric. “Not only are those treatments expensive, they're very harsh and reduce the strength of the fiber,” Dever says. “We do know that we can modify the function of the cotton fiber to accept dye more readily and to potentially affect a lot of the processing characteristics.” Much of the third wave biotechnology breeding efforts will take place in California at Bayer's California Cotton Planting Seed Distributors (CPCSD) division based in Shafter, Calif., according to Dever. Any way you slice it, biotechnology will most certainly transform the cottonseed and the cotton plant into something much different than what we recognize today. It will still be cotton. It will just be improved from the molecular level to the seed to the fiber, and those improvements are aimed at extracting additional value from all phases of the production, processing and marketing chains.

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The Era of Small and Many Earlier this year, my state’s governor asked if I’d give an after-lunch speech to some of his cabinet and other top officials who were in the middle of a retreat. It’s a useful discipline for writers and theorists to have to summarize books in half an hour, and to compete with excellent local ice cream. No use telling these guys how the world should be at some distant future moment when they’ll no longer be in office—instead, can you isolate themes broad enough to be of use to people working on subjects from food to energy to health care to banking to culture, and yet specific enough to help them choose among the options that politics daily throws up? Can you figure out a principle that might undergird a hundred different policies? Or another way to say it: can you figure out which way history wants to head (since no politician can really fight the current) and suggest how we might surf that wave? Here’s my answer: we’re moving, if we’re lucky, from the world of few and big to the world of small and many. We’ll either head there purposefully or we’ll be dragged kicking, but we’ve reached one of those moments when tides reverse. Take agriculture. For 150 years the number of farms in America has inexorably declined. In my state—the most rural in the nation—the number of dairies fell from 11,000 at the end of World War II to 998 this summer. And of course the farms that remained grew ever larger—factory farms, we called them, growing commodity food. Here in Vermont most of the remaining dairies are big, but not big enough to compete with the behemoths in California or Arizona; they operate so close to the margin that they can’t afford to hire local workers and instead import illegal migrants from Mexico. But last year the USDA reported that the number of farms in America had actually increased for the first time in a century and a half. The most defining American demographic trend—the shift that had taken us from a nation of 50 percent farmers to less than 1 percent—had bottomed out and reversed. Farms are on the increase—small farms, mostly growing food for their neighbors. They’re not yet a threat to the profits of the Cargills and the ADMs, but you can see the emerging structure of a new agriculture composed of CSAs and farmers’ markets, with fewer middlemen. Which is all for the good. Such farming uses less energy and produces better food; it’s easier on the land; it offers rural communities a way out of terminal decline. You could even imagine a farmscape that stands some chance of dealing with the flood, drought, and heat that will be our destiny in the globally warmed century to come. Instead of the too-big-to-fail agribusiness model, this will be a nimbler, more diversified, sturdier agriculture. And what works on the farm works elsewhere too. Think about our energy future—the phrase that engineers like to use now is “distributed generation.” Since our old fuels were dense in BTUs and concentrated in a few locations, it made sense to site a few giant generating stations where coal or uranium could easily be brought and burned. But the logic of sun and wind is exactly the opposite: millions of rooftops and ridgelines producing power. You can do it in cities as easily as in the country—new satellite and airplane mapping of New York City’s five boroughs showed that the city’s rooftops could provide half its electricity. If you can do that in New York, imagine Shaker Heights, not to mention Phoenix. And once you’ve done it, you’ve got something practical and local: an interconnected grid where everyone brings something and takes something away. A farmers’ market in electrons. Many of us get a preview of life in the age of small and many when we sit down at our computers each day. Fifteen years ago we still depended on a handful of TV networks and newspaper conglomerates to define our world for us; now we have a farmers’ market in ideas. We all add to the flow with each Facebook post, and we can find almost infinite sources of information. It’s reshaping the way we see the world—not, of course, without some trauma (from the hours wasted answering e-mail to the death of too much good, old-school journalism). All these transitions will be traumatic to one extent or another, since they are so very big. We’re reversing the trend of generations. by Bill McKibben, Orion | Continue reading: Painting: Suzanne Stryk

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Industry Wheat stem sawfly devastations lead to another conference By Montana State University March 20, 2014 | 6:36 pm EDT Wheat stem sawflies heavily damage more wheat than any other insect in Montana, and now Colorado and Nebraska are experiencing unprecedented outbreaks, says Montana State University entomologist David Weaver. Continuing to search for solutions, experts from three countries and four states will share their findings at the Sixth International Wheat Stem Sawfly Conference to be held April 3 and 4 at the Procrastinator Theatre in MSU's Strand Union building. The conference is free and open to the public, but seating is limited so people who want to attend are asked to notify the organizers at [email protected] "We all recognize that problems associated with wheat stem sawfly are dynamic and evolving," Weaver said. "It is a devastating pest with features in its life cycle that make it very difficult to manage. This results in an ability to cause very large economic losses at the level of individual growers through to the large-scale regional impacts in much of the northern and central parts of the wheat belt." MSU economist Anton Bekkerman, who will give two presentations at the conference, conducted the first formal economic study on the impacts of wheat stem sawfly in Montana. During his talk from 10 to 10:30 a.m. April 3, he will give a 15-year perspective on the damage it caused. "The high wheat prices observed in 2012 resulted in estimated direct damages of approximately $80.1 million to Montana farmers," Bekkerman said. "What is perhaps equally as important is that these damages implied that nearly 9.7 million bushels of Montana wheat did not reach consumers. This has important indirect economic implications all along the wheat marketing chain." The estimated expected losses to individual farmers with 2,000-acre operations were between $15,000 and $20,000 for spring wheat producers and $25,000 and $47,000 for winter wheat producers in 2012, Bekkerman said. Winter wheat producers in high impact areas were expected to lose $110,000 and $120,000 per farm. "In evaluating two widely used management strategies – solid stemmed varieties and swathing – the results indicate that highest long-run economic returns are likely when using a slightly less yielding solid stem variety that minimizes the chances of the sawfly population growing rather than planting higher yielding varieties and swathing, which can increase long-run sawfly populations and exacerbate damage," Bekkerman added. Other conference speakers will give updates on the southward expansion of wheat stem sawflies and share their findings about biological control, integrated pest management, host plant resistance, the genetics of both wheat stem sawfly and wheat, population monitoring, and chemical ecology. A keynote speaker will be Marie-Claude Bon from the European Biological Control Laboratory in France. She will speak from 1:30 to 2 p.m. April 3 on genetic variation among wheat stem sawfly populations. Genetic variation is probably one reason that wheat stem sawflies are so persistent and intractable in Montana, Weaver said. Compared to other areas of the northern Great Plains, the genetic diversity of wheat stem sawflies in Montana is much greater. Bon will discuss this variation and its implications. Another reason that wheat stem sawflies are a problem is because they have not yet been managed using any known insecticides, Weaver said. As a result, researchers are continually testing new insecticides and investigating other options, including the exploration of newly discovered genetic traits in existing wheat germ plasm that provide additional resistance. The Wheat Stem Sawfly Conference is held every two years, with the 2012 conference also held at MSU. Since beginning in 2003, the conference has been held in Bozeman three times and has been part of past Pacific Branch-Entomological Society of America and Entomological Society of Canada meetings. The conferences draw scientists, members of the agribusiness community, agricultural leaders and wheat growers. "Agricultural research has had these wonderful and highly supportive relationships with wheat growers in the state," Weaver said. "They are very interested in attending these presentations to find out more about the wheat stem sawfly research that is being conducted." wheat stem sawflysixth international wheat stem sawfly conferencemontana About the Author:

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Meadow View turns competition green with envy Brian Cox - Thu, Mar, 9, 2006 Rodney and Lisa Grugin manage a growing business that has competitors green with envy. The Grugins manage Meadow View Greenhouses and Garden Center, a plant nursery on U.S. Highway 11 in Lenoir City that is part of a family-owned botanical empire. PWP Greenhouses Inc., based in Pall Mall, is the owner of Meadow View and members of Lisa’s family run the company. Rodney said the company is located on the 300-acre Pile family farm and has more than 48 greenhouses on the property. “The majority of our inventory we get from the farm,” he said. “The advantage to our customers is, if we are out of something, we can have it here within a day.” Rodney said Meadow View developed as a retail outlet for PWP, which was selling to other companies’ retail outlets. The location between Lenoir City and Farragut was chosen for its accessibility by residents of both areas. “Lisa came on board to just help out with the books initially,” Rodney said. “There were some personnel issues and the company discovered they couldn’t run a retail business from Pall Mall. I came in around nineteen ninety-eight.” After running a gutter company in Knoxville, Rodney said he found running a nursery challenging. “One of our biggest challenges was visibility,” he said. “We are set back off the highway and, unless people know you’re here, they don’t think to look.” People did start visiting the business, which specializes in color plants. Rodney said these include perennials and annuals. Some of the better selling varieties include impatiens, begonias, pansies and petunias. As the years went by, Rodney said the business grew in size and in the variety of products it carried. “We did do some landscaping for a time, but there were too many difficulties in that field,” he said. “There’s a different set of challenges with the retail aspect of the business as opposed to the landscaping portion of it.” They currently have about 10,000 square feet of space. “We expanded a little each year,” he said. “We try to carry different types of products that the [retail] stores don’t carry.” Once the customers do come into the store, Rodney said, they come back and they tell their friends about Meadow View. “I believe it’s the quality of our plants and our customer service that keeps our customers coming back,” he said. “Like most people, if I have a choice of going to a place that’s friendly or one that isn’t, I’ll go where they are friendly. We try to know all our customers.” He said customers also come to visit Moses, their dog. Moses is a large Akita whose unusual fur color resembles that of a cow. Rodney said the business has no plans to expand with other retail outlets. Meadow View has enough opportunities to grow where it is and the owners plan on capitalizing on those opportunities before expanding. “There’s still quite a few things we can do around here,” he said. “We’re going to make the most of our opportunities.”

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National Hog Farmer Newsletters Jump to: National Hog Farmer Daily | Pork Industry Express | Nutrient... This Week in Agribusiness, January 14, 2017 Jan 14, 2017 Supreme Court to hear Waters of the U.S. case Jan 13, 2017 IDT Biologika establishes animal health Americas business unit Jan 13, 2017 Agenda>Business Profitable Times Getting Closer Source: University of Illinois | Jan 07, 2013 The wait is almost over for pork producers to emerge from a tunnel of losses and profits to return. That tunnel of darkness stretched from the spring of 2012 through the winter of 2013, with average estimated losses of $18/head, primarily due to high feed prices, according to Purdue University Extension economist Chris Hurt. “Feed prices reached a summit in the third quarter of 2012 with the peak of the drought,” Hurt says. “Estimated total hog production costs shot up $10 per live hundredweight, reaching an estimated $72. Costs last fall and this winter dropped about $4 per hundredweight and are expected to moderate an additional $8 with normal 2013 crop production. By fall, that could put estimated costs of production around $60 per hundredweight,” he says. The December Hogs and Pigs report from USDA provides evidence that 2013 pork supplies will not be down as much as the 2% that had been anticipated, Hurt says. Rather, pork supplies for the year may be closer to unchanged with a 1 to 2% reduction in the first half offset by a 1 to 2% increase in the second half of the year. The size of the breeding herd was unchanged as of Dec. 1, 2012, when the expectation was that the herd had been reduced by at least 1%. In addition, winter farrowing intentions are unchanged, compared to a 2% reported reduction in the previous inventory report. Market weights will also contribute to increasing pork supplies in the second half of the year. First-half weights are expected to be down about 1% as long as feed prices remain high. But those weights will begin to rise late in the summer, assuming feed prices drop with more normal crop production. “Hog prices are expected to be somewhat stronger in 2013 due to small beef supplies, continued strong pork exports and modestly improving consumer incomes,” Hurt says. “Live prices averaged about $62 in 2012 but are expected to rise to near $66 for 2013. Prices are expected to average near $63 in the first quarter, $71 in the second quarter, and $69 in the third quarter. Fall 2013 and winter 2014 prices are expected to reflect higher pork production with prices averaging around $61. “For the immediate future, losses will continue in the first quarter of 2013 and are expected to average about $15/ head,” Hurt continues. “The return to profitability is expected to come in late April or early May when the spring hog price rally is under way and as meal prices edge lower with the South American soybean harvest. Profits are projected at about $10/head for the second and third quarters before returning to breakeven in the fall of 2013 and winter of 2014. Breakeven means that producers cover all costs, including full labor costs and full depreciation on buildings and equipment,” Hurt says. According to Hurt, with the return of a profitable pork production outlook, some producers will be discussing expansion plans. “Most realize that the level of feed prices are both the biggest threat to those anticipated profits and the greatest opportunity for extraordinary profitability over the next two years,” he says. “The threat is, of course, related to the continuation of the extreme drought in the western Corn Belt and the Great Plains states. Poor crops there in 2013 could send corn and soybean meal prices to new record highs. Such an outcome would likely extend losses for another year. Alternatively, normal world yields in 2013 will likely send feed prices lower than current new-crop futures are indicating. Such an event would multiply pork profitability,” he says. Hurt says that the U.S. pork industry has suffered with high feed prices partially driven by three consecutive years of poor U.S. corn crops. “Eventually, better yields will likely result in lower and less volatile feed prices. Almost everyone in the animal production industries, including pork producers, hope 2013 is the year that scenario begins.” 0 comments Hide comments

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South Carolina cotton, peanut meetings set for Jan. 24, 26 Jan 12, 2017 Should we rethink fertility for new, higher-yielding cotton varieties? Jan 12, 2017 Big farm-related tax changes proposed by Republicans, Trump Jan 10, 2017 Peanuts versus enough off-target dicamba can cost yield, timing matters Jan 10, 2017 Improved soil quality major no-till benefit Roy Roberson 1 | Jun 06, 2007 When Randolph Aigner started growing grain crops in a no-tillage system in Virginia's Middle Peninsula his farm neighbors thought he was crazy. That was more than 20 years ago, and now farmers throughout the region want to know how he does it. Aigner, whose family has been farming the same land for more than 100 years says the take home message from all those years in no-till is improved soil quality. Improving organic matter in the soil, he contends, helps him grow high yielding crops with much less fertilizer, especially nitrogen, than conventional-tillage systems. His fields also handle heavy rains and long droughts much better than conventionally tilled soil, he says. Whether his no-till heritage helped his wheat withstand the snow and record cold of an Easter drought, he's not sure. The experts say added moisture in the soil played a role in reducing freeze damage in his wheat. “We won't know the full extent of any freeze damage, but it looks like our wheat escaped severe damage — the heads look like they will be okay.” When he bought the first planter in early 1970s that would plant into wheat stubble, he had no idea he would become a no-till pioneer, nor that all his farm would eventually go from no-till to never-till. Since the mid-1980s, every acre he farms has been no-till. “Killing the wheat was a big problem when we started no-till, because that was long before Roundup Ready technology was available. The first over-the-top herbicide we used was Tenoran, and it killed everything — soybeans included,” he laughs. When Roundup came out, he was one of the first to try it as a burndown material for wheat. At that time he says johnsongrass was a big problem throughout the Middle Peninsula of Virginia. Since glyphosate became popular, johnsongrass is no longer a factor in weed control. The important thing in no-till is killing the vegetation ahead of your crop, whether that be wheat, corn, soybeans. On corn land, he applies paraquat in March, then comes back with atrazine at planting and that usually takes care of vegetative growth, he says. The rate of atrazine he uses on corn, he says, is comparable to the rate used on conventionally-tilled corn. He says glyphosate is a valuable tool in no-tillage farming. “We work every year to prevent resistance from happening. For example, we don't use any Roundup Ready corn. Using atrazine in the corn further breaks up the cycle of using glyphosate,” he adds. In the long-term, we have found fewer and fewer weed problems. Part of the reason, he contends, is keeping the land clean. When land is tilled, seed are brought to the surface, creating an ongoing source of weeds. Aigner says not working the land for so many years has taken out this continuous seed source, and he says, has dramatically reduced weed pressure. Over the years no-till farming has allowed him to get marginal land into full production. “The overwhelming benefit of no-till farming is soil quality, he says. Pointing to a field of pristine wheat, Aigner says the field was once a big mud puddle. “When we tilled this land, in some years we never cut soybeans because it was so wet. Over the years, the soil quality built up and the soil acquired the ability to handle the water,” he says. Years of no-till farming have improved the quality of his land so much that he uses an incredibly low amount of nitrogen, compared to the high yields he gets from his crops. Before no-tilling, he says, he always had to apply the maximum amount of nitrogen, based on soil tests. Now, in some years he doesn't use any nitrogen in the spring and produces better than 90 bushels of wheat per acre. Typically, he puts out 30-40 pounds of nitrogen in the fall. On most of his land, he comes back with another 30-40 pounds of nitrogen, but in some fields, tissue samples show he needs no nitrogen — a huge savings in an era of skyrocketing nitrogen costs. “We feel like we save about 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre per year on all our wheat acreage,” Aigner says. Double-crop soybeans follow wheat with no nitrogen. The following spring he comes back with a pound of nitrogen per expected bushel per acre yield of corn. So, his two-year, three crop rotation often requires less than 200 pounds per acre of nitrogen. In 1996, Aigner points out he produced over 200 bushels of corn per acre, but still only used the 150 pounds of nitrogen. He has no irrigation on his land, making the value of water retention even more valuable. No-till farming is not a magic bullet for drought prevention, he stresses, but there is no doubt long-term, no tilled land will hold water better, Aigner insists. Researchers at Virginia Tech came to his farm and checked his fields for disease pressure and found no difference between his fields and conventionally-tilled wheat, corn and soybeans. “We don't see any difference in insect damage. If we get an insect problem, it seems to be just as much a problem for conventional and no-tillage fields alike,” he says. Over the years, Aigner says, he couldn't even begin to calculate how much money he has saved in diesel fuel. “If you consider in the old days, we chisel plowed, disked and incorporated Treflan, Sutan, Eradicane and other materials — It would be a huge savings. If you pay $3 per gallon for diesel fuel, the savings on fuel would be enormous,” he adds. Add to that the cost of chisel plows, cultivators and size of tractors needed to pull these heavy implements and the costs for conventional-tillage just keep adding up, he says. Aigner points out that a John Deere 5410 is the biggest tractor he uses in his operation. “All we need is something big enough to pull the drill and the planter,” he says. Extended no-till has had some unexpected benefits, according to the Virginia farmer. “Our wheat yields got so high over the years we had trouble planting back into the heavy straw left behind when the wheat was harvested. We began baling the wheat straw and found there to be a big market for it. Now, it's an integral part of our farming operation,” he says. “We bale the wheat straw and sell it to landscape companies for ditches, yards, anywhere there is open ground,” he says. Getting the wheat straw off makes planting easier and provides additional income for Aigner and provides relatively low cost mulch for landscape companies and home owners. Though he modestly scoffs at being THE pioneer of no-tillage farming in Virginia's Middle Peninsula, Aigner is an outspoken proponent. “I can't think of a negative for no-tillage in grain production,” he concludes.

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Royal visits, a record show, healthy finances and mole catching courses - it's all in a year's work for agricultural society Ellis Butcher, Reporter A PACKED house today at Lane Farm, Crooklands, gathered to hear of a ‘fantastic year’ for the Westmorland County Agricultural Society Limited. The charity stages the annual Westmorland County Show on the second Thursday of September and today officially declared 2013 a record-breaker. Over 30,000 people visited and there was a record 1026 entries in the sheep section and 478 in the cattle - just two short of the 2012 record. The cattle section involved Beef Shorthorn classes for the first time while the grand parade saw more cattle than ever taking part. There was also record entries in the 'young handler' classes in both sheep and cattle, members were told. Entries in the Alpaca classes and poultry section also increased last year, while stands for the 2014 event on September 11 this year are already a third booked up. The organisation’s balance sheet is ‘really strong’ said auditors, due in part to record gate receipts, programme brochures and trade stands. The society’s other main event - Countryfest - will take place again on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1 after a successful 2013. Giving her speech to the 215-year-old society’s annual general meeting, chief executive Christine Knipe said the visit to last year’s show by Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, would live long in the memory. “The 2013 show was made even more special by the first ever Royal Visit for in our 214 year history," said Mrs Knipe. "It was a huge honour for the society, members and volunteers. The difference a Royal visitor made was amazing and all the behind-the-scenes planning was worth it and will be long remembered,” said Mrs Knipe. That was supported by outgoing President Tom Gorst, who handed over the reins to incoming President and retired bank manager, Bob Bond, from Bolton-le-Sands. Mr Gorst, formerly of Killington, said it had been a honour to serve as president during 2013 which was capped by the arrival of a grandchild and the attendance of HRH at the event. "I found her a remarkable, down-to-earth lady who made me feel at ease right away and it was a privilege to be in her company," he said. Meanwhile Mrs Knipe stressed that the economic benefit of the show extended beyond the society - helping local B&Bs, hotels and petrol stations, among others. And she added: “The backbone of the society are its members, stewards and volunteers. Without their support, our work and the show itself, could not be enjoyed by so many. We are very lucky to have such a great team.” The last year also saw the society ‘over-achieve’ in training people with over 568 through the doors for courses as varied as mole-catching to information technology. Over 1570 children and staff from 43 primary schools also experienced life on a working farm - thanks to the society and the Mason family who run the 270-acre Heaves Farm, Levens. “It was very rewarding for children and our own farmers alike,” said Mrs Knipe, who closed by saying the society was hoping for ‘a long, dry hot summer’.

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HomeFarm & RanchLawn & GardenLife & HealthEnvironmentBusiness & FinanceScience & Tech Soil Water Assessment Tool training held in South Africa May 19, 2011 Use of the Soil Water Assessment Tool, a comprehensive agricultural and environmental computer modeling tool already employed extensively in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America, is being expanded to South Africa thanks to a collaboration of Texas AgriLife Research entities and others. (Photo courtesy of Texas AgriLife Research) COLLEGE STATION – The use of an extensive agricultural and environmental computer modeling tool created by Texas A&M University System personnel is expanding to South Africa due to a broad collaborative effort, said project participants. The Soil Water Assessment Tool is a river-basin scale model developed to quantify the impact of land management practices in large, complex watersheds, according to Dr. Raghavan Srinivasan, professor and director of the Spatial Sciences Laboratory, part of Texas AgriLife Research. “SWAT is a comprehensive computer modeling tool for addressing landscape processes, watershed channeling processes, plant growth, nutrients, carbon and bacteria – all of which are vital to agricultural and environmental health,” Srinivasan said. “The tool also allows for other inputs for processing real-time data from multiple sources for assessing, maximizing and preserving ‘natural capital’ such as soil and water.” He noted that more than 800 peer-reviewed articles have been published worldwide by using and applying the model to address water quantity and quality issues. Bringing this tool to Africa has become increasingly important to studying the various hydrological and environmental processes across that continent, said Dr. Ed Price, director of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, also part of AgriLife Research. “It can help guide decision making on economic development, land use and agricultural productivity,” Price said. “And while it is being used throughout the world — in the U.S., Europe and across Asia and Latin America — Africa has great need of such informational resources, but so far little has been done to create a SWAT community on the African continent. That is, until now.” Price said Dr. Tracy Baker, a specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and research scientist for the Borlaug Institute, recently was invited by Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, South Africa to deliver the first in what is hoped to be a series of trainings to introduce SWAT modeling to Africa. The South Africa training was a collaborative effort between the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Temple, Spatial Sciences Laboratory and Borlaug Institute, he said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Temple was instrumental in the preparation of training materials. “The training also was made possible through a new collaborative research partnership in South Africa between the Borlaug Institute and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation,” added Joey King, chief of staff for the Borlaug Institute. “Currently partnership participants are based at a new research station in the Limpopo province, but we expect to build research cooperation with institutions throughout southern Africa.” King said the South Africa training involved personnel from the Central University of Technology, University of Free State, University of Stellanbosch, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture. “SWAT model components include weather, surface runoff, return flow, percolation, evapotranspiration, pond and reservoir storage, crop growth and irrigation, groundwater flow and routing, nutrient and pesticide loading and water transfer,” Srinivasan said. “The training in South Africa was intended to show how the tool can provide an explicit representation of how all incoming water moves through the catchment process in relation to land cover, topography, soil type and vegetative cover.” Srinivasan said the tool allows the user to study basins of several thousand square miles, divide soil profiles into 10 layers, develop groundwater flow models and show nutrient and pesticide input and output. “You can also reach modeling language commands to simulate routing and adding flows, including transferring water from channels and reservoirs,” he said. “It also has a graphical user interface using GIS that can accept additional output and measured data and point sources, plus has links for automating inputs.” He said the modeling system allows the user to estimate water quantities available for extraction at any point and time, and represent the dynamics of soil water, which controls plant growth and chemical cycling. “The SWAT user can also apply spatially distant controls and consequences to eco-hydrological modeling that can be quantified and, therefore, valued.” “Both the Spatial Sciences Laboratory and the Borlaug Institute are committed to partnering with researchers and institutions across Africa to better understand African ecosystems and how that knowledge can be used for the long-term development and conservation of natural resources,” Price said. “It can greatly assist understanding agricultural and environmental issues throughout the African continent.” For more information on the Spatial Sciences Laboratory and SWAT, go to http://ssl.tamu.edu/ or http://swatmodel.tamu.edu . For more information on the Borlaug Institute and Ukulima Farm, go to http://borlaug.tamu.edu/ and enter the keyword “Ukulima” into the search field. Editor’s Note: The Soil Water Assessment Tool is a “public domain” model developed by Texas A&M University System personnel at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Temple and supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at the Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in that city. International SWAT application is coordinated through the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and the Spatial Sciences Laboratory of the university’s department of ecological sciences and management. The Borlaug Institute and lab are both entities of Texas AgriLife Research. Some of the agencies, businesses and organizations currently using this tool in the U.S. are: the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, environmental consulting firms, Texas river authorities, universities and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Article by Paul Schattenberg [email protected] View all articles by Paul Schattenberg → Category: Uncategorized ← Prev

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Food Democracy: Rule of the People or Corporations? Published on Friday, October 11, 2013 by Think Forward blog/ IATPFood Democracy: Rule of the People or Corporations? byJohn ParkerWhen it comes to faith in our democracy, this year has raised some eyebrows. In the case of food and agriculture policy, a disturbing fact emerges: Our democracy is increasingly a façade. Agribusinesses have been subverting the democratic process from Washington D.C. to state legislatures across the country to ensure that people know less and less about how their food is produced and distributed. Moreover, they have engaged in a determined effort to obstruct opportunities for citizens and legislators to engage in the democratic process. Consider the following to illustrate the point. Having failed to pass a Farm Bill in June, House GOP leadership brought forward a new bill in July with a radical change that would repeal permanent agriculture laws form 1938 and 1949. The House Agriculture Committee never debated such a provision, not once in two years of hearings. GOP leadership placed the provision into the 600-page Farm Bill late on a Wednesday night; they did not allow for debate or amendments and forced the House to vote on it the next day. What happens if Congress replaces permanent law with the Farm Bill they pass this year? Instead of allowing for review and reform every five years, this current Farm Bill would be permanent and very difficult to change. Rep. Peterson’s (D-Minnesota) reaction sums it up, “I think that repealing permanent law all but ensures that we’ll never write a Farm Bill again. If you’re concerned about conservation, fruits and vegetables, research, these other areas, there’s never going to be [another] Farm Bill if we [pass] this.” Speaking of sneaking provisions into legislation, Monsanto scored a similar victory earlier this year. After the House Appropriations Committee defeated a provision on genetically modified foods, Monsanto asked for help from Senator Blunt (R-Missouri) who, in March, quietly attached Monsanto’s policy onto a budget bill written to avert a government shutdown. Most members of Congress were unaware it was even there. There was no debate. The policy, by the way, prevents federal courts from halting the planting or sale of GMOs due to health issues or pending litigation. Almost entirely in secret, the U.S. is currently negotiating trade agreements with Europe and countries included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Leaked details of the negotiations reveal that lowering standards affecting health, the environment and consumer labeling are on the negotiating table. This could affect things like chemical safety, the use of technologies such as genetic engineering and nanotechnology in food production as well as the use of antibiotics in animal production. If approved, these trade deals will make it more difficult for individual countries to reform standards in the future. Interestingly, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has allowed certain corporations into the talks, but so far, members of Congress and the public are in the dark. What we do know is the USTR wants to eliminate all “local barriers to trade” which could potentially include farm-to-school programs. On the state and local levels, agribusiness and lawmakers are colluding to silence those reporting on these issues, while at the same time limiting the ability of communities to create policy. This summer, Kansas authorities arrested famed National Geographic photographer George Steinmetz for taking aerial photos of an animal feedlot. On assignment for National Geographic, Steinmetz and his assistant ran afoul of an “Ag-Gag” law when they were paragliding across Kansas taking photos. The law prohibits individuals from photographing animal facilities and feedlots. These so called “Ag-Gag” laws are designed to keep secret the practices and treatment of animals housed in concentrated animal feeding operations. Eleven states introduced similar legislation this year. Utah authorities arrested and filed charges against a woman in April under similar legislation only to drop the charges due to massive public backlash. This past spring, Mississippi passed a law preventing cities, counties, towns and villages within the state from regulating or restricting the sale of food based on nutritional information. A month later, Kansas and Missouri introduced legislation to ban the “use of public funds to promote or implement sustainable development.” Alabama passed similar legislation last year. The effort is in reaction to a non-binding United Nations sustainability plan. Thankfully, there are many exceptions to the trend. Notably, 193 food councils across the U.S. are reinvigorating local democratic decision-making. When it comes to policies affecting the food system as a whole, however, we appear to be a democracy in name only. What does it mean for a state like Vermont to require GMO labeling, if agribusinesses can secretly influence trade agreements that strip away the right of states to enact such legislation? What does it mean for a food council to create a farm-to-school program if agribusinesses buy legislation to eliminate such programs as “barriers to trade”? U.S. food and agriculture policy seems to be built on secret provisions snuck into bills at the 11th hour with little opportunity for debate, or trade negotiations taking place behind closed doors. The result is government rigged against farmers and workers who want to have a say in policies affecting their livelihoods, against communities who want to protect their natural resources and against parents who want to know what is in the food they feed to their children. Democracy means rule of the people, not rule of the corporations. We need to move beyond this flawed mess, redefine what democratic participation means and act on it. It is no longer enough to call your Senator or write a letter to your local newspaper. We need to begin the work of reclaiming authentic participation in democratic decision-making. Otherwise, we will continue to watch agribusiness steal the game and tell us all to shut up.© 2013 IATP John Parker John Parker is an intern at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). Share This Article

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California Professor Works to Grow a Later, Tastier Grape Published Print As you contemplate that Thanksgiving wine you relished on Thursday, ponder for a moment a world too hot to grow fine grapes. Dr. Sanliang Gu does every day. For a dozen years his obsession has been to manipulate the growing cycle of grapes around Fresno, California's hottest and therefore earliest-ripening wine region. This week he succeeded: the 2011 vintage that normally would have been picked in July or August came off the vines two days before Thanksgiving — about three weeks after Napa's weather-delayed harvest ended. In an industry where "hang time" is cherished for adding complexities to flavors, the implications are profound, especially for folks anxious about the global impacts of climate change on historic wine-growing regions. "If this can help incrementally improve the quality, it means big money for growers, especially in a global market," said Joe Bezerra, executive director of the California State University Agricultural Research Institute, which is helping to fund the project at Fresno State University. Gu's immediate aim is twofold: to add complexities to the 150,000 acres of wine grapes grown in California's San Joaquin Valley, home to 44 percent of the state's crop, and to open marginal areas to higher-end production. "I hope it doesn't get any hotter in Fresno," he said, "but it doesn't matter because we know now that we can manipulate the growing season." The San Joaquin Valley, stretching for 220 miles from Stockton to Bakersfield, is the U.S.'s most prolific grape-growing region. Along with heat-loving raisins and table grapes, vast tracts of wine grapes are mechanically harvested for popular labels such as Gallo's economy brands and Bronco's popular Charles Shaw, aka Two Buck Chuck, and blended into higher end wines. Because grapes grown here ripen so quickly, growers are forced to harvest before the acids and tannins that contribute to a truly great wine can fully develop. Gu, a professor of viticulture, appears to have solved that problem by pruning off the first crop of clusters in June, which forces the vines to generate a new crop just as the weather really heats up in July. In September, the 2011 grapes entered veraison, turning color as they began ripening, which is just about the time Fresno's brutal summer temperatures begin to subside. The grapes then spent long weeks on the vine during the time the weather in Fresno more closely matches the summer temperatures in Napa or along the Central Coast. "This is exciting," Gu said Tuesday, as he watched a crew of students bundled in winter jackets ferrying macro bins of cabernet sauvignon to the school winery. "We're picking wine grapes in Fresno at Thanksgiving. That has never happened before." The grapes are better than the commercial crop the school harvested during the summer because the sugars, acids and pH are balanced within optimal levels, he said. The grapes harvested Tuesday have enough sugar to make a wine with slightly over 13 percent alcohol, on par with France but surprisingly light compared to most "big" California wines that hover near 15 percent. But considering that some Central Valley grapes get so overly ripe that wineries have to add water to bring down the sugar levels, the Thanksgiving harvest is remarkable. Gu's efforts to force a later harvest have taken many forms. He first tried manipulating irrigation to slow the ripening, and when that failed he tried canopy management — using the vines to shield grapes from the blazing sun. "Nothing made a difference because the overriding factor is temperature," he said. Then he remembered that some fruit growers in the tropics can get two crops a season, so he decided to try forcing a later harvest on a block of campus grapes. "I thought that if we could shift the whole thing until later, it would be like growing in a cooler region," he said. He found that zinfandel grapes exposed to fall rains are too prone to the fungus botrytis, and chardonnay gets powdery mildew. Thick-skinned cabernet sauvingnon appears to be just right. Gu said he doesn't expect to replicate Napa quality in the Central Valley, but he does think that growers can improve the value of grapes grown here. There are those who think the quality of grapes in the valley already is great, including Peterangelo Vallis, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Grapegrowers Association. "I really think the project is a great thing, but I have mixed feelings about it," Vallis said. "It's pushing the research away from taking advantage of what we do have here in the valley, and that's a long growing season, great soil, good water and the lack of rain before maturity. How many times have those grapes he harvested yesterday been rained on?" Everyone agrees the proof will be in the wine. The sauvingnon blanc Gu's students made from last year compares favorably to wines from New Zealand, he said. Students again are making the 2011 cabernet sauvignon, but with increased research funding coming in for the 2012 vintage, he hopes to get a professional to coax the best-possible wine from them. Gu must now find a way to make the process economical for farmers who grow on a scale too large to hand prune, and the yields must be high enough to be profitable. But he said that the process easily could be adapted now by boutique winemakers growing on a smaller scale in warmer regions such as Texas, New Mexico and California's high deserts. "Can you imagine Fresno with 300 wineries, each with about five-to-10 acres? That would be a good start," he said, pausing to ponder the possibility. "I think so." Advertisement Priebus defends Trump, top aide; says media has 'obsession' to 'delegitimize' president Obama tweets 'Good point, Mitt' Romney, calls for gun control Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch dies at 88

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Making Farmers' Markets More Affordable The Market Match program improves low-income families' access to fresh food. Elly Schmidt-Hopper Carle Brinkman CalFresh recipients typically get a dollar-for-dollar match. California is famous for its bounty of fruit and vegetables and the ubiquity of its farmers' markets, but even the Golden State has struggled to get fresh food into the hands of its neediest citizens. Nearly two decades ago, as a way to address the food gap and improve low-income families' access to good food, recipients of CalFresh — the California version of food stamps — were encouraged to use their monthly benefits to purchase unprocessed food at local farmers' markets. The effort was moderately successful, and between 1997 and 2002, about $7,000 in food stamps were redeemed each summer at more than seventy Pacific Coast farmers' markets in the Bay Area. But the prices at farmers' markets proved too steep for many families on food stamps. Healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables just weren't in the budget. The Market Match program — launched three years ago by the food system advocacy organization Roots of Change — has helped change that reality for many CalFresh recipients by incentivizing healthy food choices with an additional boost of money. Offered exclusively at farmers' markets, the incentive is typically a dollar-to-dollar match, usually with a $10 (or less) cap, and paid out in tokens or vouchers. The exchange at the Ecology Center's Berkeley farmers' markets will begin on October 1 and work like this: A CalFresh recipient brings his Electronic Benefit Transfer card (EBT) — the digital food stamp system used today — to a farmers' market, swipes the card at a wireless device at the info booth, and "withdraws" money from his benefits account. In turn, he receives wooden nickels with which to buy fresh fruit and vegetables (no cooked or processed food). If the recipient withdraws $10, he gets an additional ten Market Match chips. If he withdraws $5, he gets five extra tokens, and so on. The incentives are working. Last year, Bay Area families redeemed more than $20,000 at Pacific Coast farmers' markets during the summer months, a 224 percent increase from 1996. The program itself has also grown significantly over the last three years: The number of California farmers' markets offering Market Match incentives has tripled, from around 40 in 2010 to more than 130 last year, and an estimated 40,000 families are served by the program statewide. In fact, Market Match has done so well that there is a growing need for uniformity, and in January, the Ecology Center in Berkeley took over programmatic control. Currently, each member of the California Market Match Consortium (CMMC), which includes community organizations and farmers' market operators, can set its own "match" level. Some offer dollar-for-dollar, others have a set voucher amount, and the cap often varies from market to market, too. Carle Brinkman, the Ecology Center's program manager of the Statewide Farmers' Market EBT Program, said that such variation can be confusing for CalFresh participants, and that the Ecology Center is working to unify and standardize the program across the state. They are hoping to find just the right balance of incentive and outreach. "We ask, 'How much is just enough to get people coming to the market, versus how many people we can reach?'" she said. The Ecology Center is currently creating a best practices guide and tool kit for markets, and is gearing up to promote Market Match on a statewide level with billboards, radio spots, grassroots outreach, and direct mailing. The incentives program is primarily funded through the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Specialty Crop Block Grant, but some members of the CMMC have found private donors and obtained outside grants, and Brinkman said that ideally the program will be funded in the future by a public-private partnership. If the Farm Bill passes in its current form, Market Match could also benefit from millions of dollars earmarked to incentivize healthy choices. All of this is good news for a program that Brinkman calls a "triple win." Not only does Market Match encourage CalFresh recipients to shop at farmers' markets, she said, it also supports local farms and encourages people who are eligible for assistance to enroll in CalFresh. Brinkman added that the program is not intended to control what people can purchase, but rather to help them realize that they can afford good food. "It's often a perception issue, too ... that shopping at farmers' markets is much more expensive [than shopping at a grocery store]," she said. "We're focused on educating and informing people." Market Match CalFresh Ecology Center Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association

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Agweb HomeAgDay TV HomeNewsGunning For Gluten Gunning For Gluten Wheat provides roughly 20% of the world’s entire calories, yet it has found itself vilified by current gluten-free diets. Social Media and Innovation Editor Wheat industry tackles consumer-level challenges Wheat farmers are generally prepared for any type of calamity: Drought, flooding, weeds and insects are annual problems they tackle. However, they might be less prepared to face a new problem on the horizon—the fad diet. More specifically, various wheat-free diets, anchored by books such as the current bestseller "Wheat Belly." Gluten is the underlying culprit. The protein allows wheat dough to rise and gives it its characteristic chewy texture. But gluten is the core for a legitimate problem—celiac disease, which affects about 1% of the U.S. population. For this small percentage, avoiding food containing gluten is essential. For the rest of us, there’s not much scientific sense to back away from wheat foods, says Judi Adams, president of the Wheat Foods Council (WFC). "We’re trying to get the word out that wheat doesn’t cause celiac disease—it’s genes," she says. "You can’t ‘catch’ celiac disease, you either have the gene or you don’t." Adams is quite empathetic to those who have Celiac disease. In fact, her own brother suffered through his entire childhood and adult life with it. It’s all the more reason the WFC and at least seven other organizations are committed to educating the public about a crop that has played a large role in feeding the world for centuries. "We’re trying to work with farmers and show them what we’re doing for them in getting the word out," Adams says. Christine Cochran, executive director of the Grain Foods Foundation, says with the advent of social media and with the current state of consumer interest in how their food is produced, farmers are in a unique position to share their stories. "A lot of consumers are on a quest to see where their food comes from," she says. "The farmer story is then a very compelling one. I’d encourage all farmers to figure out how they can best share what they are doing." What farmers shouldn’t do is pretend this trend won’t have an impact, Cochran says. It’s one factor among many, but she says the popularity of gluten-free diets has already had a visible effect on supply and demand. "Farmers are a part of the chain, so this affects them, too," Cochran says. "The baking side is already seeing a softening in the market for all types of products." The upside is that other popular diets will likely replace gluten-free diets in time, Adams says. She says most fad diets have a shelf life of one to two years. She says groups such as WFC will continue to promote the nutritional benefits of wheat while remaining respectful to the needs of those who have celiac disease. Take a Pill? People diagnosed with celiac disease often have difficulty at grocery stores and restaurants figuring out what they can and can’t eat. If only there was a pill they could take to make it all better. That might be a reality soon, according to the Journal of the American Chemical Society. They have recently reported that scientists are trying to harness an enzyme that can break down gluten into pieces that wouldn’t cause digestive tract inflammation for those with celiac disease. So far, laboratory tests have proven 95% effective. The hope is to someday develop a pill that would allow people with celiac disease to enjoy wheat products without the related digestive upsets. You can e-mail Ben Potter at [email protected]. I'm on a gluten free diet, I don't have Celiac disease, and believe me, it's not a "fad" diet for me. I am what is called "gluten intolerant". I had migraine headaces almost daily, weight gain, high blood pressure, fatigue, and digestive problems. I am a dairy producer and we also grow wheat. It was very diffcult for me to believe wheat could be causing so many problems for me. But I'm a new person on the gluten-free diet, I've lost weight, no longer have to take blood pressure medication, and the migraines are much less frequent and less severe. There are many people who suffer from gluten intolerance, some who don't even know it's wheat gluten that's making them sick and there seems to be more people having problems with wheat. So maybe us farmers should try and figure out what changed with the wheat grown today verses 30 years ago? Facebook

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2013 a challenging year for Oregon, Idaho onion growers Very hot summer temperatures and thrips pressure, combined with a string of untimely rainstorms, made 2013 a challenging growing year for onion farmers in Idaho and eastern Oregon. Sean EllisCapital Press Published on October 23, 2013 11:10AM Sean Ellis/Capital Press An onion field near Caldwell, Idaho, is harvested Oct. 15. Farmers in the region say hot summer temperatures and a series of untimely rainstorms made 2013 a challenging growing year. Buy this photo Onion production in Idaho and eastern Oregon could be below average again this year due to disease pressure and weather-related factors.But growers in the region that produces about 25 percent of the nation’s fresh bulb onion supply say quality is good.After suffering through one of the hottest summers ever recorded in the Treasure Valley and disease pressure that increased because of the heat, onion growers had to wait longer than normal to harvest their crop because of a string of late-season rainstorms.“It was a long harvest and it was a tough year,” said Oregon farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “The rains made it a longer harvest than normal. There was at least a week’s worth of time where we didn’t go because of the rains.”The moisture was sorely needed but it came at a very inopportune time, said Oregon farmer Reid Saito.“We waited all summer for some rain and when it finally came, it was at the worst possible moment as far as the onion harvest goes,” he said. “Some guys had a really nice year and got their onions off before the rains but others are still struggling to get them in.”Farmers in Idaho and eastern Oregon harvested 19,100 acres in 2012, down 1,400 from the year before, and lower yields caused production to fall to 14.2 million hundredweight, an 8 percent decline from 2011.The USDA won’t release estimates for onion production this year because of federal budget cuts, but industry officials believe 2013 acreage was close to last year’s total.Significantly hotter summer temperatures this year caused an increase in thrips, which are a vector for the iris yellow spot virus, which can decrease yields.“The heat makes (thrips) more active (and) we had a lot of virus pressure this year,” said Stuart Reitz, a crop system extension agent at Oregon State University’s Malheur County research center.As onions become stressed from the heat, “symptoms of the virus also become more pronounced and that complicates the problem,” he added.The heat itself was a big problem for onion growers this year, Skeen said. “There was too much heat for too long. Once the heat hit, it never let up. It was every day, every day, every day.”As a result of the heat and virus pressure, yields this year were extremely variable, he said.“Yields were all over the board,” he said. “They were from very good to, at least for me, some historic lows.”The net result of the challenges growers faced in 2013 could be decreased production from the nation’s main onion-growing region, Skeen said.

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Foreword In March 2001, the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) requested FAO to assist countries in incorporating linkages between sustainable forest management and other sectors, including agriculture. COFO also requested that FAO develop effective national policy frameworks and national forestry programmes, promoting information exchange between forestry and related sectors. As a result of this demand coming from FAO member countries, the Forestry Policy and Information Division of the Forestry Department initiated a series of studies on available information and research needs, developed seven country case studies and organized a technical meeting1 in September 2002 in FAO, Rome, to discuss these inputs. The objectives of the present paper are: • to present current policy and legal frameworks to help better understand cross-sectoral policy impacts; • to present examples of specific country issues and solutions; • to indicate instruments and institutions arrangements useful in order to optimize policy impacts according to forest development stages; • to show the integrated system of environmental and economic accounting as a tool to collect, analyze, monitor and evaluate information on policy impacts across sectors; and • to indicate ways and means to enhance the capacity of actors to coordinate their policy roles through better information and knowledge sharing and participation. The target audiences are policy analysts as well as policy-makers, forest managers, representatives from stakeholders and non-governmental organizations, and researchers and teachers who need information on this subject and have to deal with cross-sectoral policy issues in their daily work. The public in general, concerned with the sustainable management of forests and their contribution to people’s well-being, is another important target group. The publication was prepared under the leadership of Manuel Paveri, Chief, Policy and Institutions Service of the Forestry Department of FAO. Yves C. Dubé, Forestry Officer, has coordinated the work and contributed substantially to the publication. Many officers from within and outside FAO have also contributed to the process and made suggestions to improve the manuscript. The authors of the chapters are Franz Schmithüsen from the Department of Forest Sciences of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Davide Pettenella from the Territorial and Agroforestry Systems Department of the University of Padova, William F. Hyde, CIFOR Research Associate, Glenn-Marie Lange from the Institute for Economic Analysis of New York University, and Margaret A. Shannon from the University of Buffalo School of Law. Ms Eileen Nolan provided editorial assistance along the various drafts of the manuscript and Mr Marco Perri assisted in the preparation of the CD-Rom. Those involved in preparing or taking policy decisions concerning sustainable forest management may use this publication as a reference framework. It is hoped that the approaches recommended will be widely adopted. The Forestry Department will continue to document progress of country members in this field and develop further concepts, methodologies and tools to be used by countries to deal with this issue. R. Michael MartinDirectorForestry Policy and Information DivisionForestry Department 1 Reports of country case studies and proceedings of the technical meeting are presented in Appendix on CD-Rom.

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GMO Wars: The Global Battlefield GMO Wars: The Global Battlefield By Walden Bello | October 31, 2013 AT 5:03 PM Last Updated: November 1, 2013 8:32 pm Environmental activist group Greenpeace and members of the Green Moms staged a creative protest to demonstrate their strong opposition to certain types of genetically modified rice in Manila on June 5. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images) The GMO wars escalated earlier this month when the 2013 World Food Prize was awarded to three chemical company executives, including Monsanto executive vice president and chief technology officer, Robert Fraley, responsible for development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The choice of Fraley was widely protested, with 81 members of the prestigious World Future Council calling it “an affront to the growing international consensus on safe, ecological farming practices that have been scientifically proven to promote nutrition and sustainability.” Monsanto’s Man The choice of Monsanto’s man triggered accusations of prize buying. From 1999 to 2011, Monsanto donated $380,000 to the World Food Prize Foundation, in addition to a $5 million contribution in 2008 to help renovate the Hall of Laureates, a public museum honoring Norman Borlaug, the scientist who launched the Green Revolution. For some, the award to Monsanto is actually a sign of desperation on the part of the GMO establishment, a move designed to contain the deepening controversy over the so-called biotechnological revolution in food and agriculture. The arguments of the critics are making headway. Owing to concern about the dangers and risks posed by genetically engineered organisms, many governments have instituted total or partial bans on their cultivation, importation, and field-testing. A few years ago, there were 16 countries that had total or partial bans on GMOs. Now there are at least 26, including Switzerland, Australia, Austria, China, India, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Mexico, and Russia. Significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about 60 other countries. Restraints on trade in GMOs based on phyto-sanitary grounds, which are allowed under the World Trade Organization, have increased. Already, American rice farmers face strict limitations on their exports to the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, and are banned altogether from Russia and Bulgaria because unapproved genetically engineered rice “escaped” during open-field trials on GMO rice. Certain Thai exports—particularly canned fruit salads containing papaya to Germany, and sardines in soy oil to Greece and the Netherlands—were recently banned due to threat of contamination by GMOs. The Case Against GMOs Gains Strength The case against GMOs has strengthened steadily over the last few years. Critics say that genetic engineering disrupts the precise sequence of a food’s genetic code and disturbs the functions of neighboring genes, which can give rise to potentially toxic or allergenic molecules or even alter the nutritional value of food produced. The Bt toxin used in GMO corn, for example, was recently detected in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, with possibly harmful consequences. A second objection concerns genetic contamination. A GMO crop, once released in the open, reproduces via pollination and interacts genetically with natural varieties of the same crop, producing what is called genetic contamination. According to a study published in Nature, one of the world’s leading scientific journals, Bt corn has contaminated indigenous varieties of corn tested in Oaxaca, Mexico. Third, a GMO, brought into natural surroundings, may have a toxic or lethal impact on other living things. Thus, it was found that Bt corn destroyed the larvae of the monarch butterfly, raising well-grounded fears that many other natural plant and animal life may be impacted in the same way. Fourth, the benefits of GMOs have been oversold by the companies, like Monsanto and Syngenta that peddle them. Most genetically engineered crops are either engineered to produce their own pesticide in the form of Bacillus thurengiensis (Bt) or are designed to be resistant to herbicides, so that herbicides can be sprayed in massive quantities to kill pests without harming the crops. It has been shown, however, that insects are fast developing resistance to Bt as well as to herbicides, resulting in even more massive infestation by the new superbugs. No substantial evidence exists that GM crops yield more than conventional crops. What genetically engineered crops definitely do lead to is greater use of pesticide, which is harmful both to humans and the environment. A fifth argument is that patented GMO seeds concentrate power in the hands of a few biotech corporations and marginalize small farmers. As the statement of the 81 members of the World Future Council put it, “While profitable to the few companies producing them, GMO seeds reinforce a model of farming that undermines sustainability of cash-poor farmers, who make up most of the world’s hungry. GMO seeds continue farmers’ dependency on purchased seed and chemical inputs. The most dramatic impact of such dependency is in India, where 270,000 farmers, many trapped in debt for buying seeds and chemicals, committed suicide between 1995 and 2012.” Some studies have sought to counter these accusations against GMOs, but they have been discredited by revelations that they were funded by biotechnology firms or conducted by researchers close to them. The Philippines as GMO Battlefield The key battleground in the battle over GMOs has shifted, over the years, from the developed to the developing world. The GMO advocates have deployed their big guns to convince African, Asian, and Latin American governments to shift to GMOs. Among them are Bill and Melinda Gates, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, and Oxford economist Paul Collier, who argues that Africa needs a new “Green Revolution” based on genetically engineered seeds because it missed out on the first one, which was promoted by chemical-intensive agriculture. The Philippines is one such battleground. Even as many other countries have tightened their controls over GMOs, the Philippine government has become more and more liberal in its granting of licenses for GMO production. According to Greenpeace Southeast Asia, it has allowed the importation of 60 genetically modified plants and plant products for direct use as food and feed or for processing, an additional eight GM plant varieties for propagation, and 21 modified plant varieties for field testing in Philippine soil. Despite concerns about its impact on the environment, Bt corn now has 750,000 hectares of Philippine land devoted to it. According to Greenpeace Southeast Asia spokesman Daniel Ocampo, no GMO application has ever been rejected, which is rather shocking given the controversy over its use. A key reason for the liberal treatment of GMOs is the revolving door among government, academia, and corporations. For instance, three of the most recent directors of the prestigious Institute of Plant Breeding of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos have either joined biotech multinationals or gone to work on projects funded by them. They also serve as members of or advisers to government bodies that oversee biosafety. Judicial Restraints on GMOs Anti-GMO activists and farmers have nevertheless made headway. Even as some make direct action forays like uprooting Bt eggplant field experimental sites, others have worked on the legal front. This paid off recently when the Philippine Court of Appeals—acting on a petition brought before it by Greenpeace, the NGO Masipag, and several individuals—stopped the field testing of Bt eggplant on the grounds that there was no scientific consensus or legal framework for the introduction of Bt products. Importantly, the court also ruled that all stakeholders—not just industry or government scientists—should get to provide input on the introduction of GMOs like Bt eggplant. It is unlikely, however, that this victory will discourage the GMO lobby from making the Philippines into a springboard for the introduction of Bt crops to the rest of Southeast Asia. Aside from Bt eggplant, the GMO advocates are pushing genetically altered “Golden Rice,” potatoes, soybeans, canola, cotton, sugar beet, and alfalfa. There’s big money in these crops, and the only thing that stands between the transnational corporations and big money are those pesky farmers, environmentalists, and consumers. Unfortunately for the biotech corporations, more people are listening to the words of scientists like Dr. Oscar Zamora, vice chancellor of the University of the Philippines at Los Banos, who said: “For every application of genetic engineering in agriculture in developing countries, there are a number of less hazardous and more sustainable approaches and practices with hundreds, if not thousands, of years of safety record behind them. None of the GE applications in agriculture today are valuable enough to farmers in developing countries to make it reasonable to expose the environment, farmers and the consumers to even the slightest risk.” Now a member of the Philippine House of Representatives representing Akbayan (Citizens’ Action Party), Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Walden Bello was a member of the boards of both Greenpeace International and Greenpeace Southeast Asia, which he helped set up. This article is a joint publication of Foreign Policy In Focus and TheNation.com. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times. Bear Will I say, “I’m Not Monsanto’s Lab Rat” Thomas in Jacksonville I am a retired Marine. I am a conservative. I am a TEA Party member. GMOs scare me. How can you alter a natural food source and call it safe? This is not the cross pollination of plants that was pioneered by the Monks a few hundred years ago. This is an alteration of the basic DNA structure of our food. This is not something our bodies were designed to absorb nutrition from. They destroy the body, the land and there is growing proof that it is killing the honey bee. STOP IT! More in ViewpointsIn Memoriam: NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, a True American HeroStand With Ukrainians and Their IndependenceThe Ukraine: A Forgotten Foreign Affairs ‘Pin Up’The Disease of Struggle Latest in Opinion The Reader's Turn An Economist’s Open Letter to President Trump In Memoriam: NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, a True American Hero Stand With Ukrainians and Their Independence The Ukraine: A Forgotten Foreign Affairs ‘Pin Up’ The Disease of Struggle The State of Policing in the United States: Issues and Response The Reader's Turn American Government Requires Ethical Leadership Looking Forward and Backward With the New Year More Voter Revolt in 2017?

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2017 Farm and Gin Show: A first look at all that’s new Know cost of growing a bushel ‘to the cent’ Jan 13, 2017 Farmers seeking real safety net in next farm bill Jan 13, 2017 Tips for negotiating new farmland leases Jan 12, 2017 Numbers don't tell the tale David Bennett | Dec 03, 2004 Every couple of years, rumors begin circulating that Ducks Unlimited is taking federal agricultural subsidies away from farmers. This time, the driving force behind the rumors is a headache farmers have also faced for several years: the on-line Environmental Working Group (EWG) database of farm subsidy payments. EWG (www.ewg.org) says DU, having banked nearly $6 million in 2002 (the latest year data are available), is sixth in total money received. “If we're able to explain ourselves to people, everything turns out okay,” says Craig Hilburn, DU director of conservation programs in Arkansas. “Farmers and landowners who are concerned understand what's going on if we have a chance to explain. But getting the message out to everyone is often difficult.” DU works closely with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to deliver the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) in the state, says Hilburn. The two organizations deliver restoration work on thousands of acres annually. The DU subsidy payments listed by EWG stem from that. “In terms of federal programs, WRP is the best ever,” says Hilburn. “Many people want it, and there's a long waiting list. When someone gets in, they receive an easement payment. If they decide to do the restoration work themselves to the satisfaction of the NRCS standards, they'll get a payment.” But that payment isn't made until the work is completed. DU steps in, often fronting the money in order to get the projects done. “We do that because of our mission to restore wetlands. Remember, the government won't pay until the project is completed. We come in and pay up front for surveys, contractors, whatever. Once the project is completed, we're reimbursed for the majority of the money we fronted.” It's that reimbursement that is listed on the EWG site as a subsidy, says Hilburn. “We don't receive subsidies. We receive repayments for performing WRP. Because WRP is a part of the farm bill and comes out of the conservation title, that's where EWG picks up the numbers without any explanation. “What we're doing is win-win for everyone and the environment. When it ends up on this Web site database, though, suspicion is aroused.”

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National Mango Board moves ahead with ambitious program by Tim Linden | June 02, 2010 Though the total volume of mango exports was down about 10 percent by the end of May, most of the losses were early in the season and mango importers are expecting good supplies for the next several months. In fact, May shipments were running ahead of last year, and the outlook is good for the foreseeable future, which includes June and July. Gary Clevenger, co-owner of Freska Produce International in Oxnard, CA, said that the strong May helped close the volume gap, which saw deficits of more than 3 million cartons after just a couple of months of shipments. Bill Vogel, president of Tavilla Sales Co. of Los Angeles, said that May shipments were as strong as they had been in several years, giving retailers ample opportunity for promotions as the summer weather heats up. Chris Ciruli, chief operating officer for Ciruli Bros. in Nogales, AZ, said that six consecutive weeks of shipping at least 2 million cartons each week in April and May brought the volume closer to last year's numbers. Looking ahead, Mr. Clevenger said that the northern districts of Mexico, where the harvest was just getting started, could see volume increase 20-30 percent over last year. National Mango Board Director of Marketing Wendy McManus concurred, noting, "From what we are hearing, the volume is very strong and will continue to be very strong through June, into July and possibly even into August." As such, NMB has an ambitious marketing and education program slated on several fronts. Ms. McManus said, "Many of the promotions that were planned to support the early spring mango season were dropped by retailers because supplies were tight and prices were high. The funds that were allocated to that period are being added to the promotional funds that were already in place to support the summer peak." To help with those promotions, NMB has developed and is distributing new point-of-sale materials, which the board continues to use to hammer home one of its central themes: green-skinned and yellow-skinned mangos are ripe and ready to eat. The new p-o-s material educates consumers about these two types of mangos. Anglo consumers in the United States tend to prefer red mangos simply because of their color, but most in the industry agree that the green- and yellow-skinned varieties actually taste better. Each message is available in an 11-inch by seven-inch header card, or on a smaller tear pad that includes a recipe on the back. "We have already shipped over 4,000 pieces of the yellow-skinned mango p.o.s. for the Atualfo mango season," said Ms. McManus. "We expect the orders for the green-skinned mango p.o.s. to sky-rocket in the late summer and fall when green-skinned varieties are prevalent in the stores." NMB uses a variety of avenues to promote mangos to consumers including cable television, the Internet and its own web site. One of its more visible promotional outlets is the Food Network's "Simply Delicioso" show featuring NMB spokesperson Ingrid Hoffmann. Because of the board's sponsorship of the show, Ms. Hoffman will share some of her favorite summertime mango recipes for a TV segment during the summer. The segment will include a demonstration of mango recipes, and she will also teach viewers about selecting, ripening and cutting mangos. The segment will also appear on the "Health & Home Report" and on the iTV network of cable news station web sites throughout the summer. The Internet has become an increasingly important vehicle for the board to preach its message both to consumers and the industry. "We have been using more and more webinar-virtual-meeting technology to educate and reach out to our industry audiences," said Ms. McManus. NMB held one educational seminar for the industry June 3 and another is slated for June 8. The June 3 event was the Mango Best Handling Practices Webinar, held in conjunction with the University of California-Davis' Postharvest Technology Center. The event was geared to importers, wholesalers and retailers. An industry outreach virtual meeting was scheduled for June 8 for growers and shippers and others in the industry. This meeting is designed to replace the in-person meetings NMB has hosted in the largest mango port cities in previous years. The virtual meetings are held quarterly, and each follows a different theme. The June 8 meeting will explore NMB's research efforts. The Mango Board also uses its own web site to interact directly with editors from national magazines, top newspapers and online publications across the country. The site has a "virtual kitchen" that has been designed to provide in- depth education to these editors and writers about mango varieties and using mangos at different levels of ripeness. Information and videos are available for each of the top six commercial varieties, plus one package focused on levels of mango ripeness and spice combinations. The first five of seven videos for this program are online at www.mango.org/virtualtestkitchen. "We have already started seeing great coverage results from newspaper writers and bloggers, and we expect to see national magazine coverage starting next month," said Ms. McManus. (For more on mangos, see the June 7, 2010, issue of The Produce News.) Videos

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The Green TimesClimate change is the most widespread & complex problem humanity has ever faced! There is no time to waste and we need to turn green talk into profound green action. This is the intention of the GREEN TIMES. You are here: Home / Articles / Argentine Protesters vs Monsanto Argentine Protesters vs Monsanto January 14, 2014 Leave a Comment The people of the working-class suburb of Córdoba in Argentina’s central farming belt stoically put up with the spraying of the weed-killer glyphosate on the fields surrounding their neighbourhood. But the last straw was when U.S. biotech giant Monsanto showed up to build a seed plant. The creator of glyphosate, whose trademark is Roundup, and one of the world’s leading producers of genetically modified seeds, Monsanto is building one of its biggest plants to process transgenic corn seed in Malvinas Argentinas, this poor community of 15,000 people 17 km east of the capital of the province of Córdoba. The plant was to begin operating in March 2014. But construction work was brought to a halt in October by protests and legal action by local residents, who have been blocking the entrance to the site since Sept. 18. On the morning of Saturday Nov. 30, troops arrived at the plant, as seen in this video posted on Facebook, and escorted several trucks out of the construction site. The trucks had forced their way past the roadblock on Thursday Nov. 28, when members of the construction union stormed into the camp set up by local residents, with the aim of breaking the blockade. More than 20 people were injured in the clash. The protesters don’t like to describe themselves as environmentalists, and do not identify with any specific political party. Most of them are women. Physical symptoms abound in Malvinas In Malvinas Argentinas, one of the poorest districts in the province, everyone knows someone with respiratory problems or allergic reactions that coincide with the spraying of fields around Córdoba, one of the biggest producers of transgenic soy in this South American country, which is the world’s third largest producer of soy. Doctors have also reported a rise in cases of cancer and birth defects. But the final stroke was Monsanto’s plans for a local seed plant. “I’m participating because I’m afraid of illness and death,” María Torres, a local resident, told Tierramérica*. “My son is already sick, and if Monsanto comes things will get worse,” she added, in the midst of a protest that this reporter accompanied in mid-November. Her 13-year-old son was at home, with sinusitis and a nosebleed. “In Malvinas, a lot of people have the same symptoms,” she said. Millions still suffer from poison spraying Most of the spraying is done with Monsanto’s Roundup glyphosate-based weed-killer. According to the University Network for Environment and Health – Physicians in Fumigated Towns, nearly 22 million hectares of soy, corn and other transgenic crops are sprayed in 12 of Argentina’s 23 provinces, whose towns are homes to some 12 million of the country’s nearly 42 million people. Eli Leiria was also in the protest march. She is suffering from problems like weight loss. Doctors found glyphosate in her blood. “They say it’s as if a tornado had hit my body,” she said. Biologist Raúl Montenegro of the National University of Córdoba, who won the Right Livelihood Award or Alternative Nobel Prize in 2004, explained to Tierramérica that there was no official monitoring of morbidity and mortality to determine whether the growing health problems observed by doctors are the effect of pesticides. Nor are there adequate controls of pesticide levels in the blood, or environmental monitoring to detect traces in water tanks, for example, added Montenegro, president of the Environment Defence Foundation (FUNAM). “That makes Argentina, and Brazil too, a paradise” for companies like Monsanto, he said. The state agencies that authorise the use of pesticides base their decisions “mainly on technical reports and data from the companies themselves,” he said. In 2009, Argentine President Cristina Fernández created the National Commission for Research on Agrochemicals, to study, prevent and treat their effects on human health and the environment. Argentina a ‘paradise’ for GM crops But Argentina is also a “paradise” for transgenic crops, whose authorisation depends on “technical information mainly provided by the biotechnology corporations,” Montenegro said. A plant that produces genetically modified seeds “is not a bread factory…they make poison,” said schoolteacher Matías Marizza of the Malvinas Assembly Fighting for Life. Montenegro complained that the Córdoba Secretariat of the Environment authorised construction of the plant without taking into account studies by an independent interdisciplinary commission. In the case of transgenic crops, there are “external pesticides,” like the ones that are sprayed on the fields, and pesticides “that come from inside the seeds,” such as the Cry1Ab protein in Monsanto’s MON810 GM maize, said Montenegro. Each MON810 corn seed contains between 190 and 390 ng/g of the protein, whose impacts on health and biodiversity are not clear. “In Canada it was found that pregnant and non-pregnant women had insecticide protein in their blood,” added the biologist, saying this runs counter to Monsanto’s claim that the proteins are degraded in the digestive tract. According to a study by the University Network, the seeds to be processed by the plant in Malvinas Argentinas will be impregnated with substances such as propoxur, deltamethrin, pirimiphos ethyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, metalaxyl and especially clothianidin, an insecticide banned by the European Union. Plant construction blocked by five camps For now, the Monsanto plant construction site is blocked by five camps, where men and women – some there with their children – take turns keeping the trucks out. Daniela Pérez, a mother of five, told Tierramérica that “this was a quiet town,” where people barely complained about problems like the lack of paved roads. “Now what is at stake is the health of the children,” she said. “We feel so impotent…there is no one defending us.” Soledad Escobar has four children who attend a school located next to the lot where the plant is being built. “I’m worried about the silos and the chemical products they use,” she said. “Because of the changes in the climate, it’s now windy year-round in Córdoba and the school is right next door – I live across the street.” Another protester, Beba Figueroa, said “What the TV and newspapers are saying, that there are political parties involved in this, isn’t true…most of us are mothers who are scared for our children.” The demonstrators said many local residents were not taking part out of fear of losing their municipal jobs and the social assistance they receive from the government. The protest that Tierramérica accompanied from the town square to the camps had a festive atmosphere, with colourful murga musical theatre groups, typical of the Argentine and Uruguayan carnival – a sharp contrast with the tension and violent clashes that would break out a few days later. Like other people in this impoverished district, Matías Mansilla, his wife and their baby came out to the doorway of their humble home to watch the “carnival for life”. Mansilla didn’t take part, but he said he supports the cause “because of the illnesses that have appeared.” A survey by two universities and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) found that 87 percent of respondents in Malvinas Argentinas wanted a plebiscite to be held, to let voters decide whether the Monsanto plant should be built, while 58 percent were opposed to the factory. Neither the provincial government nor the company responded to Tierramérica’s request for an interview. On its website, Monsanto claims it is committed to “sustainable agriculture.” A communiqué issued in September stated that the company had the “necessary permits” from the local authorities in Malvinas Argentinas for the construction of the plant, and that the environmental impact assessment was being studied by the provincial government. Monsanto complained about “dirty campaigns that manipulate the technical data to generate fear…and lies, in the name of environmentalism…that mask spurious interests.” In April, the provincial high court dismissed a request for protective measures, presented by local residents in an attempt to block construction of the plant. In the last few months, the police have cracked down on the protesters on several occasions. The demonstrators have also received threats. Malvinas Argentinas forms part of a growing global movement against Monsanto. The protests in this district have drawn up to 8,000 people, Marizza said. And it’s no wonder, he added: “The monster is right on top of us.” By Fabiana Frayssinet. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. More on GM: Help stop the Monsanto frankenseed factory here. Big Island councilwoman introducing new bill to ban genetically-modified crops. More that you may like:China announces carbon taxSolar panels power world's first off-grid toll plazaCLIMATE CHANGE ROLLING IN: Part 1 – Now & going forwardNigerian woman weaves wonders from water weedsShare this:GoogleFacebookTwitterLinkedInMoreEmailPrintPinterest

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FIJI: Typhoon Evan affects exports Produce exports to Australia and New Zealand are sluggish but show signs of gradually improving. This is the comment from Michael Brown, the CEO of the produce farmers’ co-operative, Nature’s Way Co-operative. “For example, some of our biggest papaya producers were badly hit by the floods in 2012 and Tropical Cyclone Evan last year and are struggling to get back to pre-disaster production levels,” he said. “We have provided export stimulus packages to assist regrowth and production but life has been quite difficult for the bigger producers.” Mr Brown said exports of eggplant, papaya and mangoes were sustaining Nature’s Way’s operations although throughput fell far below previous years’ export quotas. “We used to export 60 tonnes a week and now we are hovering at between 15 to 20 tonnes. “Last month we exported 85 tonnes of papaya, mangoes for pickles and eggplants, so there is a slow but steady increase as producers are beginning to show signs of recovery from recent natural disasters.” Papaya, one of the country’s most promising exports, shot from $700,000 in 2010 to $6million the following year. A bumper crop that was promised for the 2012 season was literally wiped out after floods destroyed about 90 per cent of plants in the Sigatoka Valley, the biggest papaya-producing area in the country. Nature’s Way, along with government and donor agencies including Bula Agro Enterprises, Taiwan Trade Mission and the Sigatoka Research Station, provided more than 41,000 seedlings to bolster production in the aftermath of the floods. These, however, were also affected when TC Evan struck in December last year. Fruits News, News

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HomeOp-Edge Organic food for Christmas from Russia Dr Alexander Yakovenko, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Deputy foreign minister (2005-2011). Follow him on Twitter @Amb_Yakovenko © Jorge Adorno / Reuters In his state of the nation speech on December 3 in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin said, “We can not only feed ourselves, Russia can become an important global supplier of healthy, organic and high-quality food, especially since the global demand for such products is showing a steady growth.” According to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM), in 2000-2014 global organic food output grew almost five times from $18bn to $100 billion, year-on-year growth amounted to 10 to 12 per cent; if this trend remains by 2020 the market will reach $200-250 billion. At the same time, it is noteworthy that, according to the US Department of Agriculture, the share of organic food production in the US amounts to less than three per cent of total agricultural output, in various countries of the EU it totals one to seven per cent. Putin wants Russia to become world's organic food superpower but first hopes to clip Turkey's wings Today many foods have emerged on the Russian market labeled ‘bio’, ‘eco’ and ‘organic’.Low-impact sustainable agriculture in Russia began in 1989 when the first national Alternative Agriculture program was launched. In 1994 Russia began exports of certified organic buckwheat to Europe. Today the formation of Russia’s market for organic and ecologically safe food is in full swing. A number of regions are actively taking up this type of production. Today Russia provides organic buckwheat and wild berries to Europe and the US.Experts suggest Russia’s clean environment and huge land resources will facilitate a faster development than in the West of an organic food market in the country. Such production uses no genetic engineering (GMO), hormones, antibiotics, chemical fertilizers or pesticides, no food additives. According to IFOAM, the size of Russia’s organic food market is about $80-100 million, or 0.2 percent of all Russian-produced food. Average annual growth is expected at 22-25 percent.Experts assess Russia’s capability to comply with international standards and compete in the global eco-food market as quite high. This is so due to the following reasons:• Specific Russian crops are rarely grown in the West or not grown at all; certain traditional crops – wild berries, mushrooms, cedar nuts, medicinal plants – have no parallels elsewhere.• Russia’s food production regulations, including a ban on the use of GMOs, are more rigorous than those in the West. The amount of mineral fertilizers and pesticides used in Russia is tens of times less than in many Western countries, for instance, 11 times less than in the US, 23 times less than in China.• Huge land resources: eco-safe systems can be introduced in vast areas. The larger the territory, the more diverse is the native flora and fauna and the more resilient to man-made interference is the bio-community.Food certification bodies have been established in Russia; national organic farming regulations, which take full account of international requirements, have been put in place and are being constantly improved. In 2004 Eco-control started – a national organic farming and sustainable land use certification body. In March 2013 a national Union for Organic Agriculture started its work to support and develop eco-food production. Ecologically safe fruit and vegetables and dairy are the fastest-growing segments of the organic industry in Russia. A sector of country food, produce that fully satisfies ‘bio’, ‘eco’ and ‘organic’ standards, is emerging on the Russian market.The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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The History Of Tea From India Tea consumption in India has a long history, South Asians viewed tea as an herbal medicine rather than as a recreational beverage. Although commercially, tea is being cultivated in India is relatively recently - within the second half of the 19th century. However, in the foothills of the Himalayas in the north and north-eastern regions of country, tea trees grew before the arrival of the British. For centuries, tea has not been cultivated but only gathered from wild trees. There is a legend that British merchants transported a few tea bushes from China and planted them in the plains of India, by the time they occupied and colonized by Britain. From those few bushes, started a global cultivation of tea in India and Ceylon. It happened in the thirties of the 19th century when the British East India Company became concerned about the Chinese monopoly on tea that constituted most of its trade and supported the enormous consumption of tea in Great Britain. After the first successful experience in 1863, the British East India Company brought to India a large batch of germs and after 10 years of hard work, the tea plantations give the first crop. In 1870, over 90% of the tea consumed in Great Britain was still of Chinese origin but by 1900, this had dropped to 10%, largely replaced by tea grown in India and Ceylon. Success has created several companies, many of which still sell tea and are known throughout the world. India's success on the international market is mainly due to accommodating the special English taste for strong tea, adequate for chalky water.High quality tea in India is growing on mountain slopes which are very steep (up to 70 degrees). Plantations are located on terraces which rings encircle the mountain slopes. These high quality grades of tea gather exclusively by women and only manually. The tea plucking process takes place usually at the break of dawn. Manufacturers are trying to make tea of the highest class, twisted leaf tea and no broken leaves. There are two main areas of growth of Indian tea: Darjeeling and Assam. Important cultivation areas are, apart from Darjeeling and Assam:Dooars - west of Assam, mainly production of CTC teas.Nilgiri - South Indian tea district, fresh teas, similar to those of Sri LankaSikkim - north east of Darjeeling, high-quality teasTerrai - south of Darjeeling, similar to Darjeeling, somewhat more herb in taste. Today India is the second largest producer of quality black tea and the first one of the middle and low-grade "bulk" teas, CTC. A large portion of this "simple" tea stays in the country; locals are very fond of drinking tea (a modest 750 grams per person a year), it is quite different in Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Although these countries are close neighbors, the locals hardly drink tea, and the entire Ceylon crop is exported. A small proportion of green teas are produced in India as well and mainly for Japan that buys simpler varieties to add them to their own production. Assam is a tea district in Northern India across the Brahmaputra. It is the largest connected tea growing region in the world. The plateau with highly arable rainforest soil contains a lot of humidity due to the prevailing monsoon winds. The local climatic conditions, especially rainfall, create a greenhouse effect which positively affects the quality of tea leaf. Tea plants are cultivated in tea gardens on large cultivatable land of up to 1,000 hectares. There are about 2,000 plantations in Assam. Assam tea is generally heavy and spicy, dark in the cup. It is the main component of the classical English and East Frisian blends which are prepared for water with high chalk contents and are usually drunk with milk and sugar. Since the appearance of the young tea traders on the international market, especially from Africa, Assam was largely driven out of this market by the cheaper tea varieties. Harvesting PeriodsMid April to Late May: First Flush. These qualities are of rather little economic significance for the European or US market. These teas are mostly aromatically fresh, light and of rather tart character. For this reason they do not meet the traditional Assam features.Early June/Mid August: Second Flush. The second flush, harvested in June/August, before the large monsoon rain starts, is highly demanded. Assam teas from the second plucking period are of greater relevance in terms of quality and the export business. These qualities are often very “colored” in tips, with a pouring that is mostly very dark and has a typical strong, full-spicy and malty character. The oldest tea gardens in Assam were founded in 1832-33 by English trade agencies. In 1839, the first Assam tea appeared in a London action. The Assam region is bordered by China, Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh. Assam is one of the most beautiful places in the world and in all respects, is one of the best places for the cultivation of black tea. Darjeeling is a region in the North-Eastern India, located at the southern slopes of the Himalaya Mountains. Darjeeling is the most famous tea region of India. Tea gardens are located at altitudes of up to 2,600 meters above sea level on an area of 20 thousand hectares and produce the most exquisite types in the world. Darjeeling borders with China and Bhutan. The special microclimate of the region is ideal for growing elite types of tea also called “champagne of tea”. Black Orthodox tea from Darjeeling (Indians pronounce the name with the accent on the second syllable) are considered one of the most delicate and fragrant teas in the world, competing with the best Chinese varieties and very often surpassing them. The unique taste of tea from Darjeeling is highly valued by tea lovers and experienced connoisseurs. The best tea grows in the coldest part of the terrain, at an altitude of 2,600 meters. The color of the infusion is deep burgundy with a green tint. Harvesting PeriodsMarch-May: First Flush is in March, as soon as the weather is good after the end of the vegetation break, the first soft leaves and buds of the first period are plucked. The characteristics of a good F.F. Darjeeling are a lively fresh, delightful flowery aroma and a honey color of the infusion. This tea is sold at auctions, and prices are several times higher than the subsequent charges from the same plantation.May-June: In between crop – the qualified “trailer” of the first flush season does have a particular connection with the first touches of the second flush period. The leaves and the infusion are already turning darker and the diversity of the flavors varies from full-bodied to slightly aromatic. The In-between is often used as a profitable blend-quality. Due to the high demand, the prices are not as cheap.June-July: Second Flush. The summer crop is the summit in a crop year. The tea leaves develop more aroma by the longer exposure to sun. The most important quality features of a classical S.F. tea are dark brown leafs with golden tips and the color of infusion is soft amber. Taste is full-bodied with a distinctive nutmeg note. The second collection is no less interesting and appreciated by connoisseurs, sometimes higher than the first crop.October-November: Autumnal crop. After another period of rain in late summer and until the vegetation lull in November, fully aromatic but somewhat mild teas are plucked.Nilgiri is one of the major tea regions of India, located in the south of the country, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. The tea gardens in Nilgiri are small compared to plantations in Assam. Tea in Nilgiri is cultivated on altitudes between 800-2,000 meters above the sea level. Tea plantations are surrounded by snow-covered mountains and luxuriant growing jungle. In 1840, the first tea seedlings had been planted, thanks to good climatic conditions, the seedlings became well acclimated and the basis for future plantations.Nilgiri takes second place in India in volume of black tea production. Frequent monsoon rains, high average annual temperatures, allow the great cultivation of tea all year. Tea gathers unite in Nilgiri twice a year: in spring (April-May) and second flush in autumn (September-December), the best being the spring collection. The Nilgiri tea is a main component of so-called English blend. The tea of these regions is full-bodied, with a bright infusion, mild taste and can be distinguished by a fresh citrus scent which is reminiscent of the Ceylon high-growns. Most of the Indian tea is used for mixtures or blends. Different companies make a blend for a large consignment of tea, which is then packaged and sent to consumers. Naturally, the composition of blends from time to time changes, so there is a practice such as a sampling of tea. Similar to the in the selection of wine, tasting is needed prior to purchase of product in order to understand which tea is the best. There are companies (mostly British) that have their own tea testers in the tea factories located in India, whose main task is to monitor the quality and stability of tea taste, regardless of the crop. To do such, they select from several tea plantations and make trial blends, the best of them becomes a model for the party. There are four varieties of Indian tea that is sold unblended: Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri (also used in blends) and Sikkim. Sikkim Tea is a new variety introduced in late 1980, but has already won the position on the market of tea. This delicious and sweet tea is reminiscent to the taste of Darjeeling tea and Assamese tea aroma. One can say that it occupies an intermediate position between these two titans.Black tea from India can be brewed in several ways. Brewing methods of tea depends on its type and grade. Chinese method: more loose leaf tea leaves and less time of brewing, English method: 1 tsp of tea leaves per 6oz cup and a long (3-5 minutes) brewing process, or Indian method: very strong tea infusion, hot milk and a lot of sugar. All three methods have their unique characteristics, and each way is good for its type of tea. The Chinese way is suitable for any Indian tea, but best of all, it reveals aromas of delicate high grade tea varieties such as teas Darjeeling. The English method does not allow steeping the tea more than twice. If you prefer to drink tea, as it is loved in England, with milk or cream, then pour the cream into a cup prior to the tea slightly heated. Fine broken leaf grades are very popular in India, where English tradition of drinking tea with milk has spread in a transformed way. Brewing using the Indian style is a very intense brewing method. Tea leaves are steeped with hot milk, water and a lot of sugar. Then the infusion is poured from one tall glass into another to create the appearance of abundant foam. This very thick drink, with a nice color, can hardly be called tea; however, the Indians are very fond of it and consumed in large quantities. This method is also used to prepare a strong tea with milk and spices called Masala Chai. Some of the chai masala spice mixtures are still in current use are derived from Ayurvedic medical texts.ESP Emporium offers an amazing selection of black tea – the most popular drink in the world. Vast selection of high quality tea from India presents all the most magnificent types from Darjeeling and Assam, First and Second Flush, pure and blended. Worth to give it a try!

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|Animal Health,Cattle,Dairy,News,Renewables TB ranked as greatest constraint for dairy farmers The initial findings of the most comprehensive survey of dairy farmers were released at the Royal Welsh Show today with responses indicating a 20% rise in milk production over the next five years, but TB was still ranked as their greatest concern for the future.When asked about constraints to their enterprises, TB was ranked as the greatest constraint across all herd sizes, regions and age groups. Over 50% (943) of Welsh dairy farmers responded to the survey, which was carried out at the beginning of this year and contains feedback from dairy farms of all sizes and locations. In terms of future activity, 52% of respondents intend to increase milk production over the next five years, 38% expect to remain the same with 5% don’t knows and only 5% either decreasing or exiting the industry. Larger herds are the most likely to increase production with 65% of farms with 200 or more cows intending to grow. Age was also found to be a factor with 73% of farmers under 40 looking to expand.Conversely the smallest herds are least likely to grow, and only 36% of farmers aged between 60-65 planned to increase production. Surprisingly some 50% of farmers over 65 suggested they intended to increase production, which may possibly be due to family members coming back to the farm.Based on the survey current milk production in Wales is calculated to be around 1.5 billion litres. However, provisional figures for 2013/14 indicate the figure to be 1.67 billion litres.Based on the intentions from those farmers surveyed it is estimated production will increase by around 20% in the next five years. The vast majority of this increase in milk volume (85%) will come from the 200 plus cow herds.This proposed increase in milk supply is likely to boost demand for calving down heifers as there appears to be insufficient young stock reared in Wales to cover replacement needs in herds with 200 plus cows.The majority of respondents (73%) follow an all year round calving policy, with 10% mainly autumn calving, 7% in spring and 10% implementing a mix of spring and autumn calving.On the question of renewable energy, a quarter of respondents have already invested in the technology with a further 14% planning to invest over the next five years. So far, those with larger herds have engaged more with renewable energy - the most popular forms being photovoltaic/PV panels and wind power followed by biomass or solar thermal.The survey found less than 5% of dairy farmers intend to leave the industry over the next five years, with almost 80% of them having less than 99 cows.Other issues varied between herd sizes, with price volatility an area of concern for herds below 500 cows; availability of land is critical to medium size dairy units, while herd health and environmental legislation ranked highly for the largest farms. Of lesser concern to those with fewer than 200 cows were capital investment and labour, while for larger herds CAP and price volatility are of least importance.Awareness of the Glastir Scheme is high, but uptake is relatively low at 30%, with many respondents not interested or finding it conflicts with their farm system. The greatest uptake is in North Wales.Organic producers represented 5% of respondents of which 95% intend to remain organic for the next five years, but there was no interest shown by non-organic farmers to convert to organic production. Training and advice events are popular with 71% of respondents having attended at least one event in the last year – the most popular being those held on-farm, along with discussion group.John Griffiths, Coleg Sir Gâr’s Dairy Development Centre Manager said: “This is the most comprehensive survey carried out on Welsh dairy farming and we are delighted with the response from across Wales. “The initial findings make interesting reading and we are looking forward to analysing the data further. The results so far clearly identify the need for further targeted support for dairy producers in Wales. “It is exciting to see that the industry has ambition to expand production by 20% in the next five years.”

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Almond industry puts bee health front and center Jan 05, 2017 Duvall: Agriculture gains clout to address over regulation, labor needs Jan 10, 2017 Western food supply safer since 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach Jan 04, 2017 New HLB positive tree found in urban Cerritos, Calif. Jan 02, 2017 Regulatory>Legislative EPA proposal expands Clean Water Act regulation Proposed EPA guidance significantly expands the regulatory scope of "waters of the U.S." bringing with it costly implementation across all Clean Water Act programs. USA Rice | Aug 06, 2012 Proposed EPA guidance significantly expands the regulatory scope of "waters of the U.S.," bringing with it broad, costly implementation throughout all Clean Water Act (CWA) programs, USA Rice Federation and 48 other agricultural and agribusiness organizations said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt (R-Va.) and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It is extremely important to prevent EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from narrowing the CWA exemption Congress explicitly intended for farmers and ranchers, the letter said. Hurt is the sponsor of H.R. 4278, the Preserving Rural Resources Act of 2012, which the committee approved today. H.R. 4278 would reinforce the agricultural exemptions granted to farmers and ranchers by Congress in Section 404 of the CWA, the letter says. Section 404 declares federal policy for waters of the United States, which has evolved over the years to include regulation of wetlands. "Without these important protections, agriculture, forestry and ranching will face significantly more federal regulatory and permitting burdens, compliance costs, delays, and constraints on use of land for the production of food, fiber and fuel," the organizations said. "It was never the intent of Congress to impose these regulatory burdens on our sectors." Examples of EPA Clean Water Act restrictions that have limited farmers from conducting normal farming operations include stopping them from building farm ponds for stock watering and irrigation and regulating the equipment farmers use to plow and the depth at which agricultural-related plowing occurs.

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Home > USDA chief: Rural America becoming less relevant USDA chief: Rural America becoming less relevant In this July 18, 2012, file photo, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talks about the drought during a press briefing at the White House in Washington. WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It’s "becoming less and less relevant," he says. A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he’s frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights. "It’s time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America," Vilsack said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the Farm Journal. "It’s time for a different thought process here, in my view." He said rural America’s biggest assets — the food supply, recreational areas and energy, for example — can be overlooked by people elsewhere as the U.S. population shifts more to cities, their suburbs and exurbs. "Why is it that we don’t have a farm bill?" said Vilsack. "It isn’t just the differences of policy. It’s the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it." For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states. The Agriculture Department says about 50 percent of rural counties have lost population in the past four years and poverty rates are higher there than in metropolitan areas, despite the booming agricultural economy. Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks found that rural voters accounted for just 14 percent of the turnout in last month’s election, with 61 percent of them supporting Republican Mitt Romney and 37 percent backing President Barack Obama. Two-thirds of those rural voters said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals. Vilsack criticized farmers who have embraced wedge issues such as regulation, citing the uproar over the idea that the Environmental Protection Agency was going to start regulating farm dust after the Obama administration said repeatedly it had no so such intention. In his Washington speech, he also cited criticism of a proposed Labor Department regulation, later dropped, that was intended to keep younger children away from the most dangerous farm jobs, and criticism of egg producers for dealing with the Humane Society on increasing the space that hens have in their coops. Livestock producers fearing they will be the next target of animal rights advocates have tried to undo that agreement. "We need a proactive message, not a reactive message," Vilsack said. "How are you going to encourage young people to want to be involved in rural America or farming if you don’t have a proactive message? Because you are competing against the world now." John Weber, a pork producer in Dysart, Iowa, said Friday that farmers have to defend their industries against policies they see as unfair. He said there is great concern among pork producers that animal welfare groups are using unfair tactics and may hurt their business. "Our role is to defend our producers and our industry in what we feel are issues important to us," he said. Weber agreed, though, that rural America is declining in influence. He said he is concerned that there are not enough lawmakers from rural areas and complained that Congress doesn’t understand farm issues. He added that the farm industry needs to communicate better with consumers. "There’s a huge communication gap" between farmers and the food-eating public, he said. Vilsack, who has made the revitalization of rural America a priority, encouraged farmers to embrace new kinds of markets, work to promote global exports and replace a "preservation mindset with a growth mindset." He said they also need to embrace diversity because it is an issue important to young people who are leaving rural areas. "We’ve got something to market here," he said. "We’ve got something to be proactive about. Let’s spend our time and our resources and our energy doing that and I think if we do we’re going to have a lot of young people who want to be part of that future." ___ More On: Source URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2012/12/usda_chief_rural_america_becoming_less_relevant Links:[1] http://www.bostonherald.com/topic/usda [2] http://www.bostonherald.com/2012/12/tom_vilsack [3] http://www.bostonherald.com/topic/rural_america

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2017 Farm and Gin Show: A first look at all that’s new Know cost of growing a bushel ‘to the cent’ Jan 13, 2017 Farmers seeking real safety net in next farm bill Jan 13, 2017 Tips for negotiating new farmland leases Jan 12, 2017 Crops>Rice Rice: fill up… not out! New study finds this popular grain really satisfies USA Rice Federation | Jun 28, 2012 New research shows that a side dish of white and brown rice might add more than delicious flavor and nutrition to meals. In fact, results of this study presented today at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting, show that white or brown rice provide a high level of satisfaction and fullness, which is important for people trying to control calories, while still enjoying their food. In the first-ever human clinical study to look at the impact of brown and white rice on satiety, or fullness, researchers at the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota compared markers of satiety among 20 normal weight adult men and women who compared the feeling of fullness of 400-calorie breakfast meals of white or brown rice against a 400-calorie standard glucose solution control. Each subject ate three test breakfasts on different occasions, after which researchers assessed hunger and satiety for up to four hours after eating. The results show that satiety differed significantly among the test breakfasts, with increased satisfaction and fullness seen with both white and brown rice compared to glucose beverage. “Our results show that white and brown rice provide fullness or satiety, which indicates that either choice can be a great addition to meals or as a snack, as satisfaction can make it easier to control calories,” explained Snow Wang, a research scientist at the University of Minnesota who conducted the study. Further, there were no differences in the satiety values of white and brown rice, suggesting that both can be part of a healthy, balanced, calorie-controlled diet.” New foodservice ad promotes healthy rice meals Rice eaters are healthy eaters This study adds to the growing body of science, including two previous published studies that also show that individuals who consume rice are less likely to be overweight, and have smaller waist circumferences and overall healthier diets compared to individuals who do not eat rice. Rice is a smart choice for the millions of Americans who are struggling to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. A half-cup cooked serving of rice has only 100 calories. As rice is usually eaten with other healthy foods, like vegetables, fruits, lean meats and beans, it can help promote a healthy, balanced diet. In fact, a study presented in April at Experimental Biology 2012, in San Diego, showed eating white or brown rice helps improve diet and manage weight and other risk factors for disease. The research, done at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition, was based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2008, and revealed that people who eat rice, including adults and children, consume significantly more folic acid, iron, potassium, vitamins B6, B12, A and D, and consume a lower percentage of calories from fat and saturated fat. In addition, brown rice is a 100 percent whole grain food and white rice is enriched with important nutrients including iron, and fortified with folic acid. “There are many benefits to eating rice at meals,” says Anne Banville, vice president, domestic promotion, USA Rice Federation. “It’s delicious, versatile, nutritious and, now, we know it might help with weight management. It’s no surprise that populations in countries that eat the most rice are often the leanest and among the healthiest in the world. Rice is also a budget-friendly food, costing just 10 cents per serving.” The research was supported by The Rice Foundation.

农业

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The Opinion Pages|Math Lessons for Locavores The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Contributor Math Lessons for Locavores By STEPHEN BUDIANSKYAUG. 19, 2010 Leesburg, Va.IT’S 42 steps from my back door to the garden that keeps my family supplied nine months of the year with a modest cornucopia of lettuce, beets, spinach, beans, tomatoes, basil, corn, squash, brussels sprouts, the occasional celeriac and, once when I was feeling particularly energetic, a couple of small but undeniable artichokes. You’ll get no argument from me about the pleasures and advantages to the palate and the spirit of eating what’s local, fresh and in season.But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without any real scientific basis, are repeated as gospel by “locavores,” celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental organizations. Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use.The result has been all kinds of absurdities. For instance, it is sinful in New York City to buy a tomato grown in a California field because of the energy spent to truck it across the country; it is virtuous to buy one grown in a lavishly heated greenhouse in, say, the Hudson Valley.The statistics brandished by local-food advocates to support such doctrinaire assertions are always selective, usually misleading and often bogus. This is particularly the case with respect to the energy costs of transporting food. One popular and oft-repeated statistic is that it takes 36 (sometimes it’s 97) calories of fossil fuel energy to bring one calorie of iceberg lettuce from California to the East Coast. That’s an apples and oranges (or maybe apples and rocks) comparison to begin with, because you can’t eat petroleum or burn iceberg lettuce. Continue reading the main story It is also an almost complete misrepresentation of reality, as those numbers reflect the entire energy cost of producing lettuce from seed to dinner table, not just transportation. Studies have shown that whether it’s grown in California or Maine, or whether it’s organic or conventional, about 5,000 calories of energy go into one pound of lettuce. Given how efficient trains and tractor-trailers are, shipping a head of lettuce across the country actually adds next to nothing to the total energy bill. It takes about a tablespoon of diesel fuel to move one pound of freight 3,000 miles by rail; that works out to about 100 calories of energy. If it goes by truck, it’s about 300 calories, still a negligible amount in the overall picture. (For those checking the calculations at home, these are “large calories,” or kilocalories, the units used for food value.) Overall, transportation accounts for about 14 percent of the total energy consumed by the American food system.Other favorite targets of sustainability advocates include the fertilizers and chemicals used in modern farming. But their share of the food system’s energy use is even lower, about 8 percent. The real energy hog, it turns out, is not industrial agriculture at all, but you and me. Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far.A single 10-mile round trip by car to the grocery store or the farmers’ market will easily eat up about 14,000 calories of fossil fuel energy. Just running your refrigerator for a week consumes 9,000 calories of energy. That assumes it’s one of the latest high-efficiency models; otherwise, you can double that figure. Cooking and running dishwashers, freezers and second or third refrigerators (more than 25 percent of American households have more than one) all add major hits. Indeed, households make up for 22 percent of all the energy expenditures in the United States.Agriculture, on the other hand, accounts for just 2 percent of our nation’s energy usage; that energy is mainly devoted to running farm machinery and manufacturing fertilizer. In return for that quite modest energy investment, we have fed hundreds of millions of people, liberated tens of millions from backbreaking manual labor and spared hundreds of millions of acres for nature preserves, forests and parks that otherwise would have come under the plow.Don’t forget the astonishing fact that the total land area of American farms remains almost unchanged from a century ago, at a little under a billion acres, even though those farms now feed three times as many Americans and export more than 10 times as much as they did in 1910.The best way to make the most of these truly precious resources of land, favorable climates and human labor is to grow lettuce, oranges, wheat, peppers, bananas, whatever, in the places where they grow best and with the most efficient technologies — and then pay the relatively tiny energy cost to get them to market, as we do with every other commodity in the economy. Sometimes that means growing vegetables in your backyard. Sometimes that means buying vegetables grown in California or Costa Rica.Eating locally grown produce is a fine thing in many ways. But it is not an end in itself, nor is it a virtue in itself. The relative pittance of our energy budget that we spend on modern farming is one of the wisest energy investments we can make, when we honestly look at what it returns to our land, our economy, our environment and our well-being. Stephen Budiansky is the author of the blog liberalcurmudgeon.com. A version of this op-ed appears in print on August 20, 2010, on Page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: Math Lessons for Locavores. Today's Paper|Subscribe

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Retail Ahold USA promotes longtime produce veteran By Doug Ohlemeier Ahold USA Inc. has appointed an industry veteran to head its produce and floral divisions. The Carlisle, Pa.-based Ahold USA promoted David Lessard as its vice president of produce and floral. In his new role, based in Carlisle, Lessard will be responsible for leading, directing, designing and approving category management business plans and portfolio plans for the Netherlands-based Ahold NV’s U.S. produce and floral operations, according to a news release. With more than 25 years of experience in managing and directing produce and floral in the store and in corporate, Lessard most recently served as Ahold USA’s director of produce. Before joining Ahold USA in 2010, Lessard served in management positions with Ahold USA’s Landover, Md.-based Giant Food LLC, also known as Giant-Landover, and Ahold’s A&P/Pathmark divisions, including senior director of produce & floral for the Montvale, N.J.-based Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Ahold USA operates U.S. and European supermarkets including the Stop & Shop New England, Stop & Shop New York Metro, Giant Landover and Giant Carlisle divisions. ahold usa promotes longtime produce veteran About the Author: Doug Ohlemeier Doug Ohlemeier, who has written for The Packer since 2001, serves as eastern editor, a position he has held since August 2006. He started at The Packer as a staff writer after working for nearly a decade in commodity promotion at the Kansas Wheat Commission, where he was a marketing specialist. Doug worked in radio and television news writing, producing and reporting for seven years in Texas, Missouri and Nebraska. He graduated from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, in 1984, with a bachelor of science degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in history. He earned a master’s in corporate communications from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, in 1991. In college, he served as a news editor of the daily O’Collegian newspaper and interned in radio and television news departments. View All Posts

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Berks County- home sweet home for bald eagles Posted on April 18, 2013 by tinaevangelistaeppenstein A bald eagle’s nest As my husband and I were driving in Cumru Township, Pennsylvania recently, we spotted a bird’s nest nestled in a large tree approximately 100 yards from the road. This particular bird’s nest was located in the top portion of the tree. The nest was quite large and noticeable. We knew immediately it was a bald eagle’s nest. It isn’t something you see everyday, but when you do, one doesn’t forget it. An eagle’s nest is the largest of any North American bird, up to 13 feet (4 m) deep, 8.2 feet (2.5 m) wide, and 1.1 tons in weight! Part of the reason the nests weigh so much is because the pair builds it with large branches and each year they add more to the nest. The interior is usually lined with their feathers. I had contacted Jack Holcomb of Jack’s Backyard heard on WEEU to inquire about this nest. He confirmed it was indeed an eagle’s nest. Jack is a respected radio host and active bird enthusiast. There is a fascination over bald eagle’s nests not only for bird enthusiasts but for many people. Part of the fascination may be derived because of the scarcity of bald eagle’s nests in Pennsylvania. In Berks County there are five known active bald eagle nests, according to John Morgan, Ph. D., Wildlife Management Supervisor, Southeast Region, Pennsylvania Game Commission. “Eagles are doing well in PA but the recovery has been slow.” “Back in the 1980’s, only three eagle nests were known to exist in the entire state. We’re up to around 200 now but that took 30 years”, says Morgan. So when one hears about a bald eagle’s nest, the public clamors to get a closer look. Such was the case in Lancaster County. A few years ago, an eagle’s nest was spotted in Lancaster County where my husband and I ventured out to see it in person. The nest was located in an area that was not populated by many homes which is typically where eagles build their nests. The area surrounding the tree was taped off to the public. However, people disregarded the tape. Because eagles are quite sensitive to human disturbance while nesting, the eagles left their nest.That’s why I personally won’t disclose the latest location. Interestingly, bald eagles are no longer on the Federally Endangered List but are still on the Threatened list in Pennsylvania. Mr. Morgan says the hope is that some day they will be taken off that list as well. For me personally, seeing a bald eagle is quite fascinating. For one, the bald eagle is one of the largest birds in North America. It has a wing span of 5.9 ft- 7.5 ft! It is our national symbol and it appears on its seal. The bald eagle was chosen as the emblem of the United States of America in 1782, because of its long life, great strength and majestic looks, and also because it was then believed to exist only on this continent. If you look at the backs of gold coins, the silver dollar, the half dollar and the quarter, you will see an eagle with outspread wings. On the Great Seal of the United States and in many places which are exponents of our nation’s authority we see the same emblem. To many, the eagle represents freedom. Living in mountains or flying into valleys or flying into the skies, the eagle is seen as having unlimited freedom. It isn’t commonplace to see bald eagles. If you have the chance to see the male, female or babies, you have witness something special, in my opinion. In Lancaster, I saw my first pair of bald eagles and since then I’ve been quite intrigued. The female is 25% larger than the male. It is quite difficult to differentiate them from each other. Other than size, there is no difference between the two. Eagles typically fledge two chicks each year beginning in late February or early March. Around mid-April to early May, the babies are hatched and fledge in late June to early July. Five years later, those chicks will be mature to fledge chicks of their own, according to John Morgan, Game Commission. I wondered why there has been an increase in bald eagles in Pennsylvania. According to Jack, the banning of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in 1972 has played a role. DDT was the first pesticide for anti-malarial efforts worldwide. DDT is considered controversial. Claims were made that it was a human carcinogen and affected wildlife (raptors). It was felt that it thinned the shells of eagle’s eggs and the chicks were dying as a result of it. By 1972, EPA head, William Ruckelhaus overturned a judge’s decision and placed a ban on DDT. This was considered the first major victory in the environmentalist movement in the U.S. There are still doubts if DDT did in fact affect wildlife or is a human carcinogenic. According to John Morgan, most eagle nests can be found in close proximity to large water bodies. “With the Schuylkill River, Lake Ontelaunee, Blue Marsh, and other lakes and large streams Berks County offers several good nesting sites. This is why nests seem to be popping up in the county, the slow increase in the eagle population, young eagles looking for nesting sites, and good nesting sites in the county.” “The recovery simply is from greater protection of nests sites and successful reproduction.” While we await the arrival of the baby chicks (I don’t know if they’ve hatched at time of this post), I hope readers will remember what Mr. Morgan told me. “All it takes is a few birders getting too close, the adult is spooked off the nest when temperatures are still cold and an egg or young chick doesn’t make it. The bald eagle means a lot even to people who aren’t big birders or outdoor enthusiasts. I get more calls this time of year about bald eagles than anything else. Anybody can identify an adult bald eagle and people are so thrilled when they see one. The eagle is still being protected because their numbers and reproductive output are still not where we’d like them to be. Delisting them would reduce our ability to protect them and could stall their recovery or set it back.” Let’s respect the bald eagle which is considered sacred and if you’re aware of this or any other nest, please keep your distance so nature can take its natural course and we can witness the growing numbers of our nation’s symbol. If you would like to see an eagle’s nest up close and personal, you can watch a webcam that is set up in Florida where you can see what they’re up to http://www.ustream.tv/SouthwestFloridaEagleCam or one in New Jersey at http://www.dukefarms.org/Stewardship/WildlifeCams/eagle-cam/. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged bald eagle, DDT, federally endangered list, Jack Holcomb, John Morgan, PA Game Commission, Ph D, threatened list by tinaevangelistaeppenstein. Bookmark the permalink. 24 thoughts on “Berks County- home sweet home for bald eagles” KJW on April 18, 2013 at 7:33 pm said: That one live stream is awesome!! Reply ↓ Amber on April 18, 2013 at 7:45 pm said: Five nests in Berks County. Awesome! Didn’t know we had that many. DDT did help to kill off the eagles. Reply ↓ Annie on April 18, 2013 at 7:48 pm said: Eagles are amazing to watch. I’m a birder and to see eagles in their nest is delightful. The sheer size of their nest is astounding. I didn’t know their wingspan could go to seven feet. That’s unbelievable. I wish I knew where the site was. I wouldn’t disturb them. I’ve never seen one in all of my years birding. Reply ↓ no name on April 18, 2013 at 7:49 pm said: If people knew where this nest was, they wouldn’t care if they disturbed the eagles. They want to see the eagles at the cost of disrupting them forcing them to leave. I’m glad you didn’t disclose the location. I’d hate to see this threatened bird safe. Reply ↓ no name on April 18, 2013 at 7:52 pm said: The live stream was incredible! You weren’t kidding when you said up close and personal. Reply ↓ Hilary on April 18, 2013 at 7:59 pm said: DDT is dangerous to man and animals. It is bad for the environment. Once they stopped using it, the birds started nesting again with success. Reply ↓ DRG on April 18, 2013 at 8:18 pm said: While eagles are our national symbol, I can’t get past how they kill other animals. It isn’t nice to see. I can’t appreciate them like others do. I love nature but I hate to see how animals kill other animals. They show it on tv and I have to turn off that channel. Reply ↓ RB on April 18, 2013 at 8:31 pm said: Glad to hear eagles are making a comeback in Berks. My hometown! Reply ↓ Elliot on April 18, 2013 at 8:41 pm said: Eagles are beatiful creatures that are to be treated with respect. Unfortunately and so selfishly, some people don’t have the ability or the capacity to understand that you don’t disturb their nesting site. It’s troublesome that people disregarded the tape in Lancaster County. I really am at a loss as to why people would show a display of total disregard and force the eagles to go elsewhere. Hope very few people know about this location and if they do, let the eagles alone. Reply ↓ GD on April 18, 2013 at 11:05 pm said: “The bald eagle recovery is thanks primarily to enforcement of federal laws protecting it from persecution, the banning in the U.S. in 1972 of the use of DDT, which bio-accumulated in eagles and other piscivorous (fish-eating) birds, eventually causing complete reproductive failure through the thinning of their egg shells to the point that eggs simply broke when parent birds tried to incubate them; passage in the same year of the federal Clean Water Act.” Reply ↓ Anonymous on April 19, 2013 at 2:17 pm said: In Cumru Township. My backyard. Wish I knew where it was. I have nevr seen an eagle’s nest. Reply ↓ Annie on April 19, 2013 at 2:18 pm said: I listen to Jack on Saturday. He knows his stuff regarding birds! Good man, too! Reply ↓ Gigli on April 19, 2013 at 2:20 pm said: It’s pathetic that we can’t even trust to tell people where the nests for fear of destroying them. What does that say about us? Not very much. Hope the chicks hatch and will be safe. Reply ↓ Marcia Z on April 19, 2013 at 2:21 pm said: Forty years ago, our national symbol was in danger of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat destruction and degradation, illegal shooting, and the contamination of its food source, largely as a consequence of DDT, decimated the eagle population. Habitat protection afforded by the Endangered Species Act, the federal government’s banning of DDT, and conservation actions taken by the American public have helped bald eagles make a remarkable recovery can’t believe what’s happening in Boston. No one is safe. Reply ↓ Naana8146 on April 19, 2013 at 2:28 pm said: But by 1960 – 20 years after the Bald Eagle Protection Act and at the peak of DDT use – the Audubon Society reported counting 25 percent more eagles than in its pre-1941 census. U.S. Forest Service studies reported an increase in nesting bald eagle productivity from 51 in 1964 to 107 in 1970, according to the 1970 Annual Report on Bald Eagle Status. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attributed bald eagle population reductions to a “widespread loss of suitable habitat,” but noted that “illegal shooting continues to be the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles,” according to a 1978 report in the Endangered Species Tech Bulletin Reply ↓ gjr on April 19, 2013 at 11:43 pm said: “Only a handful of species have fought their way back from the United States’ endangered species list; the California gray whale, the American alligator, and the bald eagle are a few. Once endangered in all of the lower 48 states, the bald eagle’s status was upgraded to “threatened” in 1995, two decades after the banning of DDT and the passing of laws to protect both eagles and their nesting trees.” Reply ↓ Mr. Baldie on April 19, 2013 at 11:59 pm said: Bald eagles- I love watching their huge wingspan. They are graceful birds who can soar so high and yes, soar so low to grab other animals for food. With their mighty claws, they can squeeze an animal to death. Not a pleasant fight but a necessary one to survive. They have to feed their young ones, too. Reply ↓ No DDT on April 20, 2013 at 12:14 am said: DDT is controversial but there has been proof to back up the claims that it had a direct effect on birds’ nests and plants. It is a powerful pesticide. The bad effects outweigh the good effects of it. Why use something that has the potential to cause alot of harm? Reply ↓ Eagles on April 20, 2013 at 2:00 am said: DDT is a controversial subject but I feel no matter how you look at it, this pesticide, as any pesticide is, is dangerous. How could it not affect plants, animals and humans? Reply ↓ bald eagles rock on April 20, 2013 at 4:21 am said: Reply ↓ Anonymous on April 20, 2013 at 7:18 am said: Let the eagles soar with the mighty wind and be free. Reply ↓ Mary on April 20, 2013 at 3:39 pm said: Reply ↓ international movers on April 25, 2013 at 4:07 pm said: Useful information shared..Iam very happy to read this article..thanks for giving us nice info.Fantastic walk-through. I appreciate this post.

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HomeNorway The first bananas in Norway, 1905 This is one of the first batches of banana that was sent to Norway. It had the weight of 3,000 kilos and came in crates/boxes. One of the people in this picture is Christian Mathiessen, the founder of Norway’s biggest fruit importer, Bama. Norway was the second country to import bananas in Europe, after the United Kingdom. It’s very interesting that before global trading became as it is today, people really didn’t encounter many products that weren’t made locally. Seeing an item made in China must have seemed exotic to someone living in Mexico during 1832. Portuguese sailors brought bananas to Europe from West Africa in the early fifteenth century. Its Guinean name banema, which became banana in English, was first found in print in the seventeenth century. The original banana has been cultivated and used since ancient times, even pre-dating the cultivation of rice. While the banana thrived in Africa, its origins are said to be of East Asia and Oceania. The banana was carried by sailors to the Canary Islands and the West Indies, finally making it to North America with Spanish missionary Friar Tomas de Berlanga. Although bananas may only look like a fruit, they represent a wide variety of environmental, economic, social, and political problems. The banana trade symbolizes economic imperialism, injustices in the global trade market, and the globalization of the agricultural economy. Bananas are also number four on the list of staple crops in the world and one of the biggest profit makers in supermarkets, making them critical for economic and global food security. As one of the first tropical fruits to be exported, bananas were a cheap way to bring “the tropics” to North America and Europe. Bananas have become such a common, inexpensive grocery item that we often forget where they come from and how they got here. Rebecca Cohen, Global Issues for Breakfast: The Banana Industry and its Problems, The Science Creative Quarterly, Issue 3, 2008 The bananas in the photo are Gros Michel bananas. Gros Michel, often known as Big Mike, is an export cultivar of banana and was, until the 1950s, the main variety exported to the United States. His variety was once the dominant export banana to Europe and North America, grown in South America and Africa. In the 1950s the Panama disease, a wilt caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum, wiped out vast tracts of Gros Michel plantations in South America and Africa, but the cultivar survived in Thailand. The original Gros Michel is said to have a unique fragrance. The Panama disease inflicted enormous costs and forced producers to switch to other, disease-resistant cultivars. However, new strains of Panama disease threaten the production of today’s most popular cultivar, Cavendish. Published on: January 28, 2014 Women protesting forced hijab days after the Iranian Revolution, 1979 The Elephant's Foot of the Chernobyl disaster, 1986 Adolf Hitler's eye color in a rare color photo The burning monk, 1963 American soldier killed by German snipers in Leipzig, 1945 The remains of the astronaut Vladimir Komarov, a man who fell from space, 1967 German soldiers react to footage of concentration camps, 1945 The vulture and the little girl Subscribe via email

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The Date Palm The date palm is the ultimate emblem of sustainability. Without this tree life would have been unlivable in the region. Date palms flourished in irrigated oases such as Al Ain and Dhaid, but are also found in wadi valleys, on fertile plains watered by run-off from the mountains, and in desert gardens like those found in Liwa. Here date palm roots reach down to the water gathered just beneath the surface of the absorbent sand. Dates have been supplementing the diet of local people for over 7,000 years and have been cultivated as a crop for over 5,000 years. But following the introduction of the innovative falaj system of irrigation around 4,000 years ago, dates took a dominant role in the life of the Emirates and the cultivation of the date palm has always been by far the most important form of agriculture in the area. In every household, on board ships, or when travelling in the desert, either fresh or conserved dates were eaten at least as a supplement to other food. Often they were the main source of nourishment along with camel milk. Boiled and packed into palm leaves, dates kept for a long time and combined with camel milk provided a highly nutritious meal. The flesh of the date is 75 to 80 per cent sugar (glucose or fructose, known as invert sugar). Like honey, invert sugar has a host of good properties: it is easily digestible, restricts harmful bacterial acitivity and provides instant energy. Since dates have very little fat and are rich in vitamins A, B and D, they form a perfect complement to camels' milk, which contains vitamin C and fat. This explains why the classical bedu diet, which appeared to be so restrictive, was in fact remarkably nutritious and sustaining. Dates, supplemented by bread, salt-fish and goat, and sometimes camel, were also the staple food of people living in settlements. Traditionally used as cattle fodder, not even the date stone was wasted. Dates were and still remain a much-valued symbol of hospitality and a very popular food in the Emirates. They are also the first food consumed on breaking the fast as the sun sets in Ramadan. But it was not just for their fruit that date palms were treasured. Date plams provided much-need shelter and shade for humans, animals and plants. Palm leaves and fronds were used to make fans, food trays, food covers, baskets, mats, and'arish houses and boats. Fronds were even bound together and lined with pitch to make water tanks. The fibre of the trunk was turned into rope, fish traps, brushes, sacks, stuffing for mattresses, and the wood was used to make furniture, boxes, roof beams and many other items. Today, date palms constitute 98 per cent of fruit trees in the UAE and the country is one of the world's top ten producers of dates. Pollination of the date palm is a complicated process because the date palm is dioecious (male and female flowers do not occur on the same tree). Wind-pollination is possible but in palm gardens since male trees cannot bear fruit and were normally discarded, it was common practice to pollinate date palms manually. This was a very labour-intensive process and it also had to be completed in a very restricted time-frame during which the female flower is receptive to male pollen, a period of less than two days. Nowadays large-scale propagation of the date palm in the UAE takes place in tissue culture laboratories. The plants are produced and grown to a stable stage in nurseries before they are sold to farmers. The varieties on sale are completely pest and disease-free, grow faster than normal offshoots, have a strong root systen and a survival rate of close to 100 per cent. Return to Traditions Home

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| Tuesday , July 1 , 2014 | In Today's Paper Tea officials confined by TMC union - Discussion on garden functioning turns into heated exchange, gherao follows OUR BUREAU June 30: Two officials of a tea estate in the Dooars and a planters’ association representative were confined for five hours by supporters of a Trinamul-backed trade union after a bipartite meeting turned into a heated argument. The union workers relented after a police team went to Chengmari Tea Estate. Since noon, the three officials were made to sit in the room of the north Bengal office of the Tea Association of India without food or water. Stakeholders of the industry have expressed concern over the confinement that comes months after a garden official was murdered by a worker. On March 27, the assistant manager of Dalmore tea estate in Dooars was hacked to death by the worker, who alleged that the official had misbehaved with his wife. Industry stakeholders said they feared the return of Left-era-like militant trade unionism. Sources said that around 50-odd workers of Chengmari reached the Tea Association of India (TAI’s office) at noon to attend a bipartite meeting called by the management to discuss certain issues pointed by the Trinamul Tea Plantation Workers Union (TTPWU), which is the dominant workers’ outfit in the garden. All the workers were Trinamul union members and were led by its joint general secretary Amarnath Jha, who is from Chengmari. The meeting commenced around 11.45am, with D.S. Parmar, the general manager, A. Sarkar, the deputy manager, and Ranjit Dutta, the secretary of TAI’s north Bengal branch. “The discussion continued for 15-20 minutes after which the workers and union leaders suddenly stood up and said the meeting had been inconclusive. They were trying to dictate terms and not making any suggestions. Within minutes, they announced that they would keep us confined in the room unless we decided on their demands,” Parmar, the general manager, said. The workers squatted outside the room and started shouting slogans. According to garden sources, there are two other trade unions in the garden. The other two are the Citu-affiliated Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union (CBMU) and the Intuc-backed National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW). “On March 8, we had submitted a charter of demands to the management. As they paid no attention, we demonstrated in the garden on June 14 and 15. Again, on June 26, we started a relay hunger strike to achieve the demands,” Jha said. “The management representatives and police turned up then and requested us to withdraw the relay hunger strike with a promise that a bipartite meeting would be held in the TAI office on June 30.” “Accordingly, we came to attend the meeting today but the management representatives, from the beginning of the meeting, started behaving like bullies and misbehaved with us. This made the workers angry and they demonstrated and decided to confine them in protest,” the Trinamul trade union leader said. Asked about their demands, Jha listed concrete quarters for each worker, employment in the garden for educated youths, building a hospital, filling vacancies in the work force and early payment of gratuity to retired workers, as some of the reasons why the meeting was called. The tea estate, located at Nagrakata block in the Dooars, is known to be the largest tea estate of the country in terms of production. It has a plantation area of 1,340 hectares with an annual production of around 35 lakh kg and 4,000-strong workforce. “The management had issued a pre-lockout notice on June 17. They had mentioned that if such demonstrations continued, they would be forced to declare a lockout in the garden. Even then, the Trinamul trade union acted irresponsibly and created today’s situation which has left us apprehensive of closure of the garden,” said Dil Kumar Oraon, a leader of the Citu-backed union. Parmar, when asked about the workers’ demands, said: “As far as their demands are concerned, most are being met and work is under progress at the garden. These are general issues and cannot be sorted through talks with only one union, as we have two other unions in the garden.” “Nevertheless, we decided to hold bipartite talks to resolve the issues as protests in the garden were affecting daily activities. But the manner in which they kept us confined for five hours without food or water is disappointing. We have informed officials at the state labour department, requesting them to convene tripartite talks to discuss on the issues.” “We have witnessed militant trade unionism of gheraos, attacks and strikes, which affected the tea industry during Left rule. The Trinamul trade union mushroomed in the tea belt and gained ground as the government changed in the state. But the manner in which senior officials were kept confined today has left us worried,” a veteran planter based in Siliguri said. “If such agitations continue, it would bring back the old days.” Copyright © 2017 The Telegraph. All rights reserved.

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Questions remain after report on C&H Hog Farms drilling study near the Buffalo River BusinessCentral ArkansasFort SmithLatest NewsNortheast ArkansasNorthwest ArkansasTalk PoliticsTourism by Talk Business & Politics ([email protected]) 2 months ago 7 views Tags:Buffalo RiverC&H Hog Farm More research will be necessary to determine whether the waste storage ponds at C&H Hog Farms in Newton County have contaminated the groundwater and soil in the Buffalo River watershed. On Thursday (Dec. 1), Harbor Environmental and Safety of Little Rock presented its report after drilling to see if hog waste-related pollutants are in the soil and groundwater at the hog farm near Mount Judea. Kelly Robinson, public information officer for Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said it was the first time the report was presented to state agencies, including the governor’s office. About 75 people attended the presentation at ADEQ headquarters in North Little Rock, but it was not a question-and-answer session or an opportunity for public comment. “This was not the venue to talk to the contractor,” Robinson said. When asked if hog-related contamination was found in the soil and ground water, Robinson said “that’s something that they are going to have to review.” The Buffalo River watershed is home to more than 300 species of fish, insects, freshwater mussels and aquatic plans, such as the endangered snuffbox mussel, the endangered Gray bat and the endangered Indiana bat. Designated as America’s first national river in 1972, the Buffalo National River travels freely for 135 miles and is one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the lower 48 states. Popular for camping, canoeing and fishing, it attracts more than 1 million visitors a year. ‘TOTALLY UNSATISFACTORY’ Gordon Watkins, president of Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, was surprised the public was not allowed to ask questions. He had multiple questions for Harbor officials; however, he will submit them online when public comments are accepted. He also was not satisfied with Harbor’s presentation. “It was short and sweet,” Watkins said. “Totally unsatisfactory.” While Harbor staff “didn’t come out and say there was no evidence of contamination,” that there wasn’t any found “was the gist of it,” he said. “In a way we’re relieved. We don’t want to see contamination.” But the drilling was not “industry standard,” he added. Harbor should have drilled at multiple sites on the property to test for contamination. Yet, until Watkins and other state agencies have the opportunity to review the full report, the results are unclear. “We’ll have plenty to say once we read this report,” Watkins said. ADEQ staff were working to upload the report on its website as of late Thursday afternoon. The alliance had pushed for the drilling study after receiving 250 pages of documents from the U.S. Geological Survey in January, Watkins said. It previously filed a Freedom of Information Act request. In the documents, an email exchange showed possible waste movement and some reason for concern. In April, the alliance presented this to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, and it was news to the commission and ADEQ, he said. In 2015, an electrical resistivity imaging survey by Big Creek Research and Extension Team showed possible leakage from the waste storage ponds and fracturing within the limestone bedrock below the site, according to Harbor’s site investigation work plan. On Aug. 2, Harbor rolled out the C&H drilling project plan. On Sept. 26, ADEQ announced Harbor had completed field testing. Cascade Drilling drilled to a depth of 120 feet testing for hog waste-related pollutants in the soil and groundwater and filled the hole with cement. Drilling took place between Sept. 21-26, Robinson said. Cost of the study has yet to be determined. In a Nov. 23 statement, ADEQ director Becky Keogh said she was “pleased that the report has been completed a month ahead of schedule, while conforming to rigorous quality controls and assurances inherit in an independent-scientific review.” HOG FARM FUTURE C&H Hog Farms is capable of housing 6,500 swine, and opponents of the farm fear waste runoff will pollute nearby Big Creek, a tributary of the Buffalo River six miles away. As of Oct. 31, the farm’s Reg. 5 permit expired, but the farm can remain in operation while its application for a new permit is being reviewed, Watkins said. “The department suspended review of C&H Hog Farm’s permit application while the drilling study was being conducted because it was determined this data was necessary when reviewing the permit application,” Robinson said in an email. “As indicated today, the department will review Harbor’s report and issue a determination based on the results. That determination will be considered when review of the draft permit resumes.” In September, Gov. Asa Hutchinson created the Beautiful Buffalo River Action Committee. The committee recently announced a series of public meetings to receive feedback on the development of a Buffalo River Watershed Management Plan. FTN Associates, a Little Rock-based environmental consulting company, will host the meetings, the first of which will start 9:30 a.m. Dec. 8 at Searcy County Civic Center Gym in Marshall. Potential pollution from hog farms will be a controversial issue the committee faces. In August 2015, the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission ordered a five-year ban on new permits for large swine factory farms on the watershed. Those affected by the hold on permits includes farms with at least 750 swine weighing over 55 pounds or 3,000 swine weighing less than 55 pounds. Previous post The Supply Side: Marketplaces present opportunities and threats to Wal-Mart suppliers Next post Donald Trump and Fort Smith consent decree, employee pay highlight night two of budget hearings

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For Florida citrus crop, it's been a tough year By Tamara Lush Associated Press Published: Saturday, March 2 2013 11:10 p.m. MST Orange trees, shown in 2007 in Bartow, Fla., are ruined by cold weather and citrus greening disease. (Associated Press) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida's citrus crop has suffered huge losses this year, with fruit falling from trees and the overall forecast declining about 10 percent, but the problems shouldn't translate to a price increase at the breakfast table — yet. Experts and growers say warm, dry weather; too much fruit on each tree; and citrus greening disease are the likely culprits. Some say this is the year that greening — which is caused by a fast-spreading bacteria and is also known as HLB, or, in Chinese, Huanglongbing — finally translates into crop losses. Greening is spread by insects, and there is no cure. It leaves fruit sour and unusable, and eventually kills the infected tree. "I don't think there's any doubt that we're beginning to see the effects of citrus greening on the industry," said Adam Putnam, Florida's agriculture commissioner. "This is a situation where the state's signature agricultural commodity faces an existential threat." Most of Florida's biggest crop, Valencia oranges, is used for juice, and because of a surplus from last year, consumer prices are not expected to increase this year. At the beginning of the season last October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that the state's total citrus crop would yield 154 million boxes of fruit. But that forecast has been downgraded to 141 million boxes. "The USDA has reduced the estimate three times in one season," Putnam said. "For a nonfreeze, nonhurricane year, that's extraordinary. I'm very concerned." Florida's economy rakes in about $9 billion a year from citrus, and seasons like this one can set farmers on edge. The state's citrus harvest is about halfway over. The early-season varieties have been picked, but Valencia oranges are scheduled for harvest in the coming weeks. "We were more than disappointed for the early fruit," said Michael Sparks, the CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest grower organization. According to the Florida Citrus Mutual, the state boasts 473,000 acres of citrus groves and more than 70.6 million citrus trees. The citrus industry directly and indirectly contributes some 76,000 jobs in Florida. About 90 percent of Florida's oranges are used for juice; by contrast, the majority of California's orange crop is sold as fresh fruit. Florida is second in the world for orange juice production, behind the country of Brazil. Sparks said that even though lots of early fruit fell from the trees, the dropped fruit won't end up on breakfast tables. "We do not allow that fruit to be made into juice," he said. Sparks said a "rather significant" inventory last year will prevent price increases for consumers, but such a raise could come in later years if researchers and growers don't find a solution to the greening bacteria. Putnam said he's asked the state Legislature to increase the research funding for treatment and cure of citrus greening by several million dollars this year. Greening has been found in every citrus-growing county in Florida.

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Back to Drought index page. Companies tackle 'weird water' risks head-on Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter Climatewire: Tuesday, September 4, 2012 On a Mongolian potato farm that supplies crops for Frito-Lay chips, parent company PepsiCo has reached water savings of 30 percent by installing pivot water systems, a transition from the flood watering that formerly hydrated the fields. The firm, which nets $65 billion annually, expects to convert again, this time to drip irrigation, using 50 percent less water than traditional farming methods. Nestle, the world's largest food company, installed solar-powered soil moisture monitors in tomato fields in Italy. By saving water and fertilizer, the company will see a return on its investment in one to two years, according to the global public affairs manager for the company. And Statkraft, the state-owned Norwegian power company, is looking to build a hydropower station in Albania that will also serve as a water storage tank for agriculture for use in dry years. In the midst of some of the worst droughts in recent history, some of the world's biggest corporations are becoming more serious about the risks, but also the opportunities, climate change will bring to business. Adapting operations to deal with too much, too little or too erratic rainfall will be expensive but will also create a chance for investment in innovation and infrastructure, said attendees at the annual World Water Week in Stockholm last week. "Even if all of this costs money," said Thierry Berthoud, managing director of energy and climate at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, "people should recall that once you spend money as an investment to overcome a change, this money is, if well-placed, entering in the economic cycle and is creating a benefit." Berthoud spoke at a session at World Water Week on seeking profits in a world of changing water landscapes. 'A man-bites-dog story' Global and municipal governments have long acknowledged that water scarcity, floods and "weirdness" -- when rains fall but not when they're supposed to -- will worsen the public health and quality of life of much of the world. They also pose enormous costs for businesses. According to a recent report by Ceres, an organization that encourages sustainability measures in corporate practice, last year's drought in Texas caused more than $7 billion in crop and livestock losses. In Thailand, devastating floods caused $42 billion in damage, injuring the nation's semiconductor industry and affecting the supply chain for automakers Honda and Toyota. With agriculture sucking up approximately 70 percent of the world's water resources, food and beverage companies are acting especially carefully. These losses have spurred action from the private sector where governments have been ineffective, said Juan Jose Daboub, founding CEO of the Global Adaptation Institute. "Governments are becoming more of an obstacle rather than a pathway to solve problems," said Daboub, who called on municipalities to "leave politics aside and work on practical solutions." Betsy Otto, director of the Aqueduct project in the Markets and Enterprise Program at the World Resources Institute, also sees the roles reversing on sustainability efforts. "I'm hearing a consistent theme where companies are calling on government to get engaged in water security," Otto said. "It's a little bit of a man-bites-dog story." Concerns not 'greenwashing' anymore Lately, companies have been more vigilant in assessing the risks that climate change brings to their goods. The report from Ceres found that the number of surveyed companies that are disclosing water risks to investors increased by 11 percent in two years, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the federal body responsible for protecting investors and maintaining fairness in markets. The report also found the number of companies that linked water problems to climate change more than doubled -- eight out of 82 in 2009 to 22 out of 82 in 2011. Ceres surveyed companies in heavily water-intensive sectors like oil and gas, food and beverage, mining, homebuilding, and semiconductor manufacturing. The fact that these findings come from the SEC lend credibility to the importance of climate risks to companies, said Berkley Adrio, the author of the report and a senior associate in water programs at Ceres. "There is nothing to be gained from greenwashing," she said at a session at World Water Week. "These are just risks." Nevertheless, data on water use and the financial impacts of climate change-related risks are uncommon in SEC filings, as the numbers are hard to come by. "There is very little work in terms of metrics," said Daboub, making it difficult for countries, both water-safe and water-vulnerable, to know exactly how careful they must be. Tools to measure global weirding Despite a weakness in measurements, financial advisers, major lenders and companies themselves have developed a bevy of tools to help assess how risky an investment -- a new factory in a water-stressed region, for example -- could be. Bloomberg carries a Water Insight product to advise portfolio managers. Standard and Poor's is deepening its research on water in reports, and major banks such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley now perform their own research on water, Adrio said. Environmental and sustainability groups, including the World Resources Institute, the World Wildlife Fund, Ceres and the World Business Council on Sustainability, have their own versions. The World Resources Institute's Aqueduct tool is an interactive world atlas that denotes three possible scenarios for water stress in 2025, 2050 and 2095. The number of water risk tools has expanded, said Otto, who attended a session at World Water Week specifically for water toolmakers. But with the proliferation of tools come varying methods on how to define water scarcity and arrive at a business conclusion. "There's a need and effort afoot to unify some of the metrics and measures," said Otto. Each of the tools has a slightly different measure for water stress. The recent events have solidified actions and investments from companies more than ever, she added, as executives realize the damage that scarcity will impose. "I've definitely heard a lot more discussion of 'Here's what we're saying to take action,'" she said. "Global weirding from climate change is going to continue."

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A new deal to rid Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia of obsolete pesticides The EU and FAO invest in model for hazardous waste management and sustainable crop protection A partnership to protect human health and the environment12 April 2012, Rome - Twelve countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia will start working with the European Union (EU) and FAO to manage their vast stocks of obsolete pesticides in a partnership that was launched at FAO's headquarters in Rome. It is estimated that around 200 000 tons of obsolete pesticides, nearly half the world's stockpiles, can be found in twelve former Soviet Union republics. Kept in tens of thousands of unprotected sites, they pose a serious threat to the health of the people around them and to the environment.For the next four years, the EU and FAO will invest €7 million to assist these countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan — in managing obsolete pesticides and reducing the risks of current stocks. At the same time, the project will build capacity to reduce risks from pesticides used in agriculture and avoid build-up of additional stockpiles in future."In the past decades, we were able to increase food production significantly, but at a huge toll on the environment," said José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO. "One of the consequences of this chemical-input, intensive agriculture we adopted are the barrels of obsolete pesticides lying abandoned around the world."Pesticides may be an important input for farming, but they need to be used responsibly while protecting human health and the environment from their adverse effects. In our quest for sustainability and to meet the challenge of feeding a growing population while preserving our environment, we also need to take a good look at the different options we have to protect crops and improve productivity. This includes using natural means to protect and improve crop yields through sustainable crop intensification, or 'save and grow' techniques as we call it at FAO," Graziano da Silva added.Catalyst"The EU has an established policy dialogue and co-operation on environment related issues with its eastern neighbours and Central Asian partners," said the EU Ambassador Laurence Argimon-Pistre."In its new Neighbourhood Policy, the EU will continue to pursue a higher level of environment protection with its eastern partners and be committed to combat environmental degradation," she added. "This includes obsolete pesticides and other hazardous chemicals, whose environmental and health risks are not only at stake for the region but also for the EU".The EU is contributing €6 million to the initiative, and FAO, which is to act as implementing agency, has allocated €1 million in funding. This initiative aims to act as a catalyst for the development of obsolete pesticide and hazardous waste management in the region, by helping provide the resources needed for technical and policy support to enable countries to help themselves.Work togetherAlthough activities will include the actual disposal of stockpiles, the priority lies in building capacities, for example in the areas of legislative reform, pesticide registration processes, the promotion of alternatives to the most hazardous chemicals in use and the development of communication strategies to raise awareness among farmers and the public.Another important goal is to establish a regional forum geared to the mobilisation of the additional resources needed for full-scale clean-up and the constitution of a region-wide system capable of dealing with future challenges posed by pesticides. Other cross-cutting activities include a survey of regional waste management capacity and the creation of a regional training centre.Key to achieving the overall aim of removing toxic materials from the region is the development of linkages between initiatives already active to ensure that all partners are working together.In this initiative, FAO and the EU are working together with partners such as WHO, UNEP, the Secretariats of the Convention of Rotterdam, Stockholm and Basel, international NGOs, including the Green Cross and the International HCH and Pesticide Association and the private sector, among others. Related linksFAO-EU partnershipDocumentsStatement by FAO Director-General José Graziano da SilvaPrevention and disposal of obsolete pesticidesHalf a million tonnes of obsolete pesticides are scattered throughout the world. FAO's Programme on the Prevention and Disposal of Obsolete Pesticides is working to inform the world about the dangers of obsolete pesticide stocks. It collaborates with countries to prevent more obsolete pesticides from accumulating and assists them to dispose of their existing stockpiles.Disposing of obsolete pesticidesContactMaarten RoestMedia Relations (Rome)(+39) 06 570 56524(+ 39) 346 50 10 [email protected]

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Previous--Water Chemistry and Sustainable Yield || Next--Effects of Agriculture on Water Yield in Kansas Yield Estimates for Surface-water Sources David I. Leib and Thomas C. Stiles Kansas Water Office, Topeka, Kansas This article available as an Acrobat PDF file (199 kb). Yield is used to characterize the capacity of a water resource to serve as a long-term water supply. It is a fundamental water-supply planning concept, and an understanding of its attributes is critical for those who participate in water-supply issues. In the context of surface-water resources, yield is often synonymous with safe yield or firm yield. Safe yield or firm yield in the context of water reservoirs is defined as the maximum quantity of water which can be guaranteed during a critical dry period (Linsley and Franzini, 1979). The simplicity of this definition, however, belies two "complicating" factors. First, yield changes as watershed conditions, such as land use and ground-water-surface-water interactions, evolve. Second, yield is uncertain because of our inability to know the severity and duration of future drought periods. This chapter discusses the dynamic nature of yield. In particular, using Kansas surface-water resources as the example, this chapter describes the concept of yield, the determination of yield, the sensitivity of yield to underlying assumptions, and the interaction of yield and water-supply policy. Some Yield Concepts Surface-water yield depends primarily on inflows and storage. In the case of an unregulated stream, the firm yield is often conceptualized as the minimum historical flow during a specified time period. With this working definition, the firm yields at several locations along Kansas streams are given in table 6.1. In most cases, these minimum daily historical flows occurred prior to significant regulation by large reservoirs. Table 6.1--Simple daily firm yield at select locations. Firm Yield, cfs Kansas River Smoky Hill River Marais Des Cygnes Two major assumptions are implicit to determining yield in this fashion. The first assumption is that the available streamflow record adequately captures the longterm streamflow characteristics of the basin. This is often not valid, even in the rare instances where good-quality long-term streamflow records are available. For example, the Great Plains droughts circa 1757 and 1860 were probably harsher than those seen so far in the twentieth century (Stockton and Meko, 1983). The second assumption is that streamflow regimes are stationary. However, watersheds evolve in response to stresses such as altered land-use practices and changing ground-water–surface-water interactions. Over a time scale of decades, these transformations can have a significant impact (Koelliker et al., 1995). The typical result in semi-arid nonurban regions is less runoff per unit of rainfall. Thus, it is highly unlikely that a sequence of streamflows (and firm yield) from the 1930's would repeat in the 1990's, even in response to identical climatic factors. In addition, a major change in firm yield at a site can occur when reservoir storage is placed upstream. When water-supply reservoir storage is added on a stream, additional water is lost from the river system due to increased evaporation from the exposed reservoir surface area. Paradoxically, the firm yield of the river-reservoir system increases. This increase in firm yield and the corresponding decrease in average yield are fundamental impacts of a water-supply reservoir. The gain in firm yield often has vital importance and value. The loss of average yield is usually unimportant. Referring back to table 6.1, the firm yield of the Neosho River at lola would be on the order of 50 cubic feet per second (cfs [1.4 m3/s]), if the full conservation storage capacity of John Redmond Reservoir were dedicated to maximizing downstream firm yield. This is in spite of the fact that John Redmond Reservoir has a surface area of approximately 10,000 acres (4,047 ha) and can have a net evaporative loss of 25,000 acre-feet (30.8x106 m3) in a dry year. Similarly, the firm yield of the Kansas River at Topeka would be on the order of 700 cfs (19.8 m3/s) if the full conservation-storage capacities of Milford Reservoir and Tuttle Creek Reservoir were dedicated to maximizing downstream firm yield. A concept that is closely related to firm yield is that of reliability. Reliability, as applied to a reservoir, is defined as the probability that a reservoir will deliver the expected demand throughout its lifetime without incurring a deficiency (Linsley and Franzini, 1979). The reliability approach avoids the difficulties associated with depending directly on the historical record by using a stochastic methodology. The reliability approach has much merit, but also entails the use of probabilistic descriptions and stochastic data-generation techniques. These methods, as well as many others for determining yield, are discussed in McMahon and Mein (1978). Still other approaches to reservoir yield can be found in Sheer (1980) and Smith (1993). Lastly, although yield might appear to be wholly a water-supply concept, it is closely related to water quality. In fact, there is often a direct trade-off between yield and water quality. This is evident in California, where 5 million acre-feet (6.17 km3) per year, on average, is expended to San Francisco Bay in order to control ocean-derived salinity in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (California Department of Water Resources, 1987). This outflow protects the quality of water that is exported south of the delta and also provides significant environmental and public-trust benefits. From a purely water-supply perspective, however, these benefits are realized by foregoing some yield. In Kansas, portions of several major rivers are subject to high-salinity levels that can inhibit the use of water for supply purposes. The release of lower-salinity water stored in reservoirs for blending purposes is one option for managing these salinity episodes (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1982). However, stored water that is dedicated to managing salinity is not available to augment low flows, thus potentially diminishing the firm yield of the system. A quantitative description of a relationship between yield and salinity is described in Wurbs et al. (1995). Statutory Reservoir Yield in Kansas Kansas statutes refer to yield in several instances. Two important references are found in the State Water Plan Storage Act. The first describes the quantity of water that the State may reserve to store in a reservoir (known as a water-reservation right) as: "… an amount sufficient to insure a yield of water from the reservoir for beneficial use through a drought with a 2% chance of occurrence in any one year with the reservoir in operation" (K.S.A.82a-1303). The same Act also specifies the yield that may be contracted by the State: "… the director shall not contract for withdrawals of water from a particular reservoir which in the director's opinion are in excess of the yield capability from the conservation storage water supply capacity in such reservoir committed to the state computed to provide water through a drought having a 2% chance of occurrence in anyone year with the reservoir in operation" (K.S.A. 82a-1305). Definitions for some yield terminology can be found in the Kansas Administrative Regulations: "Drought having a 2% chance of occurrence in anyone year" means a drought having a statistical chance of occurring once every 50 years, on average (K.A.R. 98-5-1f). "Reservoir Yield" means the quantity of water which can be withdrawn from storage in the reservoir. Reservoir yield is determined by the rate of flow of the stream into the reservoir, losses due to evapotranspiration from the reservoir surface, and the volume of water impounded in the reservoir (K.A.R. 98-5-1k). "Yield" means the quantity of water which can be withdrawn from storage in a reservoir for a given period of time (K.A.R. 98-6-1q). Based on these citations, the yield in the statutes and regulations is clearly a firm yield, with the critical dry period being defined probabilistically as the 2% chance drought. Although the term drought can refer to a shortage of precipitation, soil moisture, or streamflow (Dracup et al., 1980), it can be inferred that the statutes are concerned with a streamflow deficiency. Furthermore, although a duration is not explicitly stated, it also can be inferred that the statutes are referring to an annual drought. Thus, statutory yield is succinctly and adequately defined. Vagaries arise, however, in going from a well-defined, useful concept to a quantitative implementation of that concept. This is true in many instances, whether in economics (e.g., determining the money supply), demographics (e.g., taking the census), or college football (e.g., determining the national rankings). All depend on assumptions and limited data. In all cases, including yield, no definitive methodology will result in assigning perfectly accurate numbers to the concept. Nonetheless, the necessity of quantifying the concept requires that a workable methodology is implemented. Two approaches have been used to determine yield from Kansas reservoirs. The Kansas Water Resources Board used a statistical method (Peck, 1984). This methodology was based primarily on statistics of historical data and extrapolations from that data. As such, it was subject to all the benefits and drawbacks of relying on recorded data, statistical techniques, and extrapolation. The Kansas Water Office has implemented a mass-balance, reservoir-operations methodology. The administrative-policy statement that describes this methodology has several important aspects. First, the policy states that its goal is to pragmatically and consistently administer the State Water Plan Storage Act. Second, it asserts that the statutorily defined drought with a 2% chance of occurrence in anyone year occurred within the 1952-57 drought period. Third, the policy describes the mass-balance, operations-study methodology that will be used to compute yield. Lastly, the policy recognizes that yield determinations are subject to revision as additional data become available. The key assumption is the assertion that the 2% drought can be represented by the 1952-57 period. This is particularly useful for planning purposes because people either remember the 1952-57 drought or can get a sense of it based on recorded hydrologic, climatic, and other records. For many regions of the state, it was the worst extended drought in the past 50 years. In a simplistic sense, this gives some credence to idea that is was a 2% drought. The main drawback of this assumption is that the 1952-57 drought, like any sequence of historical flows, will not repeat in the future. Therefore, a yield during the "next" 2% drought will differ from a yield based on the 1952-57 drought. There is no absolutely correct method for implementing the Kansas statutory definition of yield. The Kansas Water Office methodology is thought to define a pragmatic, consistent, and reasonable approach. Determination of Yield: Mass-balance Approach Reservoir yields are often determined by operations studies. Operations studies are simulations of the physical systems based on the principle of conservation of mass. A generalized mass balance equation for a single-purpose water-supply reservoir is: BSTOR + IN + PREC - EVAP - SEEP - REL = ESTOR (eq. 6.1) BSTOR = storage at beginning of period IN = storable inflow during time period PREC = precipitation on reservoir surface during time period EVAP = evaporation from reservoir surface during time period SEEP = seepage loss during time period REL = release during time period ESTOR = storage at end of time period The key variables in an operations study are hydrologic (inflows, seepage losses), climatic (precipitation, evaporation), physical (elevation-area-capacity relationship), and operational (release rules). The key parameters in an operations study are the simulation period, the simulation time step, and the level of development. Taken together, these variables and parameters define an operations study. Inflows are often developed from historical measured data, with the historical record adjusted to account for spatial and temporal factors. Spatial adjustments are necessary if the drainage area that contributes to the recording gage(s) differs significantly from the drainage area that contributes to the reservoir. Temporal adjustments are necessary if the watershed conditions, in particular the rainfall-runoff relationship or ground-water–surface-water interaction, have changed since the historical flows were recorded. This temporal adjustment attempts to determine the inflow series that would have resulted from a repeat of the historical climatic conditions on the watershed of a given year specified by the level of development. In most cases, it entails a reduction of the historical flows and is referred to as a depletions analysis. Boxed section 6.1 summarizes this type of analysis for the inflows to a north-central Kansas reservoir. Inflows must also be adjusted for institutional factors such as water rights. For example, in an appropriation doctrine state such as Kansas, reservoir inflows are subject to bypass requirements for downstream senior water-right holders. The reservoir storage space itself may require a water right in order to store water. The terms, conditions, and limitations of relevant water rights must be considered in the yield analysis. Reservoir seepage losses can be determined as a function of the beginning storage or considered a constant loss per time period. A percentage of the seepage losses may enter the river and be considered to comprise a portion of a minimum reservoir release requirement. Climatic inputs are taken from weather-station data. The overall adequacy of the climatic data, in particular the density of the weather data, can have a marked impact on results (Linsley et al., 1975). In addition, spatial averaging of the available climatic data is required. The choice of which of the available data to use and the method of averaging the data can also have a large impact on results (Curtis et al., 1994). Key operational data include the reservoir capacity at the level of development. Reservoir capacity decreases with time due to sediments carried by the inflows that are deposited and trapped by the impoundment. The prediction of the sediment load to a reservoir is subject to large errors (Singh, 1992). Furthermore, the deposition and transport of sediments within a reservoir is also problematic. Sediment surveys, which are measurements of the reservoir capacity at a given instant in time, are conducted periodically. The reservoir capacity at the level of development of interest is determined by interpolating, or extrapolating, from the measured sediment survey data. Release is the dependent variable. The firm yield of the river-reservoir system would be the maximum constant release that could be sustained in each and every time period. It can be determined by either optimizing or iteratively simulating the operations of the system. Because yield is a function of time, the level of development specifies the point in time for which a yield is desired. The level of development is governed by the planning or contracting horizon, which can be 40 years or longer for a water-resources project. Inputs that must be adjusted to correspond with the level of development are the inflows, which are affected by altered rainfall-runoff or ground-water-surface-water interactions, and reservoir capacity, which is affected by sedimentation. Typically, climatic factors are assumed stationary. Accounting for trends in climatic factors may become more common as climate analysis improves, especially if a very extended planning horizon is used. The simulation period is usually one or more critical historical drought periods. Operations studies with other goals, such as determination of an average yield, may use the entire available historical record. If critical periods are used, the status of reservoir storage at the beginning of the simulation is important. The firm yield will be highly correlated to the initial reservoir storage in systems where the ratio of reservoir storage to inflow is large. The time step specifies the temporal scale for which results are of interest. Time steps range typically from annual to hourly. Annual, monthly, and weekly time steps are common for water-supply studies. Weekly, daily, and hourly studies are common for flood control and hydropower studies. Firm yield results depend on the time step. With everything else being equal, longer time steps result in larger firm yields due to averaging over critical periods. The mass balance approach toward firm yield can provide very precise results, but accuracy is limited by input data and assumptions. The largest sources of inaccuracies are the lack of knowledge of critical period inflows and reservoir capacity, as adjusted for the level of development, and the scarcity of climatic data. Thus, even for the case of an overly simplified reservoir, the firm yield determination depends on some key assumptions and data limitations. Boxed section 6.1: Historical Inflow Modifications: The Milford Reservoir Example In order to give a sense of the modifications to the historical record that must be contemplated, we present an example pertaining to Milford Reservoir and the Republican River basin. Milford Reservoir is located in north-central Kansas on the Republican River upstream of Junction City (fig. B6.1.1). It has a design conservation capacity of 300,000 acre-feet (0.37 km3) and a design flood-control capacity of 700,000 acre-feet (0.86 km3), It was placed in service in 1967. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has maintained a streamflow gage on the Republican River at Clay Center, which is approximately 30 mi (48 km) upstream of Milford Dam, since 1917. Thus, daily flow records of the 1952-57 drought are available. The Clay Center gage has a drainage area of approximately 24,542 mi2 (6.36x106 ha). Milford Dam has a drainage area of approximately 24,880 2 (6.44x106 ha). The USGS has determined that approximately 7,500 2 (1.94x106 ha) of this region is noncontributing. The following checklist presents some of the adjustments that might be made to the observed 1950's Clay Center flows in order to account for spatial (i.e. because the gage does not measure all inflows to Milford Reservoir) and temporal (i.e. because the changing conditions have altered the rainfall-runoff relationship in the watershed since the measured 1950's flows) factors. Account for drainage area contributing to reservoir that is downstream of Clay Center gage. Account for greater precipitation and runoff-generating capacity at downstream end of watershed relative to the rest of the watershed. Account for decreased flows across the Nebraska-Kansas state line due to increased land treatment and consumptive use in the Republican River valley in Nebraska. Account for decreased gains from the Nebraska-Kansas state line to Clay Center due to: Irrigation development Land-treatment conservation practices Account for Milford Reservoir water-right provisions; that is, some of the inflow to the reservoir must be bypassed downstream according to terms and limitations of the Milford water right. The spatial factors suggest that Milford inflows are 1.01 to 1.10 times the measured Clay Center flows. The temporal factors suggest that, under current watershed conditions, the Clay Center flows would be approximately 0.4 to 0.5 of the observed historic 1952-57 flows (KWO, 1996). Because yields depend significantly on inflow, the decisions regarding these factors will have a major impact on the yield determination. Figure B6.1.1--Milford Lake (modified from map by Kansas Water Office). Determination of Yield for Kansas Reservoirs Most large reservoirs are jointly operated facilities that serve multiple purposes. A simple multiple-purpose reservoir may have a conservation (water-supply) capacity and a flood-control capacity sharing the same facility. These capacities are segmented by elevation; that is, the conservation capacity is composed of storage below a specified boundary elevation whereas the flood-control capacity is composed of storage above the boundary elevation. For some facilities, the boundary elevation changes on a regular annual cycle. In many cases, the conservation storage is further partitioned in order to serve multiple purposes. This can be done via a boundary elevation, as in the flood-control storage-conservation storage designation, or via percentage allocations. In Kansas, the conservation storage in Federal reservoirs in which the State owns an interest are subdivided based on percentage allocations. Figure 6.1 is a schematic of a facility with this configuration. In effect, the facility can be thought of as two or more separate reservoirs that are related by virtue of the physical resources that they share. It is often the yield of one of these distinct reservoirs (such as pool i in fig. 6.1) that needs to be determined. Figure 6.1--Reservoir pool segmentation schematic. Equation 6.2 is an extension of Equation 6.1 and describes the mass balance for a conservation pool in a multiple-conservation-pool facility. Note that for the purposes of yield analyses, which address the drought portion of the hydrologic spectrum, flood-control operations can be effectively ignored by assuming that any flood waters are immediately released. Boxed section 6.2 illustrates the water balance for an eastern Kansas reservoir. BSTORi + INi + PRECi - EVAPi - SEEPi - REi - Hij + Hji = ESTORi (eq. 6. 2) BSTORi = storage at beginning of period in pool i INi = storable inflow during time period available to pool i PRECi = precipitation during time period available to pool i EVAPi = evaporation during time period from pool i SEEPi = seepage loss during time period from pool i RELi = release during time period from pool i Hij = handover to other conservation pools from pool i Hji = handover from other conservation pools to pool i ESTORi = storage at end of time period in pool i i = conservation pool of interest j = other conservation pools The variables are analogous to those in equation 6.1, but are modified to reflect sharing among pools. In principle, storable inflows are allocated based on the pool-capacity percentages. If the capacity of a pool is 30% of the total storage of the conservation capacity, that pool is generally entitled to 30% of the storable inflows. This guiding principle, however, can be modified by contractual agreements or water-rights provisions that give preference under specific inflow or storage conditions to one pool at the expense of the others. Sedimentation is apportioned based on capacities also. Unused sediment storage within the conservation capacity is prorated among the conservation pools. If the sediment within the conservation capacity exceeds the allocated sediment storage, then the pools share the lost conservation capacity by proration. Evaporation and precipitation are allocated based on storage. A pool would be assessed (or credited) for 45% of the net evaporation (gross evaporation - precipitation) during a given time step if the storage in that pool were 45% of the total conservation storage at the beginning of the time step. The allocation of net evaporation is independent of pool capacities. Releases are taken in full from the appropriate pool. Because the pools are operating as independent reservoirs that share the same facility, one pool might be empty while another might have ample stored water. A release to support the designated purpose of an empty pool could not be expected even though other pools, and thus the conservation capacity as a whole, might have ample water. The handover terms allocate water when a pool does not have unused capacity available to store all the inflows to which it is entitled, but at least one other pool does. The first term, Hij, delineates spillage from the pool of interest to the others. The second term, Hji, delineates spillage from other pools to the pool of interest. Like inflows, handovers are apportioned based on storage capacities. Handovers are not possible when all the individual conservation pools, and therefore the entire conservation capacity, are filled. In this case, remaining handovers become flood water stored and released from the flood-control capacity. Handovers are another way in which the operations of one pool can affect the yield of another. Consider a reservoir with a conservation storage capacity composed of three pools: i, j, and k. If the yields from pools j and k are uncommitted and remain in the reservoir, then, relative to the case where these pools are making significant releases, pools j and k are less likely to be able to store all the inflows to which they are entitled. This will result in greater handovers to pool i, thereby increasing the yield of pool i. The parameters for this more detailed form of the operations study are identical to those for the simpler form. For Kansas yield studies, monthly time steps are most common. As yields are expressed typically on a daily time scale (in million gallons per day) or even on a time scale of seconds (in cubic feet per second), some averaging is implicit in the results. The application of the mass-balance approach for yield analyses in Kansas reservoirs has the same advantages and disadvantages that the simplified mass-balance approach has. In addition, having several distinct pools share one physical facility adds a significant complication: namely, the ability for operations in one pool to affect the yield of another. To determine the yield of one pool, the operating policies of the other pools must be known or assumed. This can be problematic if, as in the State's water-marketing program, releases from a pool are made on demand of one or more contracting entities and do not follow any established operating rule. Boxed section 6.2: Water Balance at John Redmond Reservoir In order to give a sense of the magnitude of the individual terms in equation 6.2, we will use the example of John Redmond Reservoir on the Neosho River in southeast Kansas (fig. B6.2.1). John Redmond Reservoir has a current estimated design-life conservation capacity of 49,160 acre-ft (60.64x106m3). The conservation capacity is divided into a water-quality pool (11,710 acre-ft [14.44x106m3] or 23.82% of conservation capacity) and a water-supply pool (37,450 acre-ft [46.19x106m3] or 76.18% of conservation capacity). The water-quality pool makes releases on a schedule that varies by month and is designed to operate with approximately a 10% chance of shortage. The design water-supply pool has a computed 2% yield of 27.2 million gallons per day (42.1 cfs [1.19 m3/s]). The following table summarizes the 2% yield calculation water balance for the June 1952-September 1955 critical drought period. The reservoir began and ended the period with the conservation capacity full, so the net change in storage components is zero. All units are thousand acre-feet. Conservation Capacity Quality Pool Supply Pool Releases(incl. seepage) Spills to flood control Handover: quality to supply Handover: supply to quality Figure B6.2.1--John Redmond Lake (modified from map by Kansas Water Office). Policy Implications of Yield Reservoir-yield estimates are fraught with policy implications. In addition to affecting water-supply policies at the reservoir, a yield determination can affect policies pertaining to regional water supply, reservoir recreation, and downstream riverine resources. Often, the highly inter-related nature of water-resources systems and objectives leads to a chaotic effect (Gleick, 1987); namely, a small change in a yield estimate can have significant repercussions in numerous water-policy arenas. In Kansas, water supplies are marketed based on the aforementioned 2% yield criterion. Even allowing for computational uncertainties, the odds of drought-level inflows and high evaporative losses are low for any given year. Defining water-supply yield at this probability leaves a large quantity of water available in most years. As a consequence, much of the average reservoir yield remains uncommitted. Water-supply users place great value on supply reliability and generally tend to view the 2% yield criterion as prudent and beneficial. However, a water-supply entity in search of additional water supplies might feel that the 2% criterion, or a yield calculation based on that criterion, unnecessarily restricts the water supply available from a resource. From the perspective of this entity, the 2% yield criterion could be viewed as a policy that institutionalizes the under-utilization of an important resource. The recreation sector is a primary beneficiary of the 2% yield policy. Because firm yield demands are far less than average yield, reservoirs typically remain in a robust condition during moderate- or short-duration droughts. As a consequence, significant drawdowns for water-supply purposes are limited to more extreme droughts. Recreation facilities at reservoirs operate within a relatively narrow zone of lake elevation. Therefore, a 2% yield policy enhances the utility of the lake for recreational activities such as boating, swimming, and water skiing. Resources downstream of the reservoir also benefit from a 2% yield policy. Streamflows are enhanced by reservoir releases during dry conditions. Often, the river is used as the conveyance mechanism for water-supply releases. The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Water Resources, is obligated statutorily to protect water released from Federal reservoirs under contract provisions from diversion by unauthorized downstream users. In this case, natural riparian demands first-use water-supply releases. While transit losses are viewed as a cost from the perspective of a water-supply user, they constitute a benefit to a drought-starved river reach. As a rule, severe droughts will shift significant benefits from those of retaining water behind the dam to those realized by moving water from the reservoir to the downstream river system. Water-supply policy that depends on a quantified yield is vulnerable to the underlying assumptions used to calculate the yield. The establishment of a yield value implies a deterministic capability to predict future drought conditions. Runoff from watersheds is a nonlinear response to rainfall and antecedent conditions. Alterations in land use, soil moisture, rainfall-intensity variations, water-use patterns, and vegetative conditions create time-variant states in the watershed that result in infinite potential outcomes. As a result of these complexities, the assumptions behind a yield determination are as important as the yield value itself. In order to properly assess policy implications and options, contingency plans must be developed should actual conditions deviate from those that were assumed in the development of the yield estimate. Contingencies could include the reduction of demands as water-supply storage decreases, the recalculation of yield using observed antecedent conditions, or the reapportionment of available yield among competing users in order to minimize hardships. The apportionment of shortages among stakeholders is one key provision that must be addressed. While available-yield determinations are saddled with uncertainty, allocation of yield shortages among users is a deterministic procedure. Equity is expressed through allocation of remaining storage in proportion to each user's relative allocation of the original yield. In cases where certain individual withdrawals were less than contractual allowances, allocations of storage should be weighed inversely to the amount previously withdrawn. Withdrawals must be monitored in order to maintain equity among users. Experiences from past droughts have shown that users tend to adjust their own demand rates as storage declines (Sheer, 1980). Because the assumed yield policy is based on a constant demand in the face of deterministic inflow conditions, the occurrence of drier-than-assumed conditions requires one of two responses: suffer a shortage under current demand rates or reduce demands in response to the actual conditions. One expedient method for setting mid-drought corrections is hedging, which accepts small release reductions in the early stages of a drought in order to offset a large deficit in the later stage of a drought (Maass et al., 1962). The sustainability of reservoir yield through a multiple-year drought has repercussions for other facets of reservoir operations. As demand for water approaches the expected yield, the reservoir's ability to accommodate other purposes can be reduced. For example, drawdowns of the normal conservation pool to enhance fisheries and shoreline wildlife habitat can require storage evacuations of approximately 30% of capacity in order to have the desired effects. This action temporarily reduces reservoir storage, and therefore the yield. Such a drawdown plan can be operated in situations where the expected demand over the course of the drought remains well below the yield of the effectively smaller reservoir. Once the demand curve and yield curve begin to converge, drawdown policy must become more conservative, shifting from a routine action to an opportunistic tactic. Under heavy subscription of water supply, drawdowns for fisheries or recreation are coordinated to take advantage of the anticipated drawdowns seen under the drought cycle. The benefits of drought-induced drawdowns to a reservoir fishery are a function of the timing and duration of the lower water levels. Although the primary means of maintaining the water-supply capability of a reservoir during drought is demand reduction, conjunctive use policies also extend the utility of reservoir storage. Conjunctive use entails the utilization of multiple sources of water to meet a common demand. A general hierarchy of use among water sources would be: streamflow, reservoir storage, ground-water storage. The conjunctive use of streamflow and reservoir storage is the heart of the water-assurance concept. Users rely on the available streamflow to first meet their demands, thereby resting their reservoir supplies. Once streamflows have receded below a specified threshold level, reservoir releases can be called upon to meet demands. In the course of a drought cycle, this strategy reduces the length of time that a reservoir is called upon to meet demands. Because yield is a function of time, a rested reservoir can provide water above its design yield over the compressed time period. The same concept holds for surface and ground water. Surface water can be used in an opportunistic manner that reduces aquifer demand because surface water is typically more transient than water stored in aquifers. Reservoir drafts may be larger than yield early in a drought. Once the reservoir reaches a depleted state, it can be rested for recovery while demand shifts to the aquifer. With system operations, the flexibility of diverse water sources leads to enhanced reliability; the yield of the system can be greater than the sum of yields of the individual components. Reservoir yield has to be viewed as an function of nonlinear inputs. The anticipated inflows which occur under drought are located at the extreme end (i.e. those flows having a greater than 95% chance of being exceeded) of the historic flow-duration curve, which is a graph of the cumulative frequency of historic flows. The extreme low-flow region of a typical flow-duration curve is defined by few data points due to the rarity of these events. Furthermore, the data that are available are often widely scattered. Therefore, extreme drought is difficult to analyze and forecast. Reservoir policies established to maintain yield under these conditions must recognize two tenets: 1) the historic drought of record will not repeat itself exactly; and 2) the historic drought of record will be altered for the worse by subsequent anthropogenic perturbations in the watershed. While extreme drought may be defined as having a 2% chance of occurrence or being a once-in-fifty year event, probability calculations enable this risk to be quantified over any extended time period. Using the basic risk equation (Linsley et al., 1975) that describes the probability of an event happening at least once in a specified time period, the chances of an extreme (2%) drought occurring at least once in the next 20 years is one out of three. Similarly, there is a one out of two chance that an extreme drought will occur at least once in the next 35 years. Water-supply planning horizons are often in the range of 20 to 40 years. Thus, the probability of an extreme drought occurring at least once during the typical planning horizon ranges from 1/3 to greater than 1/2. Compounding the complacency induced by the definition of extreme drought is the loss of institutional memory at utilities and reservoir-operation centers. In Kansas, the last major multiple year drought was 40 years ago (1952-57). Professional points of reference are rarely available to provide guidance for operational policies and decisions. Furthermore, most of the reservoir facilities have never been subjected to severe drought stress, so their functionality under extreme conditions is somewhat uncertain. Further complications can be expected to arise as the recreation sector, which has enjoyed the utility of predominantly near-full reservoirs, is confronted with a diminished facility. This typically heightens public interest and focuses attention on reservoir-operation rules and decisions. Vigilance is the key to managing the yield policy. With regard to policy implications, it is important to remember that a yield estimate and the assumptions and uncertainties that form the foundation of the yield estimate can not be separated. During droughts, the consistency of actual conditions to previously assumed conditions must also be monitored and assessed. Contingency plans must be developed and implemented when the assumptions are violated, which is inevitable. Are Reservoir Yields Sustainable? Fundamentally, reservoir yield is a function of inflow, net evaporation, and storage. In the absence of stresses such as changing watershed or climatic conditions, inflow and net evaporation may be considered stationary. Storage, however, is continually decreasing due to sedimentation. The rate of storage decrease depends primarily on the soils, land uses, hydrology, and hydraulics in the watershed upstream of the reservoir. Nonetheless, unless compensatory actions are undertaken, storage decreases monotonically with time. Because reservoir yield can not be sustained if reservoir storage is not, the ultimate yield of a river-reservoir system will tend to the yield of the river alone. An interesting discussion of reservoir sedimentation and by extension, the sustainability of reservoir yield, can be found in Reisner (1986). Large reservoirs are designed with a sediment storage capacity sufficient to store the estimated sediment load expected to occur over the design life of the project. A 50- or 100-year design life is used for most projects. With all else equal, the storage (and therefore the yield) will be greater than design as long as there is unused sediment storage capacity. The converse also is true. The prediction of future sedimentation loads and deposition is difficult and prone to large errors (Singh, 1992). Consequently, the actual useful life of a project can differ significantly from the design life. Table 6.2 illustrates the design and estimated actual conservation storage capacities for two major Federal reservoirs in Kansas. Table 6.2--Design and estimated conservation storage capacities. DesignCapacity(acre-ft) in Year Est. ActualCapacity(acre-ft) Tuttle Creek The sediment storage in the conservation capacity at John Redmond filled approximately 25 years before design. Conversely, as of 1993, Tuttle Creek could provide additional yield from 173,000 acre-feet (0.213 km3) of unused conservation-capacity sediment storage. Both reservoirs are losing capacity to sedimentation and have the same ultimate fate. In the absence of any mitigation efforts at Redmond, however, their prospects over the intermediate term of their design lives are very different. Additional sediment information for three major reservoirs along the Kansas River is provided in Boxed section 6.3. Reservoir yield can be prolonged significantly in several ways. In a multi-purpose facility, the capacity of one storage capacity can be augmented by reducing another capacity. Raising the boundary elevation that separates the flood control capacity from the conservation capacity will augment the conservation-storage capacity at the expense of the flood-control capacity. Flood-control capacities can be many times larger than conservation capacities, so a large percentage gain in conservation storage (and therefore yield) can be garnered with a small percentage loss of flood-control capacity. Note that this is primarily an institutional and operational change, but may require some structural modification to outlet works as well. At John Redmond, this type of adjustment could be completed while maintaining the design storage of the flood-control capacity. The overall sediment in the facility is less than expected. The problem is that the sediments have been deposited in the conservation capacity to a much greater degree than expected. Relative to design, the conservation capacity has less storage than expected while the flood-control capacity has more storage than expected. The reservoir could be re-balanced by raising the top-of-conservation level. The flood-control capacity would lose storage but still have more capacity than design. Other means of increasing storage, such as physically raising the height of the dam or removing accumulated sediment deposits, are possible. These projects, however, are usually unjustifiable from economic and environmental perspectives. To date, neither of these approaches has been used for any major reservoir in Kansas. Lastly, yield lost to diminished storage capacity could be offset by augmenting reservoir inflow. Augmentation usually implies the acquisition of water from other basins. Proposals of this type raise numerous political concerns that, in addition to environmental and economic factors, must be considered. Although many ambitious proposals have been advanced, few projects of this type have been started in the western United States in the last several decades. Boxed section 6.3: The Kansas River System: Sedimentation Data and Water-supply Management The Kansas River in northeast Kansas (fig. B6.3.1) is formed by the confluence of the Smoky Hill River and the Republican River at Junction City, Kansas. It flows generally eastward until it joins the Missouri River at Kansas City. The Kansas River corridor is home to approximately 1/3 of the state's population. The Kansas River, and its alluvium, is a major source of water supply for this fast-growing region. There are four multi-purpose Corps of Engineers reservoirs on major tributaries of the Kansas. Three of them, Milford Reservoir, Tuttle Creek Reservoir, and Perry Reservoir, are on northside tributaries and were put into service in the 1960's. The following table summarizes the conservation capacity lost to sedimentation in these facilities. All storage units are thousand-acre-feet. in-service year original conservation capacity estimated 1996 conservation cap conservation capacity lost percentage loss project design life, years design storage at end of project life The total conservation capacity lost to-date is approximately 210,000 acre-ft (0.26 km3), or an amount greater than the current conservation capacity of Perry Reservoir. By the time that the conservation capacities reach their design storage levels, over 500,000 acre-ft (0.62 km3), or almost half of the total original conservation capacity, will have been lost. In the face of monotonically decreasing capacities and increasing demands, the utilization and management of the water-supply resources become critical. On the demand side, conservation programs and practices can slow the rate of water-demand growth. On the supply side, continually improving watermanagement practices can improve the efficiency of water-supply operations. The entities that depend on the Kansas River for water supplies have responded to these challenges by forming the Kansas River Water Assurance District. This District has contracted for water-supply storage in each of the three reservoirs listed above. The District uses this storage to assure the supply of water to District members during drought periods. District storage is operated as a unified system and the efficiency benefits attributable to the system operations accrue to District members. In order to help ensure that District water is being used wisely, each District member must adopt a conservation plan that adheres to guidelines developed by the Kansas Water Office. Figure B6.3.1--Kansas-Lower Republican River Basin. Yield is a fundamental aspect of water-supply planning and management. At face value, yield is easy to define and conceptualize. Many complicating issues arise, however, in going from the concept or definition to the actual quantification of yield for a water-supply source. Yield determinations are highly dependent on methodology and assumptions, as well as data sources that can be sparse and non stationary. Furthermore, yields are often prospective in the sense that the item of interest is a yield at the end of a contracting or planning horizon. The necessity of determining yields for projected future conditions exacerbates many of the uncertainties incumbent in the analyses. The mass-balance (operations study) methodology has many advantages with regard to quantifying yields. It is being used in Kansas to determine yields from reservoirs in which the State of Kansas owns an interest. The mass-balance approach provides a pragmatic and consistent methodology for determining yield. Still, the level of precision associated with this approach exceeds the level of accuracy. Yield determinations affect many facets of water policy. In Kansas, a yield estimate places an upper limit on the amount of water supply that can be marketed from a reservoir. This de facto rationing of a water resource can have significant implications for entities in search of water supplies. Therefore, it can affect the larger regional water-supply situation. Yield determinations also have corollary implications for policies pertaining to reservoir recreation, reservoir fisheries, and downstream streamflows and riverine habitat. Reservoir yields depend primarily on inflows and reservoir storage. As such, reservoir yields decrease with time due to reservoir sedimentation. The loss of storage results in a loss of reservoir yield unless compensatory actions are taken. These measures can include augmentation of inflow, increasing the conservation storage capacity via structural or institutional means, or physically removing the accumulated sediments. Except for increasing the conservation storage via institutional means, these approaches are generally not feasible due to economic, environmental, and political concerns. California Department of Water Resources, 1987, California water-Looking to the future: California Department of Water Resources, Bulletin 160-87 Curtis, D., D'Aleo, J., and Larson, L., 1994, Radar-rainfall data for the Great Flood of 1993: WSI Corporation, Billerica, Massachusetts Dracup, J. A., Lee K. S., and Paulson, E. G., 1980, On the definition of droughts: Water Resources Research, v. 116, no. 2 Gleick, J., 1987, Chaos--The making of a new science: New York, Viking-Penguin Kansas Water Office, 1996, Milford yield analysis report: Kansas Water Office, Appendix C Koelliker, J. K., Govindaraju, R. S., and Lewis, S. L., 1995, Evaluation of Marion and Council Grove lakes water-supply capabilities: Kansas Water Office, Project 95-05 Linsley, R. K., and Franzini, J. B., 1979, Water-resources engineering: New York, McGraw-Hill Linsley, R., Kohler, M., and Paulhus, J., 1975, Hydrology for engineers: New York, McGraw-Hill Maass, A., Hufschmidt, M., Dorfman, R., Thomas, H., Marglin, S. and Fair, G., 1962, Design of water-resource systems: Harvard University Press, p. 443-458 McMahon, T. A., and Mein, R. G., 1978, Reservoir capacity and yield: Amsterdam, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company Peck, J. C., 1984, Legal aspects of water storage in Federal reservoirs in Kansas: The University of Kansas, Law Review, v. 32, no. 4 Reisner, M., 1986, Cadillac desert: New York, Penguin Books, p. 488-494 Sheer, D. P., 1980, Analyzing the risk of drought--The Occoquan experience: Journal of the American Water Well Association Singh, K. P., 1992, Predicting sediment loads: Civil Engineering, v. 62, no. 10 Smith, J. A., 1993, Conditional-yield operating rules for low-flow management: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, v. 119, no. 3 Stockton, C. W., and Meko, D. M., 1983, Drought recurrence in the Great Plains as reconstructed from long-term tree-ring records: Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, v. 22, p. 17-29 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1982, Kansas City District, Mineral Intrusion Study, Kansas and Osage Rivers, Kansas: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wurbs, R. A., and Karama, A. S., 1995, Salinity and water-supply reliability: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, v. 121, no. 5 Web version placed online May 6, 2013. Original publication date 1998. URL=http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/239/Leib/index.html

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Cattle markets adjust to larger supplies: Outlook Jan 13, 2017 Crop protection industry needs to stay united to protect products Jan 12, 2017 OUTLOOK 2017: Ag economists explore the best options for producers Jan 12, 2017 Texas Ag Commissioner hopes to talk trade initiative with Israel Jan 10, 2017 Management Enrollment deadline nears for First Rangeland Carbon Credits Pool Ranchers in 15 Great Plains and Western states who want to earn extra money related to the first pool of carbon credits from American rangeland have until Friday, April 4, to get their signed contracts in the mail. Dave Krog, CEO of AgraGate Climate Credits Corp., said the four-year contracts, signed and postmarked by the early April date, would be eligible for credits retroactive to 2007. “With carbon credits recently trading at record highs of $5.50 a ton or more, this is a good time to enroll eligible rangeland in this program, especially with the opportunity to get payments for last year,” he noted. “While a cropland program has been in place for some time, this is the first rangeland program to be initiated.” AgraGate collects credits from ranchers, farmers and private forest owners, combines them into sizable pools, and then sells them on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Proceeds are returned to the carbon credits owners, less a 10 percent service fee, verification costs and CCX fees. The CCX launched trading in December 2003 in a program allowing companies to purchase carbon credits to offset a portion of their greenhouse gas emissions. Research shows that sustainably managed rangeland is very good at taking atmospheric carbon and converting it to a sequestered, stable form in the soil. Rangeland Carbon Details The states currently eligible for the rangeland program include California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. According to Lowell Mesman, an aggregation specialist for AgraGate, the number of credits earned from rangeland varies from 0.12 to 0.52 tons per acre, depending primarily on soil types and precipitation. To be eligible for the rangeland carbon credit program, Mesman said, the land must meet the CCX definition of rangeland, it must be in a CCX-approved area, and the project must include use of light or moderate stocking rates, sustainable livestock distribution, and an approved rangeland management plan. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Field Office Technical Guides include guidelines for managing the controlled harvest of vegetation with grazing animals. Eligible rangeland must be managed “in a manner such that it restores desired vegetation to degraded lands, improves the overall health and vigor of good stands and increases the overall biological intensity of the land.” Stocking rates and livestock distribution criteria are defined according to county and state in the NRCS “Prescribed Grazing Specification” code. A copy of the rangeland carbon credits contract can be downloaded from the AgraGate Web site at www.agragate.com. More information on the rangeland program is available from Mesman at 605-280-1319, by emailing him at [email protected], or by calling the company’s toll-free client service number: 866-633-6758. AgraGate, a subsidiary of the Iowa Farm Bureau, is the leading aggregator of carbon credits from agriculture. On behalf of farmers, ranchers and private forest owners, the company has marketed carbon credits from more than 1.5 million acres in 24 states on the CCX.

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Search Appeals court rules against California growers over Delta smelt Thursday, 13 March 2014 17:07 GMT (Adds case background, quote from ruling) By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 (Reuters) - As California faces a historic drought, a U.S. appeals court on Thursday sided with federal wildlife regulators who had recommended that the state reduce exports of water from north to south California in order to protect a finger-sized fish, the threatened Delta smelt. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against growers and California water districts in the case and said a lower court had erred in describing the regulators' determination as arbitrary and capricious. Reaction from growers was swift. In a blog post, Damien Schiff, an attorney for growers, said the ruling "is terribly disappointing and bodes ill for farmers, farm laborers and millions of other Californians dependent on a reliable water supply." Efforts to save the Delta smelt, which lives only in the wetlands stretching north of San Francisco, have become the most visible battle over water in drought-hit California, pitting environmentalists against farmers who say that humans' interests are being put second to a small fish. At issue is a 2008 report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which concluded that the fish's existence was threatened and recommended limited exports of water to farmers and southern California. Farmers and allies sued, and a lower court called the federal biological opinion "arbitrary and capricious." However, in its opinion on Thursday, the 9th Circuit ruled that the lower court should have been more deferential to the Fish and Wildlife Service. "We recognize the enormous practical implications of this decision," 9th Circuit Judge Jay Bybee wrote. "But the consequences were prescribed when Congress determined that 'these species of fish, wildlife, and plants are of esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value to the Nation and its people.'" The case in the 9th Circuit is San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority et al. vs. Sally Jewell et al., 11-15871. (Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Stephen Powell) Themes Appeals court rules against California growers over Delta smelt

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Greater-than-additive management effects key in reducing corn yield gaps While many recent studies have documented that agricultural producers must significantly increase yields in order to meet the food, feed, and fuel demands of a growing population, few have given practical solutions on how to do this. Crop science researchers at the University of Illinois interested in determining and reducing corn yield gaps are addressing this important issue by taking a systematic approach to the problem. A recent study from the Illinois Crop Physiology Laboratory, led by Fred Below, a U of I crop physiologist, provides the first estimate of the corn yield gap for the U.S. Corn Belt. In order to quantify the corn yield gap, which they define as the difference between a farmer's actual yield and the potential yield for that field, researchers studied combinations of five different management factors in corn-following-soybean trials to determine their effect on yield, both individually and cumulatively. By using an intensified management system that included increased plant population, transgenic (Bt trait) insect resistance, strobilurin-containing fungicide, balanced crop nutrition (phosphorus-sulfur-zinc), and supplemental side-dressed nitrogen, the researchers saw a yield increase of 28 percent more corn grain compared to that of a standard management system. This study indicates that corn yields in Illinois can be increased by about 28 percent using commercially available technologies and hybrids. More important, the study concluded that no single factor or technology accounted for this increase in yields; rather, it was the result of a consistently observed greater-than-additive effect of factors acting together that produced the highest yields. All factors, except for plant population, were necessary for maximizing yield and reducing the yield gap. ... more about:»Corn »Environmental Sciences »Sciences »corn yields »crop »fungicide "The objective of our study was to determine which common management practices were the most effective for increasing corn yields," said Laura Gentry, co-author of the study and adjunct professor at the U of I, as well as director of water quality research for the Illinois Corn Growers Association. "We wanted to see what happens if you use a 'traditional' versus an 'advanced' management approach that encompassed a variety of agronomic practices." The design of the study, an incomplete factorial design commonly referred to as an addition/omission study, entailed applying each of the five management factors (plant population, transgenic trait, fungicide, nitrogen fertility, and phosphorus-sulfur-zinc fertility) at two levels (traditional and advanced). The design allowed for two important control treatments: high tech, in which all management factors are applied at the advanced level, and traditional, in which all management factors are applied at the lower level. "Omission treatments" were created by applying a single factor at the lower level while all other factors were maintained at the advanced levels. Similarly, "addition treatments" were created by applying a single factor at the advanced level while maintaining all other factors at the lower level. The study also allowed the researchers to make several critical comparisons in order to estimate the yield value of each technology factor when it was a component of a traditional system of lower inputs and when it was a component of an advanced system of higher-level inputs. Field trials were conducted during the 2009 and 2010 growing seasons at two sites: the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center in Champaign-Urbana (CU), and the Dixon Springs Research Center in southern Illinois (DS). In addition to determining simple yield effects, the researchers also evaluated treatment effects on kernel number and kernel weight. They found that as each advanced factor was withheld from the high tech system, kernel number decreased. Kernel weight was only consistently affected by strobilurin fungicide application. "If the goal is to feed nine billion people, we need to increase our productivity by 70 to 100 percent," Gentry said. "So it is valuable to know that most of our yield gain came from greater kernel number, and it was harder to influence kernel weight. This information has a variety of implications for corn breeding as well as management practices like plant population." While the yield contribution of each factor was greatest when applied as part of the full complement of advanced-level inputs, Gentry explained that the two management factors that were consistently the most influential for increasing yields were the Bt-trait and the strobilurin-containing fungicide. When the Bt-traited hybrid was omitted from the high tech system, they saw an 8.7 percent yield decrease and a yield increase of 4.5 percent when the Bt trait was added to the traditional system. "Farmers know that the hybrid trait is critical," Gentry said. "They pay more for the seed, but this study shows that they are compensated in terms of their yields. And, environmentally, we're applying less insecticides." The contribution of the strobilurin-containing fungicide was unexpected by the researchers, especially during the 2010 growing season when conditions were dry. Applying strobilurin fungicide increased yield by 8.5 percent (CU) and 9.4 (DS) percent. Gentry said this may have been due to strobilurin's properties as a plant growth regulator, which kept leaves greener later in the season, and also that it may have accounted for a reduction in kernel abortion during the moderate drought. Though the environments included in the study could have supported plant populations greater than 32,000 plants per acre, the study concluded that maintaining a lower plant population while supplying the other inputs at the advanced level neither increased nor decreased yield. Will this intensified approach be economically possible for farmers? "That was not the focus of this study or the question we wanted to answer," Gentry said. "In all likelihood, our high technology treatment of advanced inputs would not prove to be the most profitable treatment despite producing the greatest yields. "The value of the added yield would not compensate for the cost of the extra inputs, especially when corn prices are low. This study was a first step towards a greater understanding of how we can increase yields in the U.S. Corn Belt to meet increasing demand for corn," she added. "This principle that there is a 'synergistic' or greater-than-additive yield response under more intensively managed systems is new knowledge. Corn yields with today's hybrids do have the potential to increase with the application of protection chemicals and by making crop nutrients more plant-available," she said. Gentry added that the researchers hypothesize that corn yields can be further increased in a sustainable way, even beyond the results demonstrated in this study, with continued crop breeding efforts, advancements in fertilizer formulations and placement technology, and possibly, with the development of effective plant growth promoters, she said. "Evaluating Management Factor Contributions to Reduce Corn Yield Gaps" was recently published in Agronomy Journal. Co-authors of the study were Matias L. Ruffo, Laura F. Gentry, Adam S. Henninger, Juliann R. Seebauer, and Frederick E. Below. The paper can be accessed online for free at: https://www.agronomy.org/publications/aj/articles/107/2/495. Funding and in-kind support for this project was provided by BASF, Koch Industries Inc., Monsanto, and The Mosaic Company. Stephanie [email protected] 217-244-1183 @uignome http://aces.illinois.edu/ Stephanie Henry | EurekAlert! Further reports about: > Corn > Environmental Sciences > Sciences > corn yields > fungicide

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Agweb HomeAgDay TV HomeBusiness Global Farmer Network By: Global Farmer Network The Global Farmer Network are farmers committed to inserting their voice and perspective in the global dialogue regarding food and nutritional security. We Must Remove the Landmines That Limit Access to Biotechnology in Africa By Motlatsi Musi: Pimville, South Africa Back in the dark days of apartheid, many South African farmers like myself were forced to drive our tractors through fields full of landmines as we worked hard to grow maize and other vegetables. That’s now a part of history, thank goodness. Yet farmers in today’s Africa continue to face landmines of the metaphorical variety: As we try to obtain access to the latest agricultural technology, we see hazardous obstacles everywhere. They must be removed. If our continent is ever going to feed itself, we’re going to have to beat the odds--and adopt the same tools that are taken for granted in so much of the developed world. That means we must have access to seeds improved with biotechnology. I’ve seen the benefits of GM crops firsthand. Just south of Johannesburg, I own several acres of land and rent more. For the last eight years, I’ve grown genetically modified corn and soybeans. They are outstanding crops. My yields have improved by more than one-third, meaning that the economics of farming never have been better. Agriculture doesn’t have to be a subsistence occupation. It can be a sustainable profession. Economics are only a part of it. GM crops are more sustainable for the environment and human health as well. The biotech variety I planted protects maize from stalk boring insects, so I don’t have to apply nearly as much chemical spray as in the past. That’s a huge benefit for field laborers, especially children. The enemies of biotechnology sometimes claim that GM food is harmful to eat. This is sheer nonsense. Ever since I’ve grown it, I’ve eaten it. There are no bad side effects. This is perfectly good food. Africans everywhere must come to this realization. We don’t grow nearly enough food. Our production is simply too low. And so we face a stark choice: Do we accept the bleak prospect of permanent dependence, in which we rely upon the wealthy nations of the world to feed us, out of pity? Or do we want to stand on our own and take care of ourselves? The choice is between aid and trade, and this is no choice at all. We must embrace agricultural growth. We shouldn’t struggle to feed our fellow Africans, but should grow so much that we export our crops around the world. GM technology is not a panacea. It won’t solve all of our problems. African farmers face a long series of challenges, from an inadequate infrastructure to political corruption. Yet access to the latest crop technologies will give us a fighting chance, especially as the climate changes and we try to adapt to new and possibly harder conditions. Drought-resistant plants represent an especially hopeful opportunity. Too much of Africa missed out on the Green Revolution. We cannot afford to let Africa ignore the Gene Revolution. Unfortunately, many people, especially in Europe, don’t want us to benefit from these developments. It reminds me of the worst aspects of South African apartheid. In 1976, I quit high school to become an anti-apartheid activist, thinking that liberation was more important than education. They’re both essential, of course, and I’m proud to say that over time we saw Nelson Mandela go free and now many of us actually own the land we work. I’m no longer a second-class citizen, but a proud South African with my own passport. But those were tough times. As a protestor, I was detained by authorities. My brother was beaten. He still has a dent in his skull from that experience. Just thinking about those times brings back memories of pain. Now we face a new kind of imperialism--an international eco-imperialism that seems to think African farmers should remain poor and desperate, while the rest of the world flourishes. This new breed of activist seeks to keep GM crops away from African farmers and hamper the sale of our GM food to customers in other countries. Almost nothing could be more harmful. I look forward to a different kind of future, when Africans refuse to let others push us around. We should demand nothing but the best. For those of us who produce the food, that means full access to biotechnology. Mr. Motlatsi Musi grows maize, beans, potatoes, breeding pigs and cows on 21 hectares he acquired in 2004 through the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development Program (LRAD) in South Africa. Mr. Musi is a member of the TATT Global Farmer Network (www.truthabouttrade.org)

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2017-04/3223/en_head.json.gz/19645

Using Sea Minerals in Agriculture – a Tutorial Thursday, July 10, 2008 by: Mike DonkersTags: sea minerals, health news, Natural News http://www.naturalnews.com/023600_minerals_water_sea.html (NewsTarget) Based on my other two articles on sea minerals here on NaturalNews, (http://www.naturalnews.com/022278.html) and (http://www.naturalnews.com/022309.html) , I have received a lot of questions from readers on how to make a Sole and how to ocean-farm. In this article I attempt to teach you in plain English how to do so. I can be reached at [email protected] if you have any further questions.Sea Minerals as Building BlocksMinerals are the building blocks of life. The sea is the 'primal soup' from which all life on earth originates. There is no place on earth with a higher concentration of minerals than the sea. Sea water covers 70% of the planet's surface. Animal and plant life thrive in an unpolluted sea environment, so much so that a double life span is easily reached compared to life on land, and in perfect health. This is because disease is the result of mineral shortages and acidification and this does not naturally occur in a sea environment. If it does occur, man is to blame, not nature.Sea minerals as a plasmaAll cellular life comes from the sea. Blood has been shown to be 98% identical to sea water. The only difference is that sea water needs an extra molecule of magnesium, whereas blood needs an extra molecule of iron (hence the red color of blood). When a sea water dilution comes in contact with blood, however, the magnesium is converted into iron, making the transition 100%. Thus sea water should be seen as a plasma.Chlorophyll as a plasmaPhotosynthesis is the interaction of sunlight and water. This forms the basis of all plant life. This too began in the sea. Chlorophyll is the product of photosynthesis and led to green, one-celled organisms. These washed onto land and led to plant life. People and animals not only share a genetic link with the sea but also with green plants, as chlorophyll is 98% identical to blood. Chlorophyll, too, has a magnesium core while iron forms the basis for blood. The conversion of magnesium in chlorophyll to iron is once again complete once this comes into contact with blood. Like sea water, chlorophyll is therefore a plasma and is sometimes referred to as the 'blood of the plant'.Sea minerals and chlorophyll as healersDisease is caused by a shortage of minerals, which causes acidification. With the exception of a few, all minerals are alkalizing. In order to combat disease and acidification, alkalization and mineralization is key. Since sea water and green plants both have the very alkaline magnesium as a base, these are vital in fighting disease. Magnesium is the mineral of life.Sea minerals and chlorophyll have the capacity to regenerate all cellular life. Sea minerals enrich the soil and plants with all necessary minerals and trace elements, the building blocks of life, in exactly the right proportions and composition. They provide the information and energy that cells need to regenerate by alkalizing and mineralizing the environment of the cells. This approach is therefore pro-life, not anti-disease. Sea minerals and chlorophyll help the organism maintain and regain its health. Ocean-grown plants can have the same effect on humans and animals who eat these plants.Sea minerals as fertilizerWhen sea minerals serve as plant food, the plants and soil take up more minerals and trace elements than they would get from any other type of fertilizer, including organic fertilizer. All of the earth's elements, both known and unknown, can be found in sea water. Scientists have so far been able to identify 92 elements in sea water and 84 in unrefined sea salt.Thus it makes perfect sense to use diluted sea minerals on the 30% land mass on which we live. Contrary to a healthy sea environment, there is more disease, aging, shortening of life spans and cell degeneration on land. By working with dilutions which are so extreme you can hardly taste the salt, there will be no salinization of the plants and soil, so the minerals can be used to their full advantage to help crops develop, grow and build up resistance.Disease is acidification. Sea minerals alkalize and mineralize the soil, which makes for a healthy soil and soil life. Insects, fungi and other pathogens only clean up weaker crops and will not touch ocean-grown crops or the crops will show remarkable resistance to these micro-organisms. Weeds often thrive on slightly acidic soils and they will also stay away. Insecticides, fungicides and herbicides are then no longer needed. These chemicals have a highly acidic effect and will only deprive the soil and soil life of vital nutrients because they don't work with nature but against it. The same is true for artificial fertilizer and non-composted organic fertilizer. Sea minerals are a natural alternative which allows you to work with the building blocks of life and in perfect harmony with nature.Sea minerals and grassNo other crop is more receptive to sea minerals than grass. Grass grows in all places and at all times, it grows on everything and nothing. It is the predominant species of green plant on the 30% land mass we live on and it is a true survivor. Give grass the pure life force of sea minerals and it will take up every single mineral. Other plants make their own selection from the 'menu' served up by sea minerals, but grass loves them all. It is often thought that many plants, most notably grass, cannot grow without nitrogen. Though nitrogen promotes rapid growth, an excess of nitrogen does not feed the plants nor does it promote real health.Good food means good health, it is the fuel that keeps the engine running smoothly. Sea minerals act as nutrients because of their alkalizing and mineralizing nature, keeping disease and acidification at bay. The plant's natural immune system is boosted in this way. Plants need minerals. They will get their nitrogen in other ways, just like they do their carbon and sulphur, as these naturally occur in the atmosphere (air, rainwater). These are life-giving substances and so are sea minerals.Sea minerals not only promote fast growth, but above all healthy growth. In no other crop is this more visible than grass. Even if the difference between ocean-grown grass and grass fertilized in other ways is not immediately visible, any grazing animal will immediately select ocean-grown grass when given the choice, because the animal instinctively knows ocean-grown grass has more nutritional value. Ocean-grown grass contains a balanced complex of minerals and trace elements as well as large amounts of chlorophyll. This is good for the grass and the grazer. The milk and meat of these animals is good for us humans. Thus a cycle is established which literally starts at the root.How to ocean farmFirst, I make a Sole. Here is how I do it:Take a glass container (a bottle or a jar) with a lid on it so you can screw the container tight and shake the contents without spilling. Cover the bottom with Celtic sea salt (the grey, unrefined kind) or Himalaya salt. Fill the container with good-quality water, either spring water, mineral water or filtered tap water. Shake the contents until the salt has completely dissolved. If you have coarse salt, this could take up to 24 hours and you may have to shake several times. Once the salt has dissolved repeat the process, adding more and more salt until the water is completely saturated and there are salt crystals at the bottom which will no longer dissolve. You now have concentrated sea salt water or Himalaya water, otherwise known as Sole, referring to water and sunlight, 'liquid sunlight'.The next thing you need to get is a TDS meter. These are available on the web. This gives you the ability to measure exactly the salt content of the solution you are working with in parts per million (ppm). To ocean-grow most plants you can use a solution of 2000 ppm. This comes to about 4 teaspoons of Sole per quart of water. Be sure to measure the TDS (total dissolved solids) content. You can use one type of Sole to get up to 2000 ppm, in which case I recommend Celtic Sea Salt. If you want to combine it with a good rock salt, I recommend Himalaya Salt.I start out with soaking the seeds for 24 hours in a 2000 ppm solution as well as treating the soil with the same solution. This way both the seeds and the soil get a head start. When I plant the seeds I cover them with a thin top layer of soil, which I also spray with a 2000 ppm solution. This will give the seeds and soil a nice damp start, but not too damp.The second thing you need to figure out is how often to apply a solution. My golden rule is to not overdo it. I reapply the solution by spraying when the soil is nearly dry, thus giving the seeds and soil minimal nutrition. This strengthens them because they have to make the most of what I give them, plus I create conditions which are not too moist, which feeds fungi. You can harvest at any stage in growth, but of course the plant will be at its most energetic and nutritious when it is young.If you want to experiment with the salt tolerance of certain crops, go by your intuition and listen to what the plants are telling you. For example, if they develop yellow or brown leaves, back down on the salt and give them water only to water down the solution you have applied. This will not kill or harm the plant permanently and you will be able to figure out the right dose.I prefer to grow outdoors in indirect sunlight, even in winter time (growth will be slower then). You can also choose to grow without soil (hydroponics), indoors or outdoors. I have discovered I am a soil guy. In soil, fewer applications of ocean solution are necessary because the soil fixes the minerals and, because they are salts, the soil and plants will use water more economically.When growing outdoors make sure you reapply an ocean solution after heavy rainfall, as rainfall causes the minerals to wash back out to sea. Do this on a dry day. A few drops of rain will not be so bad, in fact they will help to push the minerals deeper into the soil and closer to the roots. Once again, use your intuition.What is really essential is the quality of the water in which you make the solution. Use living water, do not go for distilled or reverse-osmosis water as this is dead water. Use either filtered tap water or spring or mineral water, preferably at its natural temperature of 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius). Don't go over 48 Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius) as the water will lose its strength and vitality. This is according to the teachings of Viktor Schauberger.Make sure you also farm with the right intention, one of love (do not farm if you are in a foul mood!). Check on the plants and soil every day, even if they do not yet need solution. Your loving attention alone will make the plants want to grow for you.The great thing about all this is you are farming in harmony with nature because you are listening to what she has to tell you. There is no better and more energetic or spiritual therapy than that, in my view. By getting closer in contact with nature you are getting closer to your own nature.Happy farming!About the authorMike Donkers is an English teacher from the Netherlands who started taking care of his own health in October 2006 because doctors couldn't help him. His interest in the connection between food and health has led to more in-depth research, particularly in the role sea minerals can have in the regeneration of cells. He is also a self-taught guitarist and singer. He is the songwriter and frontman of his own band, The Mellotones (www.nubluz.com). Search on GoodGopher.com Follow real-time breaking news headlines on Sea minerals at FETCH.news

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