" I heard it through the AgLine"

February 18, 2011

 

 

·        Urban farming 2.0: No soil, no sun, no problem

·        Study to examine best organic growing practices

·        Most attacks on corn inaccurate – NCGA boss

·        Analysis: The Arab world is facing a triple crisis

·        Date, location change for New Ag Conference & Expo

 

 

Urban farming 2.0: No soil, no sun, no problem

 

(CNNMoney.com) -- Forget the conventional wisdom that says veggies must be grown on vast farms in the Midwest. What if commercial-scale crops took root inside cavernous city warehouses, without sunlight or soil?

 

Call it urban farming 2.0. Over the past decade, city agriculture has largely been the province of non-profit organizations, school groups, renegade gardeners and restaurants sowing seeds on rooftops. But the newest breed of city farmers are businessfolk. In their hands, urban agriculture is scaling up to meet a rising demand in city centers for safe, organic and locally grown food.

 

One such indoor farm opened in September in Vancouver, growing lettuce and spinach inside an 8,000-square-foot warehouse using a hydroponic system that replaces dirt and weather with peat moss plugs and circulated water. High-efficiency LED lighting hits plants grown on stacked shelves.

 

The Eco Spirit-branded lettuce operation -- which is owned by the local Squamish Nation tribe -- now supplies eight stores for Choices Markets, a natural foods chain in greater Vancouver. The tribe licensed the technology from TerraSphere Systems in Canada and plans to grow the Eco Spirit label into a larger brand of locally grown produce.

 

"It's clean, it's safe, it's good for the environment," says Nick Brusatore, technical director of Vancouver-based TerraSphere Systems, which started developing the indoor farming technology eight years ago. TerraSphere generated $4 million this year from equipment sales and technology licenses to organizations like the Squamish Nation. New indoor farms are slated for New York, New Jersey, Ontario and Rhode Island.

 

"The demand is there, without a doubt," says Brusatore. "We're going to produce food everywhere."

 

Finding empty space won't be a problem. America is littered with thousands of abandoned big box stores, a trend fueled by the sputtering economy. About 11% of commercial and industrial real estate nationwide remains empty -- double the vacancy rate of just four years ago, according to Reis Inc., which tracks real-estate data.

 

Finding buyers is also fairly easy. Large grocers, from Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) to Whole Foods (WFMI, Fortune 500), have made selling locally grown food a priority in their stores.

 

"Urban agriculture is a growth industry," says Dickson Despommier, a Columbia University microbiology professor and author of The Vertical Farm. His book touts a vision for commercial-scale agriculture in high-tech greenhouses as high as 30 stories tall, with the footprint of an entire city block.

 

On the flip side: Critics worry that today's urban farm startups will be huge -- and short-lived -- energy hogs, brought down by electrical bills they can't afford.

 

"Scores of companies have tried to do this, even the big guys like General Mills 15 years ago," says Bruce Bugbee, a professor of crop physiology at Utah State University. "It's too expensive. People don't realize how much light it takes to grow plants."

 

Turning warehouses into farms

 

But that won't stop entrepreneurs from trying. Jordan Motzkin, 22, of New York, has won grants from National Science Foundation and the College of the Atlantic for his startup, Big Box Farms, which finished testing a prototype in Maine and plans to open an indoor farm in an old Brooklyn warehouse early next year.

 

He expects the farm to grow millions of pounds of organic lettuce and basil. Motzkin then hopes to replicate it, first with farms in Chicago and Philadelphia, then elsewhere in the nation.

 

He plans to run the entire operation -- from indoor climate control to hydroponics and LED lighting -- remotely using iPhone applications. Big Box Farms is also working with Philips Electronics to test out their latest generation of LED lights, which are not yet available to the public. Motzkin says the new LEDs could make a big difference, improving energy efficiency by 40% to 60%.

 

"You're turning food into a factory scenario, where you can control the environment completely," says Chris Higgins, an industry consultant and owner of Hort Americas, a Dallas supplier of hydroponic growing systems. "They could get production 365 days a year, which would be a huge advantage. They're on the cutting edge."

 

They also yield more produce. Despommier says a stacked hydroponic operation might yield about 64 heads of lettuce per square foot annually, compared to about three heads at a traditional outside farm.

 

Another new company, Gotham Greens, will use hydroponics to grow everything from bok choy to basil in an enclosed rooftop greenhouse in the middle of Brooklyn. The company raised $2 million from investors and should finish the 15,000-square-foot greenhouse this spring, producing 40 tons of crops a year, most of which will be sold to a local Whole Foods store.

 

In San Francisco, Cityscape Farms plans to grow lettuce and herbs and raise fish in water-based aquaponics systems in greenhouses set up on urban rooftops and vacant lots.

 

Cityscape CEO Mike Yohay predicts that by eliminating transportation costs and fertilizer, a 10,000-square-foot greenhouse could produce $500,000 in profit and 20 to 30 tons of food a year for local supermarkets and corporate cafeterias.

 

Some investors, however, still aren't sold on the idea that indoor city farms can produce affordable food and carve out a big financial advantage over traditional farmers who may be just 60 to 100 miles away.

 

"We've seen half a dozen companies working on this," says Silicon Valley venture capitalist Paul Matteucci. "For the most part the quality of the product is excellent, but the costs are still too high."

 

But in Vancouver, Eco Spirit is optimistic. The indoor lettuce operation should generate $400,000 to $1 million in annual revenue, says Squamish Nation Chief Gibby Jacob. The tribe paid $2 million for the equipment and its franchise license from TerraSphere.

 

Since the produce began showing up in stores three months ago, consumers have literally eaten it up, says Mark Vickars, CEO of Choices Markets. They pay up to $5 for a 5.3-ounce container of the locally grown lettuce.

 

"The quality is excellent, the nutrient levels are high, the shelf life is long," Vickars says. "We're always trying to go local, and this gives us local 365 days a year."

 

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Study to examine best organic growing practices

 

(Iowa State University) AMES, Iowa - As the number of organic vegetable growers continues to increase, there has been startlingly little research done on the sustainability of these organic practices.

 

An Iowa State University researcher is now examining which organic vegetable growing practices are best for the soil, water, yields and even nutrition.

 

Kathleen Delate, professor of horticulture and agronomy, is undertaking perhaps the most comprehensive study of organic vegetable-growing practices by looking at the use of cover crops, manure, tillage and mulch.

 

"We are measuring a lot of things," said Delate. "We are hoping to provide organic producers with science-based information that they can use to make wise decisions affecting the sustainability of their operations. And we think much of this data can be used for conventional crops as well."

 

Using 36 farm plots that each employ different combinations of variables, Delate hopes to discover which practices work best. The vegetables in the research include tomatoes, broccoli, onions, beans, squash and lettuce.

 

The vegetables will be grown in rotation with one crop planted in the spring, followed in the fall by another.

Early-stage organic soybeans grow through now-dead crushed rye cover crop in this organic no-till system. The yields from these organic soybeans ranged from 35 to 45 bushels per acre, without any cultivation for weed control.

 

"The first parameter we're looking at is cover crops. For cover crops, we are using hairy vetch and rye," said Delate. "That combination is one that we've had really good luck with for our vegetable farming."

 

In the research, the rye and hairy vetch are planted in the fall after the second vegetable crop is harvested. The cover crops are allowed to stay in the ground all winter and are then destroyed in the spring prior to the first vegetable crop planting.

 

Cover crop systems have been shown to improve soil quality and Delate hopes that they have other advantages.

 

"One of the theories we'll be testing is that cover crops can actually attract beneficial insects," said Delate.

 

"We also have some data that the straw from the cover crop could prevent some aerial diseases, but it also keeps the soils moist, which could lead to some root rot and a whole suite of soil quality issues. We're eager to see the outcomes," she said.

 

In keeping with the organic nature of the research, rather than destroying the cover crops with chemicals, Delate's research team will use a large roller to break the plant stems of the plants.

 

"The blades of the roller crush and kill the cover crops," said Delate. "It physically breaks the transfer of water and nutrients in the plant."

 

None of the cover crop will be harvested and the plants will remain on the field and will add to the organic matter in the soil, said Delate.

 

The second parameter is the use of composted manure. Organic farming requires that farmers compost manure and apply it at least four months prior to harvesting.

 

Delate's team will see if these practices have an effect on soil quality and nutrient runoff.

 

The third input being measured by the Delate study is till versus no-till farming.

 

Delate says that using no-till practices may be challenging. The crushed cover crop may present problems as vegetables are planted through it.

 

The final parameter is using plastic mulch in the crop production. Using plastic mulch involves growing crops through slits in thin, plastic sheets. Plastic mulch provides benefits such as soil moisture retention and weed suppression, and allows for earlier planting dates.

 

During the research, soils will be tested regularly using lysimeters from the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service National Laboratory for the Agricultural and the Environment to see if nutrients are leaching through the soil.

 

One other aspect of the study involves food properties of the organic produce.

 

"On top of everything else we're studying," Delate said, "our colleagues in Florida are going to run a nutritional analysis, including vitamins and minerals, of the crops in this study."

 

The research is conducted in partnership with the University of Florida, Gainesville, and funded by the Department of Agriculture through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture.

 

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Most attacks on corn inaccurate – NCGA boss

 

(Inforum.com) – Rick Tolman is tired of hearing people blame corn.

 

The chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association, speaking this week at CornVention in Fargo, N.D., decried what he described as widespread and inaccurate attacks on corn growers and agriculture as a whole by “vicious enemies who are out there trying to change the way we produce food.”

 

He devoted the bulk of his remarks to addressing and debunking “misinformation and myths” that he said crop up frequently in the national media.

 

He cited among the culprits a number of criticisms leveled against corn growers: growing fuel at the expense of food, contributing to obesity via high-fructose corn syrup, and engaging in unsustainable practices, among others.

 

He said the media tends to latch on to the food vs, fuel argument – the notion that ethanol production contributes to food shortages and unaffordable food prices – because “it’s an easy, emotional topic.”

 

But, he said, framing the issue in those terms misses the mark – in the first place because food shortages are the result of distribution and economic problems, not supply issues, and in the second because factors like weather, trade policies and market speculation have far more influence on food prices than ethanol.

 

He cited with incredulity a number of media reports that blamed corn and ethanol prices for the recent turmoil in Egypt, quipping: “Ethanol is causing democracy around the world.”

 

Tolman also ridiculed critics who blame corn producers for food shortages in one breath while blaming them for pushing corn syrup and causing obesity in the next.

 

On environmental and sustainability issues, Tolman said per-bushel land use, energy use, irrigation, and emissions have all fallen significantly over the past 20 years.

 

He also said despite criticisms over water use, 87 percent of corn is produced without irrigation. He praised growers for increasing efficiency with biotechnology and precision farming techniques, and said a number of in-development breakthroughs promise further gains.

 

Tolman said growers and farmers need to be more aggressive and coordinated in getting their side of the story out to the public.

 

A handful of public relations efforts – including efforts to marshal multiple agriculture sectors under one banner and a campaign to get women in agriculture to spread a more vocal message about their work and values – are in the works, he said.

 

“You need to get engaged,” he told CornVention attendees. “You need to be involved.”

 

Tolman’s remarks came after National Corn Growers Association president Bart Schott, a Kulm, N.D., native, gave an overview of the group’s priorities for 2010. Like soybean growers who held their annual meeting in the same space a day earlier, Schott reported strong demand from China and Southeast Asian markets.

 

China in particular, he said, is looking to secure sizable corn imports over the next decade.

 

“It’s pretty exciting to be a corn grower today and for the future,” he said.

 

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Analysis: The Arab world is facing a triple crisis

 

(EuropeanVoice.com) – Water, energy and population trends spell more trouble for governments in the Middle East and North Africa.

Economic want and inequality, as much as political repression, incited the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. It is, of course, to be hoped that new governments in these countries, and other Arab leaders, will better address ordinary people's grievances. But a mere change of government will not make these countries' economic problems go away. Indeed, the converging effects of population growth, climate change, and energy depletion are setting the stage for a looming triple crisis.

 

The region accounts for 6.3% of the world's population but only 1.4% of its renewable fresh water. Twelve of the world's 15 most water-scarce countries – Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Israel, and Palestine – are in the region, and in eight, available fresh water amounts annually to less than 250 cubic metres per person. Three-quarters of the region's available fresh water is in just four countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

 

Water consumption in the region is linked overwhelmingly to industrial agriculture. From 1965 to 1997, Arab population growth drove demand for agricultural development, leading to a doubling of land under irrigation. Demographic expansion in these countries is set to dramatically worsen their predicament.

 

Although birth rates are falling, one-third of the overall population is below 15 years old, and large numbers of young women are reaching reproductive age, or soon will be. The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has projected that by 2030 the population of the Middle East will have increased by 132%, and that of sub-Saharan Africa by 81%, generating an unprecedented ‘youth bulge'.

 

The World Bank's “Water sector assessment report”, published in 2005, predicts that these demographic pressures will likely cause the availability of fresh water to halve in the Gulf countries, exacerbating the danger of inter-state conflict. Competition to control water has already played a key role in regional geopolitical tensions, for instance, between Turkey and Syria; Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority; Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia; and between Saudi Arabia and its neighbours, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan.

 

A halving of available water supplies could turn these tensions into open hostilities. Indeed, while economic growth, accompanied by greater urbanisation and higher per-capita incomes, has translated into greater demand for fresh water, the population movements that have resulted are now exacerbating local ethnic tensions.

 

As early as 2015, the average Arab will be forced to survive on less than 500 cubic metres of water per year, a level defined as severe scarcity. Shifts in rainfall patterns will certainly affect crops, particularly rice. A ‘business-as-usual' model for climate change suggests that global average temperatures could rise by 4° Celsius by mid-century. This would devastate agriculture in the Middle East and North Africa, with crop yields falling by 15%-35%, depending on the strength of carbon fertilisation.

 

The worldwide cost of infrastructure capable of responding to the intensifying water crisis could amount to trillions of dollars, and its development would itself be energy-intensive. As a result, new infrastructure would only mitigate the impact of scarcity on richer countries.

 

Hydrocarbon energy depletion is set to complicate matters even more. In its “World energy outlook” for 2010, the International Energy Agency argued that conventional oil production worldwide probably peaked in 2006, and is now declining. This conclusion fits the latest output data, which shows that world oil production has been undulating but gradually falling since around 2005. Yet the IEA also argued that the shortfall will be made up from greater exploitation of unconventional oil and gas reserves, albeit at far higher prices, owing to the greater environmental and extraction costs.

 

The bad news is that the IEA's optimism about unconventional sources could be misplaced. The six biggest Middle Eastern oil-producing countries officially hold around 740 billion barrels (Gbs) of proven oil reserves. But the British geologist Euan Mearns of Aberdeen University notes that published data put the most likely size of these reserves at only around 350 Gbs. And the UK government's former chief scientific adviser, David King, found in a study for “Energy policy” that official world oil reserves had been overstated by up to one-third – implying that we are on the verge of a major ‘tipping point' in oil production.

 

All of this means not only that the era of cheap oil is over, but also that, within the next decade or so, major oil-producing countries will struggle against costly geological constraints. If that proves to be true, then by 2020 – and perhaps as early as 2015 – the contribution of Middle East oil to world energy consumption could become negligible. That would mean a catastrophic loss of state revenues for today's major Arab oil-producing countries, rendering them highly vulnerable to the compounding consequences of existing water shortages, rapid demographic expansion, climate change, and declining crop yields.

 

This worst-case scenario is not inevitable, but there is only a short window of opportunity for policies to address the situation. Reviving conservation, management, and distribution efforts could reduce water consumption and increase efficiency, but these measures need to be combined with radical reforms to speed the transition away from oil dependence to a zero-carbon renewable-energy infrastructure.

 

Concerted investments in health, education, and citizens' rights, especially for women, are the key tools for alleviating population growth in the region and diversifying its economies. It is now increasingly clear that Arab governments that fail to implement such measures urgently are unlikely to survive.

 

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development in London, and the author of “A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save it”. © Project Syndicate/Europe's World, 2011.

 

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Date, location change for New Ag Conference & Expo

 

(AgLineNews.com) – Due to the on-going developments in Egypt and the Middle East the New Ag International Conference and Exhibition has been postponed and a new location selected.

 

Originally scheduled for March 15-17 in Cairo, the conference and exposition will be held in Athens, Greece about the second half of June.

 

In a letter to its sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and registered delegates, the New Ag team said, “…it has become obvious that maintaining the conference in Cairo even in May or June is impossible.”

 

The decision was made following a survey of sponsors and exhibitors. Exact dates for the event will be announced as soon as possible.

 

For the latest information on the 2011 edition of the conference and exhibition, log on to the New Ag web site: http://www.newaginternational.com/

 

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