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#Post#: 592--------------------------------------------------
Sustainable Food Production
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: December 21, 2013, 5:14 pm
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For those who may be a bit depressed about our Homo Hubris
Civilization trajectory because it looks more like Home Erectus
morphed into Homo Defectus. ;D
Perhaps this fellow, who lives in much less beneficent
surroundings than you, sees a great deal of filth, decay and
Homo defectus trashing of the biosphere in the modern inner city
cluster**** day in and day out YET, is making "lemonade" out of
"toxic lemons", will cheer you up.
HTML http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/Will-Allen-Photo.jpg
Urban Aquaponics pioneer grows mercury free Tilapia and Lake
Perch to sell to restaurants nearby. ALL the feces from the fish
is used with the water to fertilize food plants grown year
around. He even grows edible flowers (Nasturtiums) he sells to
restaurants. He continually reuses the SAME water and has ZERO
effluent from his urban farming and aquaponics system
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-211213180651.png<br
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Everything is organic with zero chemical fertilizers. He has,
because of his success in sustainable urban farming in an inner
city high crime area, become famous and travelled the world
giving lectures and training on his sustainable business model.
HTML http://www.marquette.edu/universityhonors/images/allen.jpg
Will Allen receiving Honorary Degree awarded by Marquette
University.
Will Allen is evidence to me that no matter how bad things are,
we must always try to make a go of it, not as some quixotic,
mindless gesture of futility, but as a function of our
existence. We are here for a lot of reasons; one very important
one is to make sure others of our species can be here too. Don't
give up on [i] Homo "defectus"[/I]. It ain't over yet.
Will Allen is now also teaching organic methods to leach city
soil of heavy metals and other toxins and recreate the organic
soil that was there before the city was. People like him give me
hope. I hope his efforts lighten your mood too.
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Here's a cool video about Will Allen and Urban Farming. After
the video, I post a jpg as food for thought for you.
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#Post#: 672--------------------------------------------------
Marvelous Azolla has been with us since the Cretacious Period
(Dinosaurs!)
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: January 6, 2014, 10:05 pm
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Azolla: Another floating, fast growing wonder plant like
duckweed with great promise in a variety of applications that
will aid us in establishing a sustainable civilization.
Azolla BioSystems Ltd
Azolla BioSystems uses a natural biological process to reduce
the threat of man-made climate change by converting the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) directly into a unique
free-floating plant called Azolla.
HTML http://azollabiosystems.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/azolla-flow-chart-NEW.png
Azolla Biosystems is currently developing opportunities and
commodities in eight sectors:
Design including architectural development of Azolla Hubs
Sequestration including the development of new Azolla strains
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) including Azolla’s conversion
into bioplastics and biopolymers
Biofuels produced from Azolla, and its integration with the
production of algoil (algal-oil) and other
renewable biofuels
Biofertilizers including its use in rice production and other
crops
Livestock Feed including the production of long shelf-life
Azolla pellets
Food including hydroponics, and aquaponics
Research & Development including high-value pharmaceuticals,
nutraceuticals, bioplastics and biopolymers.
These form the basis of the Azolla BioSystem that we have
developed – a flexible, modular biological system that can be
adapted to local needs anywhere in the world.
We welcome your input and interest in joining us on our exciting
journey.
About Azolla
Azolla is a unique freshwater fern that is one of the fastest
growing plants on the planet due to its symbiotic relationship
with a cyanobacterium (‘blue-green alga’) called Anabaena.
Anabaena draws down the atmospheric nitrogen that fertilizes
Azolla, and Azolla provides a nitrogen-filled home for Anabaena
within its leaf cavities. This enables the plant to double its
biomass in as little as two days free floating on water as
shallow as one inch (2.4 cm).
Azolla‘s rapid growth makes it a potentially important sequester
of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide which is converted directly
into Azolla‘s biomass. This provides local livestock feed,
biofertilizer and biofuel wherever Azolla is grown, so that this
remarkable plant has the potential to help us weather the
Perfect Storm – the related threats of man-made climate change
and shortages of food and land as our population passes seven
billion.
Why is Azolla Unique?
Azolla is unique because it is one of the fastest growing plants
on the planet – yet it does not need any soil to grow. Unlike
almost all other plants, Azolla is able to get its nitrogen
fertilizer directly from the atmosphere. That means that it is
able to produce biofertilizer, livestock feed, food and biofuel
exactly where they are needed and, at the same time, draw down
large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, thus helping to reduce
the threat of climate change.
How is it able to do this?
Azolla and Anabaena – the Perfect Marriage
Azolla is able to do this because it has a unique mutually
beneficial ‘symbiotic relationship‘ with a cyanobacterium
(blue-green alga) called Anabaena.
HTML http://theazollafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Azolla-Anabaena-symbiosis.png
The symbiotic relationship between Anabaena on the left and
Azolla on the right.
Each partner gives something to the other in this Perfect
Marriage. Because oxygen is poisonous to cyanobacteria, Azolla
provides an oxygen-free environment for Anabaena within its
leaves. In return, Anabaena sequesters nitrogen directly from
the atmosphere which then becomes available for Azolla’s growth,
freeing it from the soil that is needed by most other land
plants for their nitrogen fertilization.
The oldest Azolla fossils are more than 70 million years old,
representing the remains of plants that lived during the Late
Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs roamed the earth. They occur in
sediments that were deposited in quiescent freshwater bodies,
such as lakes, ponds and sluggish rivers, identical to those
inhabited by modern Azolla.
HTML http://theazollafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/modern-and-fossil-Azolla.png
Fossil Azolla (left) has leaves (circled above in red) and
tendrils (circled in blue) that are identical to those of modern
Azolla (right). The fossil is from the Green River Formation of
Colorado, dated between 50.5 and 55.5 million years. The
photograph was kindly provided by Dr Ian Miller of the Denver
Museum of Nature and Science.
Several other symbioses are known between plants and
cyanobacteria – for example in legumes – but the Azolla-Anabaena
relationship is the only known symbiosis in which a
cyanobacterium passes directly to subsequent generations via the
plant’s reproductive sporangia and spores.
So Azolla and Anabaena have never been apart for 70 million
years. During that Immense period of time, the two partners have
co-evolved numerous complementary ways that make them
increasingly efficient.
Agelbert NOTE: IF the above symbiosis has been continuous for 70
million years, I question the "co-evolve" assumption. The
evidence points to the same relationship without changes. I
don't see evidence of co-evolution, or evolution, for that
matter, in this marvelous symbiosis of genetically disparate and
unrelated life forms. It looks more like they started out the
way.
The Azolla Superorganism: A unique biological system
In 2010, our Associate Francisco Carrapiço proposed that
Azolla-Anabaena should be designated as a superorganism “because
of its unique symbiosis in which the two partners have
successful co-evolved into a system that makes important
contributions to ecology, biofertilization and biotechnology”
(Carrapiço, 2010).
The Challenge
The challenge, then, is to work with Azolla and use its
remarkable properties to help us weather the Perfect Storm that
now threatens us and the other species with whom we share our
planet.
You can find more details about Azolla, its history, and its
multiple uses on our information website The Azolla Foundation.
HTML http://azollabiosystems.co.uk/
Agelbert NOTE: Azolla can be feed to chickens, cows and other
livestock. Ducks love Azolla as much as they love duckwweed!
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9qgznNeA4M&feature=player_embedded<br
/>
Baby ducks eating Azolla
#Post#: 1073--------------------------------------------------
Almost 60,000 US Farms Have On-Site Renewable Energy
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 6, 2014, 3:24 pm
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Almost 60,000 US Farms Have On-Site Renewable Energy ;D
SustainableBusiness.com News
As of 2012, 57,299 of our nation's farms produce on-site
renewable energy, according to the USDA Census, more than double
the 23,451 in 2007.
Solar is the most popular resource, used by 36,000 farms,
followed by geo-exchange systems and wind turbines, each used on
about 9,000 farms. About 1300 farms use small hydro and 537 have
biogas systems.
That's pretty impressive even if it still makes up a small
percentage of US farms. USDA's 2012 census, released last week,
shows there are 2.1 million farms taking up 914.5 million acres.
USDA's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) funds up to 25%
of a renewable energy system (solar, wind, biogas) or energy
efficiency upgrades and provides additional support through loan
guarantees. 8,250 projects have been installed under the Obama
administration, with more to come because it made it into this
year's Farm Bill.
Compare the number of farms with renewable energy to all the
organic farms in the country. Even thought it's booming, with
$31.5 billion in sales (up from $1.7 billion in 2007), organic
acreage is tiny with 17,600 organic farms spread over 4.6
million acres - 0.8% of the total value of US food production.
Amazing how long it takes to make a dent in conventional
farming. :(
Lots of conventional farms have moved to conservation tillage
or no-till practices, however - 474,028 farms covering 173.1
million acres.
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And 144,530 farmers sell direct to consumers with sales over
$1.3 billion (up 8.1%).
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"Once every five years, farmers, ranchers and growers have the
unique opportunity to let the world know how U.S. agriculture is
changing, what is staying the same, what's working and what we
can do differently," says Dr. Cynthia Clark, head of USDA's
National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Some interesting statistics:
•Both sales ($394.6 billion) and production expenses ($328.9
billion) reached record highs in 2012;
•75% of farms are small, producing 3% of products with sales
under $50,000. 4% of all farms produce 66% of products with
sales over $1 million;
•Corn and soybean acres topped 50% of all acres harvested for
the first time;
•Cows raised for beef are the biggest food category, accounting
for 29% of farms and ranches (619,172);
•Not surprisingly, farming is concentrated geographically.
California has 9 of 10 top counties for sales, led by Fresno
with $5 billion;
•Top 5 states: California ($42.6 billion); Iowa ($30.8 billion);
Texas ($25.4 billion); Nebraska ($23.1 billion); and Minnesota
($21.3 billion);
•87% of US farms are operated by families or individuals, on
average 58.3 years old and predominantly male;
•Young farmers increased 11.3%, however, to 40,499 people, and
minority-operated farms are increasing, especially Hispanics at
21%.
One of the newer risks on farms is aquaculture, particularly for
their negative impacts on wild salmon. Last year, the USDA
opened the door to expand British Columbia's open net-cage
industry, accepting 13 applications for the Pacific Northwest.
Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch and Canada's SeaChoice
program both rated that industry with a "avoid buying"
designation. There are many problems: what they feed farmed
salmon, disease transmission between farmed and wild salmon, and
concentrations of many farms in small areas. Over 90% of wild
salmon die before they return to freshwater to spawn - most of
them in the first months after they enter the ocean, according
to the David Suzuki Foundation.
"Aquaculture must stop using the ocean as a free waste-treatment
system," says Dr. Suzuki. "Closed-containment - in the ocean or
on land - is better at controlling water and removing feces and
chemicals like antibiotics and pesticides used for sea lice. One
British Columbia open net-cage company lost more than $200
million in one year because of disease, enough to build 10
closed-containment farms. Yet the industry claims closed
alternatives cost too much."
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#Post#: 1101--------------------------------------------------
LEDs Can Triple the Efficiency of Greenhouse Lighting
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 12, 2014, 12:25 am
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LEDs Can Triple the Efficiency of Greenhouse Lighting ;D
[move] Solid-state lighting could improve the world food supply.
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Doug Widney
February 21, 2014
LED greenhouse lighting is poised on the hockey stick of the
adoption curve, saving electricity while potentially improving
the world food supply.
The past year has seen production-scale deployment emerge out of
years of trial grower installations, at users such as Rainbow
Greenhouses in British Columbia, Clean Fresh Food in Wisconsin,
Butter Valley Harvest in Pennsylvania, and many others.
The scale of modern greenhouse operations is visible in places
such as Almeria, Spain, where greenhouses are actually changing
the regional climate. In attempting to reproduce the energy flux
of the sun over many acres, inefficient legacy lighting ends up
drawing a staggering amount of electricity -- well into the
megawatt range. There are growers that have to notify the local
power company of their operating schedule. Lumigrow has a
Canadian customer which operates its lights sixteen hours a day,
seven months a year, and has a winter electricity bill that is
ten times higher than it is in summer.
Growers also encounter local power caps. A commercial greenhouse
complex in Indiana lost an entire summer’s worth of plants when
its electricity was curtailed during a heat wave. :( To this
should be added the approximately 1.3 quads (quadrillion BTUs)
of energy spent hauling food, an amount nearly equal to the
energy in the food itself :o ???. Roses and salad delicacies
are hauled many thousands of miles to northern Europe, Canada,
and Alaska, with the roses often transported by air. >:(
LEDs have a unique efficacy advantage in horticulture. Plants
appear green because they absorb red and blue, the bandgap
energy of the two primary photosynthetic reactions. With LED
lighting, the color of the light can be tuned to “horticultural
red” (660 nanometers) -- deeper than the standard traffic light
or brake
light.
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So why on earth has everyone been feeding plants orange high
pressure sodium (HPS) light, the dominant horticultural lighting
technology? The answer is that from a total output, lifespan
and cost point of view, HPS used to be just the best of a bad
lot.
Spherical emitters such as HPS lose up to 40 percent of their
photons getting the light stream turned around in a downlight
application. As with street lighting, LEDs have the advantage of
being a natural downlight emitter.
PAR is for plants, lumens are for humans
An LED luminaire, for example, could put out red and blue
photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) slightly greater
than a standard 1,000-watt HPS luminaire, while consuming only
325 watts. The PAR unit of measurement is standard in
horticultural lighting, since it is weighted for plant
photosyntethic response. The lumen unit is useless in this
context, as it is based solely on human visual response.
Obvious greenhouse lighting candidates are facilities located in
cloudy northern areas with long winter nights. But any locale
can employ year-round supplementation for especially
light-hungry crops such as corn and tomato. There are a
surprising number of tropical uses, including stretching the
never-long tropical summer daylight, and the raising of crops
that are intolerant of humid heat. All lettuce consumed in the
tropics must either be grown in greenhouses or shipped in from a
higher latitude.
LED horticultural lighting may yield one of the more financially
viable greentech investment niches. Sector sales are growing
rapidly, with market saturation still only in low-single-digit
percents. While the total available market is respectable at
$4.8 billion for North America, the far larger streetlight and
residential lighting markets have distracted the attention of
worldwide lighting majors and Asian exporters (with one or two
significant exceptions).
Challenges include the technology's higher initial cost and the
tendency of farmers to deliberate carefully before gambling an
entire crop cycle on something new. Economics at present are
channeling LED applications towards boutique areas such as
flowers, seed stock growing, and salad herbs and delicacies.
However, costs are falling. Payoff time is now often less than
three years, and the latitude line for the viability of
greenhouse lighting has dropped from Indiana southwards to Santa
Barbara.
Beyond the energy savings, LED greenhouse lighting offers hope
for continued technical progress in world food production.
Observers such as Lester Brown and the Worldwatch Institute have
noted that the years after the new millennium saw a reversal of
some of the progress of the 1990s in eliminating world hunger.
Drought in California is currently driving up food prices
regionally; reportedly, the state government is considering
diverting research funds to investigate greenhouse growing for
saving water. The potential of LED lighting in the greenhouse is
a bright spot for a hungry world.
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***
Doug Widney is Manager of Engineering for LumiGrow, based in
Novato, Calif. He has previously been a consultant in solar,
batteries, and LEDs. LumiGrow, which recently achieved
profitability, is funded by Clean Pacific Ventures. Reach him at
doug@lumigrow.com.
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#Post#: 1122--------------------------------------------------
11 Edible Flowers to Grow in Your Garden
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 13, 2014, 10:47 pm
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11 Edible Flowers to Grow in Your Garden
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Anna Brones, Care2 | May 12, 2014 1:57 pm
It’s not just fancy chefs that can use flowers to add a little
color to a meal; you too can grow your own edible flowers at
home. In fact, while you may find edible flowers on sale at a
farmers market every now and then, there’s nothing like walking
into your garden and picking them fresh.
Nasturtiums
Calendula
Chive blossoms
Borage
Lilacs
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Violets
Roses
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Squash blossoms
Basil blossoms
Fennel blossoms
Lavender
[i]SLIDESHOW and HOW TO PREPARE AND EAT THEM at link: ;D
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[/i]
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#Post#: 1277--------------------------------------------------
Can you find the Mistaken Assumptions in this PRO-GMO scientific
video?
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: June 4, 2014, 3:16 pm
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Rusty Waves of Grain
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One more reason why MONOCULTURE predatory capitalist profit
worshipping agriculture at the expense of the biosphere is
STUPID. >:(
This video illustrates PERFECTLY (without wanting to do so!) the
stupid, reductionist, profit mentality of "modern" (as in
mono-culture idiocy) agriculture. You will note that the Melinda
Gates Foundation (GMO champion for corporate profits disguised
as "helping feed and protect humanity" ;)) is funding this
latest GMO target ( wheat fungus).
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Why is this exactly the wrong approach? First of all, because,
rather than question monoculture practice as the MAIN CAUSE of
an opportunistic fungus going hog wild when a large,
concentrated food source is available (something nature normally
avoids in its vast plant diversity for that VERY REASON -
preventing organism population unbalances in the biosphere), the
scientists merely state that the fungus reproduces rapidly when
"the conditions are suitable".
Well, no kidding! These worthies have a tremendous capacity for
the obvious! Unfortunately, their blind spot in elementary logic
is just as big! And that is, If you have a huge concentrated
food supply, you just left the proven method that nature uses to
keep balance in the biosphere behind! You profit loving fools
are asking for a fungal, bacterial and or insect "plague" to
UNDO THE UNBALANCE IN THE BIOSPHERE.
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Oh, but it is
corporate capitalist heresy to question monoculture
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so the "suitable
conditions" for the fungus to feast on the wheat are not
considered "the problem"
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The "problem" is now the fungus!
HTML http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2009/347/2/6/WTF_Smiley_face_by_IveWasHere.jpg<br
/>"It's a new strain! It EVOLVED! iT'S DANGEROUS!"
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Never mind that LOTS of opportunistic life forms in nature
ALWAYS go after a concentrated food source, there's money to be
made by GMOing the wheat to resist the fungus or GMOing the
fungus so it won't eat the wheat!
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So, these bought and paid for "luminaries" set out do us all a
big "favor"
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/>by "saving the wheat from the fungus".
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As you will see in the video, that pesky ;D fungus has quite a
few tricks up its "sleeve", so to speak. It even lives on
surrounding vegetation for a while before pouncing on the wheat.
Of course, if they manage to slow the fungus down, there will be
a thousand other species of life forms out there lining up to
repair the UNBALANCE IN THE BIOSPHERE known as a concentrated
monoculture food supply.
Scientists, because they are so abysmally ignorant (while
egotistically and pridefully claiming they have nature mostly
figured out - NOT!) of the incredible complexity of the
biochemical processes in the biosphere, MUST work WITH the
biosphere's laws, not against them. Of course the Profit over
Planet IntelliMORONS don't want to hear that...
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;)
Monoculture needs to be eliminated. Various crops must grow
mixed. Soil must not be plowed, perennial grains, not annuals
must be grown. Then there will never be a concentrated food
supply for any single organism and they, predators and prey,
will balance out and NO GMO will be necessary. The HEALTH of
humanity, as well as the biosphere, will then be SUSTAINABLE.
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What WON'T be sustainable, is corporate GMO monoculture profit
over planet.
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[move]Pass it on. The planet you save may be your own.
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#Post#: 1318--------------------------------------------------
Are Weeds the Future of Food?
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: June 7, 2014, 5:31 pm
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Are Weeds the Future of Food?
Lisa Palmer, Yale Environment 360 | June 7, 2014
Weeds that resemble knee-high grass grow in planter pots in a
small room at a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lab just
outside Washington, D.C. Light, heat and carbon dioxide reach
the plants at steady levels. For more than a month, the weeds
have sustained the same conditions expected to be Earth’s norm
35 years from now—carbon dioxide levels equivalent to an urban
traffic jam, and temperatures tipping into the dangerous zone
for the planet’s health.
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On the left is bushy red rice, technically a weed, under
standard growing conditions at a USDA lab near Washington, DC.
On the right, red rice at the USDA lab grows taller and thicker
after being exposed to elevated levels of CO2 and higher
temperatures, mimicking conditions plants will face this century
as the world warms. Photo credit: Lisa Palmer
But rather than choking from such treatment, the weeds—a wild
plant called red rice—are thriving. The test lab mimics
conditions expected around the world by 2050, when an additional
2.6 billion people will be wondering what’s for dinner.
Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist with the USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service, studies, among other things, weeds in food
production and human health. Weeds beguile Ziska. Weeds may be
the largest single limitation to global crop yield. But they
also have traits that are useful to plant growth. Red rice, for
instance, can adapt to more carbon dioxide and heat by producing
more stems and grain—red rice has 80 to 90 percent more seed
than cultivated rice. :o
Now, plant breeders and plant physiologists are capitalizing on
those traits and counting on all possible sources of genetic
variation, including weedy lines of rice, to improve
productivity in cultivated crop varieties. Such cross-breeding
could play an important role in helping the world’s staple food
crops better adapt to a warming climate.
Plant physiologists such as Ziska usually put weeds in two
categories: “an unwanted or undesired plant species” and “early
vegetation following soil disturbance.” Ziska thinks a third
definition could be more suitable: the unloved flower. “A weed
is a plant whose [color=green]virtues have yet to be
discovered,” he says, paraphrasing Emerson.[/color]
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Ziska is not the only one with this perspective. Many scientists
now believe that weeds may be part of the solution to boosting
harvests in a warming world. Wild lines of wheat, oats and
rice—which are, in fact, weeds—have genetic characteristics that
may be useful to adapt their domesticated cousins to an
uncertain future.
Why weeds?
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When
other plants are wilting at extremes of temperature and
rainfall, weeds thrive.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-141113185047.png<br
/> Ziska studies weeds for their redemptive qualities. His
research in this area was bolstered on a sweltering day in an
abandoned industrial lot in Baltimore, 25 miles from his USDA
research center, where he observed weeds that were two to four
times bigger than weeds growing on his rural test plot. The
urban weeds prompted further research on weeds that could be
valuable to raising crops in high-carbon, high-heat scenarios.
Ziska tries not to call red rice a weed. Sometimes he calls it
skanky rice, but mostly he refers to it as wild or feral rice.
All crop plants were wild at some point. They became
domesticated in the same way cows and pigs became domesticated
on farms: through breeding and selection. Wild and feral crop
relatives are the original source of raw genetic material from
which all modern crop varieties were first developed, but these
reservoirs of natural variation have not been well studied.
Breeding from wild, ancestral plant populations may hold the key
to creating crops of the future. Wheat breeding has already made
significant progress in producing weedy lines, which have led to
the cultivation of edible wheat. Because it has a large genome,
wheat can incorporate traits that better withstand heat and
drought. Matthew Reynolds, head of the wheat physiology program
at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in
Mexico City, says that wheat producers are fortunate because
they are slightly ahead of the curve in developing heat- and
drought-resistant varieties.
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The value of using wild relatives of crops as sources of
environmental resilience and resistance to pests and diseases
led to an estimated $115 billion in annual benefits to the world
economy by 1997, primarily through increased production,
according to research at Cornell University.
Although seeds are readily accessible in 1,700 gene banks
throughout the world, “they are not used to their full potential
in plant breeding,” said Susan McCouch, a plant geneticist at
Cornell. “There are still vast reserves of valuable genes and
traits hidden in low-performing wild ancestors and long
forgotten early farmer varieties that can be coaxed out of these
ancient plants by crossing them with higher-yielding modern
relatives. These crosses give rise to families of offspring that
carry a myriad of new possibilities for the future.”
McCouch says the plant breeder’s job is to utilize a combination
of insight, field experience, technology and innovative breeding
strategies to select the most promising offspring and prepare
them for release as new varieties. The breeding system allows
ancient traits and genes to be constantly recycled and
recombined, giving rise to an infinite range of new
possibilities with every generation.
“The same process happens in nature,” McCouch said, “but the
plant breeder can bring together parents from diverse sources
that would never have found each other in the wild.”
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Wild red rice, technically a weed. The plant is hardy and
aggressive. Scientists are working to breed these hardier traits
of red rice into rice grown as crops, improving productivity and
yields. Photo credit: USDA
Improved rice breeding has a long way to go. It takes about 10
years for a crop to go from breeding to production, and another
five years to bring it to distribution to farmers. That’s
because it is a painstakingly slow process to select populations
of offspring that contain combinations of traits and genes that
have never been utilized in agriculture before, then test their
resiliency to environmental stresses.
But through such work weeds may become the unlikely hero of food
production. Take red rice. As the name implies, weedy red rice
looks like cultivated rice—the staple food for more than 3
billion people in the world—but it is an Asian wild grass. If it
gets into a field of cultivated rice, it’s a fierce competitor.
Because it looks so similar to rice, it develops incognito. It
grows vigorously. It propagates quickly. As it matures, it grows
taller than other rice plants.
Then the wind blows its seeds all over a field and the crop
plants itself. Red rice can’t be controlled by herbicides
because it is so closely related to most cultivated rice. Once
it’s established in a field, it is so aggressive that it will
cut a field’s rice yield by 80 percent. Within five years it can
become the dominant species in a field. Technically, red rice is
edible but almost impossible to harvest because once it develops
a seed, the seed falls to the ground and shatters.
The goal, says Ziska, is to transfer the traits that make red
rice so hardy into the more commonly cultivated rice crops.
With a growing global population projected to reach 9.6 billion
by mid-century, the demand for rice and other cereals is
expected to rise by 14 percent per decade. But climate change is
expected to cut into some of those crop yields. Today’s high
temperatures stress the rice plants, limit growth and shorten
growing seasons. Increasing carbon dioxide causes weeds to
outpace crop growth. Coastal deltas are major rice-growing areas
worldwide, and repeated coastal flooding is worsening with
rising sea levels and intensifying storms; Vietnam, one of the
top exporters of rice globally, already is losing land in the
Mekong Delta.
To surmount these many challenges, new tools and technologies
are being developed that allow plant breeders to utilize
ever-more distantly related wild and exotic relatives and to
liberate the potential that remains locked up in these
reservoirs of natural variation.
However, crop resilience does not come in the form of a silver
bullet. “It will not be one new trait, one super crop variety or
one new management system that allows us to meet the world’s
demand for food,” McCouch says. “It takes time, effort and
training to make significant genetic progress when utilizing
these ancient sources of variation.”
But Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland’s
Center for Environmental Science said agricultural science must
move quickly to keep pace with climate change. “This adaptation
needs to be fast,” said Boesch. “It is not something we can
gradually work on. We need to have our science to support
adaptation done at the same time as the rapid change that is
occurring. And that poses tremendous risks for food security.”
Ziska believes weeds will likely be a key part of the solution.
“The feral cousins of today’s crops may allow us to adapt to
meet food security needs,” he says. “This paradox of weeds I
find fascinating. Let’s turn lemons into lemonade.”
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Agelbert Comment:
Great Article! I just want to add the tiniest flowering plant
known to science ([I]Lemna minor[/I] - Duckweed), also has great
promise as a source of nutrition [I] and [/I] bioremediation of
the environment at the same time.
This wonder plant grows almost [I]everywhere on earth[/I], can
be fertilized with pig feces, thereby avoiding chemical
fertilizers and nitrogen waste farm runoff, grows in shallow
ponds with no need of continual water resupply once the initial
pond is set up, does not replace crop land because ponds can be
placed over non arable land all over the world to help sequester
carbon, can be used as feed for animal and nutrient supplements
for humans to prevent malnutrition, have even been used as
environmental markers to detect heavy metal pollutants in water
and, last but not least, are a known natural water purifier
(lowers the fecal coliform count to acceptable levels).
The Chinese have actually proposed Duckweed refineries because,
as long as crude oil costs more that $80 a barrel, biofuel
hydrocarbons form the Duckweed carbohydrates are profitable.
Duckweed, unlike many cellulose biofuel plant sources is
extremely low in lignin . This makes the extraction process far
simpler, cheaper and more environmentally friendly that making
biofuel out corn (a horrible choice only a fossil fuel lover
could like) or even sugar can, which is eight times more
efficient as a biofuel source than corn. Even switchgrass
varieties have more lignin than Duckweed.
I am firmly convinced this humble plant is part of a human
future in a viable biosphere. [/I]
[b]Duckweed, [i]The Little Green Plant that Could.[/b]
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#Post#: 1669--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sustainable Food Production
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: August 6, 2014, 8:08 pm
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[b]What if we CHANGE? [/b]
#Post#: 2029--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sustainable Food Production
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: October 13, 2014, 1:19 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Growing Gourmet Mushrooms From Coffee Grounds
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Stefanie Spear | October 13, 2014 8:14 am
Here’s a company with a very noble goal: keep coffee grounds out
of landfills and use them to grow gourmet mushrooms. GroCycle,
the UK’s first urban mushroom farm, is a social enterprise
focused on social and environmental good, rather than profit.
Started more than two years ago, GroCycle collects used coffee
grounds from local UK coffee houses and takes them back to an
old abandoned building to grow oyster mushrooms.
In the UK, people drink 18 million cups of coffee every day, but
only 1 percent of the coffee biomass ends up in their cups,
leaving plenty of nutrient-rich grounds to grow a business.
Meet Adam and Eric, and see how the GroCycle process works.
Video at link:
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#Post#: 2033--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sustainable Food Production
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: October 13, 2014, 9:01 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
LEARN about the "Food Disparagement LAW". LEARN the ORWELLIAN
way this LAW is used to HIDE the Big Ag Corporate TRUTH from
being told to the American Public! :o Say what? ??? If you
tell the TRUTH, you are SUED for telling an "untruth" ;D.
And you are ALSO guilty
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under
the "Patriot" Act if you do that because FOOD is a "National
Resource".
HTML http://www.smiley-lol.com/smiley/exagerent/police/enprison.gif<br
/>HELLO FASCISM! ;D Ka Ching for the LAWYERS! Are they fighting
to overturn this TRAVESTY of LAW? NOPE! They ARE, however,
making TONS of money suing anyone that DARES to tell the TRUTH
about Big AG in the USA.
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Big Ag is a greater contributor to global warming than the
direct burning of Fossil Fuels. Is that a reason for the fossil
fuelers to cheer?
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Why?
???
The CAUSE of the ocean dead zones is Chemical FERTILIZERS
manufactured by the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY. So it is ALL of a piece.
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<br
/>And the LAW and the LAWYERS are not doing JACK **** to stop
them. On the contrary, the most high powered (CIVIL) Law
Firms
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/>are the HANDMAIDENS of these planet polluting, ethics
challenged
villains.
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/>
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/>
Before anybody tries to BLOW OFF what is said in this video as a
"conspiracy theory", try to remember that it is a TRAILER of a
documentary of 90 minutes duration. Don't make rash statements.
These people HAVE done their homework. Please do YOURS. 8)
Cowspiracy Exposes the Truth About Animal Agriculture
Ward Pallotta | October 10, 2014 8:57 am
A recent documentary, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret,
asks why most leading environmental organizations are ignoring a
leading cause of environmental damage.
In 90 minutes, co-producers Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn argue
that our institutional and individual attention to selected
environmental issues will not make a collective difference
unless we also confront the realities of animal agriculture.
Animal agriculture’s environmental effects are so pervasive that
apparent progress elsewhere cannot counter its destructive and
growing impact.
The film suggests why protection for expanded areas of the ocean
will not protect oceans or ocean animals. Growing food
organically, even on a commercial scale, will not protect the
land. Keeping lumber operations out of the Amazon will not save
the rainforest.
Making homes more water efficient and taking short showers will
not make more water available. Driving electric cars will not
solve the carbon emissions problem. Installing LED lights and
converting to renewable energy will not stop global warming.
Here is some of the data gathered by the producers and woven
into this powerful film.
Animal agriculture uses 55 percent of the water in the U.S.
American homes use five percent.
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One thousand gallons of
water are needed to produce 1 gallon of milk. Two thousand five
hundred gallons of water are needed to make one pound of beef.
Growing water shortages make animal agriculture unsustainable.
Livestock uses 30 percent of the Earth’s total land mass,
including nearly 50 percent of the U.S. mainland. The growing
demand for animal farmland is responsible for 80 percent of
Amazon rainforest destruction. (Palm oil production is second).
With 160-million acres cleared or degraded annually for the
animal industry, 40 percent of the rainforest will be destroyed
in 20 years, affecting species survival and carbon
sequestration.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse
gas emissions. All forms of land, air and ocean transportation
total 13 percent. Transportation industry air pollution is
overshadowed by animal agriculture air pollution.
Seventy billion animals are raised annually worldwide. Everyday
144 million animals are killed for food. U.S. farm animals
produce 7 million pounds of excrement every minute. Our lakes,
oceans and psyches cannot sustain animal agriculture.
Too many environmental groups are dodging this issue, but the
cattle industry is steaming. One cattle association blogger
reminds its members that it also takes a lot of water to make a
T-shirt or produce a car.
Seventy-five percent of Americans consider themselves
environmentalists. Only 5 percent of Americans are vegetarian or
vegan, however their percentage has quintupled in five years.
The average American consumes 209 pounds of meat each year.
Everyday, a person that eats a plant-based diet saves 1,100
gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq. ft. of forested
land, the equivalent of 20 lbs. of CO2 and one animal’s life.
This issue is an environmental advocate’s dream come true. It
requires no political action money, no corporate boardroom
decisions, no re-negotiated food policy, no tax incentives. When
we eat meat, dairy and eggs, we feed this growing catastrophe.
Change will happen as quickly as we convince each other to
change what we eat. While producing his film, Kip Andersen
became a vegan.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret was self-funded by the
producers and crowdfunded via Indiegogo. The marketing efforts
for the film depends on community organizations to sponsor the
film, promote ticket sales through their networks and fill a
local theater. They bear no cost, only effort, and it is
working. Cowspiracy showings are accelerating all over the
country—during the last two weeks in October, the film will be
seen in 35 locations.
Click here for a list of upcoming events or to host a screening.
Ward Pallotta is retired from social justice, nonprofit
fundraising in Cleveland, Ohio. He and his life partner, Ann
Urick, are members of VegSarasota and Transition Sarasota in
Sarasota, Florida, and are advocates for safe and healthy food.
Nine years ago they realized they were eating dangerously and
switched to a plant-based diet.
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