" I heard it through the AgLine"

May 13, 2011

 

 

·        Farmland flooding tops three million acres

·        Ag alliance launches produce alert system

·        Feds back release of drought-tolerant corn

·        Clemson University to build a vertical farm

·        Smile kids! You’re on Big Bro’s Calorie Camera

 

 

Farmland flooding tops three million acres

 

(CNN) -- Across the South and lower Midwest, floodwaters have covered about three million acres of farmland, eroding for many farmers what could have been a profitable year for corn, wheat, rice and cotton, officials said today.

 

In Arkansas, the Farm Bureau estimated that damage to the state's agriculture could top more than $500 million as more than a million acres of cropland are under water.

 

"It's in about ten feet of water," Dyersburg, Tennessee, farmer Jimmy Moody said of his 440 acres of winter wheat, which was to be harvested in the coming month.

 

Other farmers in Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas rushed to salvage what wheat they could ahead of the rising water. As for corn, farmers who were able to get into the fields during a soggy planting season in late March and April are seeing their crops in some cases under several feet of water.

 

Farms near and on the Mississippi River are no strangers to flooding, but the 2011 flood is definitely one for the record books.

 

"This is new water that has reached areas for the first time in 75 years," said Lee Maddox of the Tennessee Farm Bureau.

 

Of course, the flooding is covering more than farmland. In Louisiana alone, Gov. Bobby Jindal said, as many as three million acres -- of farms, forests and towns -- could be affected. In Mississippi, 600,000 acres of farmland are only part of 1.4 million acres likely to be flooded, said Andy Prosser of the state's Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

 

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Ag alliance launches produce alert system

 

(Wire Services) – The Alliance for Food and Farming today launched a new system designed to help the produce industry respond to negative media reports regarding pesticide residues on produce.

 

The system is part of the organization’s Safe Fruits and Veggies initiative which promotes consumption of all fruits and vegetables by providing credible, science-based information to ease common fears about pesticide residues on produce.

 

“Consumer research indicates that about 60 percent of consumers express a high level of concern about pesticide residues on their food, most of which is based on misleading information they see in the media and on the Internet,” said Marilyn Dolan, Executive Director of the Alliance for Food and Farming.  “People are making purchasing decisions based on this information, so it is important for the produce industry to correct misinformation in the media whenever we can.”

 

According to the Alliance, the goal of this new system is to encourage multiple responses to media reports to help set the record straight about the health benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables whether they are organic or conventional.

 

The alerts will be sent via e-mail to interested produce industry members when a story with incorrect or misleading information appears in a media outlet or social media site.  The e-mail will summarize the article; link to the story or the full report; explain what the Alliance has done in response and provide instructions on how others can submit their own responses.

 

“The Alliance regularly responds to erroneous media reports on a number of food safety topics,” said the Alliance’s Teresa Thorne, who explained the Alliance often works with other produce trade associations to craft a joint response.  “We are finding that one response to a media report does not generate enough attention anymore.  Social media has enhanced the dialog on the topic of pesticide residues, but it is usually a very one-sided debate.  What we need is a number of farmers and others in the produce industry to present an alternative view if we are insert more balance into the discussion.”

 

The Alliance for Food and Farming has also recently revised and updated its website at www.safefruitsandveggies.com.  This site serves as a resource on pesticide residues and contains easy-to-understand information developed by experts in food safety, toxicology, nutrition, risk analysis and farming.  An expert panel report conducted by six scientists is available on the website along with a residue calculator that helps consumers put the issue of pesticide residues in perspective.

 

The Alliance for Food and Farming is a non-profit organization comprised of about 50 farmers and farming organizations throughout the U.S.  Alliance membership is based on voluntary contributions and the organization includes members who farm conventional and organic produce.

 

The industry alerts are available to any interested member of the produce industry.  To sign up to receive the e-mails, please send a message to info@foodandfarming.info  with the subject line “Sign Me Up.”

 

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Feds back release of drought-tolerant corn

 

(The New York Times) – The Obama administration will seek to allow the unlimited sale of a corn variety genetically engineered by Monsanto Co. to resist drought, the Department of Agriculture announced today. The corn, if approved, would be the first commercial biotech crop designed to resist stressful environmental conditions like drought, rather than pests or herbicides.

 

Drought tolerance has been a longtime goal of the agricultural biotech companies, who hold up the trait as one way they could aid both their bottom line and farmers in drought-prone regions. But the trait, influenced by a wide variety of genes, has proved difficult to develop.

 

The market could be vast. In North America, up to 40 percent of crop-loss insurance claims are due to heavy or moderate drought, according to some estimates. Worldwide, corn-growing regions lose about 15 percent of their annual crop to drought, and losses run much higher in severe conditions.

 

However, Monsanto's corn is unlikely to perform well enough to tap this potential, USDA found.

 

While the agency's draft environmental assessment of the modified corn found the crop unlikely to pose a plant pest risk, prompting USDA to seek deregulation, the agency also noted that many corn varieties on the market match Monsanto's strain in their water use.

 

"The reduced yield [trait] does not exceed the natural variation observed in regionally-adapted varieties of conventional corn," the report says, adding that "Equally comparable varieties produced through conventional breeding techniques are readily available in irrigated corn production regions."

 

Given the slight improvements made by the corn, the agency does not project that approving the variety would cause an increase in corn cultivation. Last year, U.S. farmers planted some 86.4 million acres of corn, 86 percent of which was genetically engineered to grant resistance to insects and weedkillers.

 

It remains to be seen how effective Monsanto's corn will be if widely employed. However, the company did make notable ground in engineering this resistance with a single gene, discovered in soil bacteria strains exposed to harsh, cold conditions. Further work found that the cspB gene, as it's known, codes for proteins that assist RNA, the genome's messengers, in their work.

 

Monsanto developed the corn in collaboration with the German chemical firm BASF. The companies have collaborated on biotech research since 2007, and two years ago announced the development of their first drought-tolerant corn strain. More advanced versions are in their research pipelines, the companies have promised.

 

While Monsanto's corn, if approved, would be the United States' first bioengineered drought-tolerant variety, this spring the company's longtime rival, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, began offering drought-resistant corn in Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. Pioneer's corn, developed through traditional breeding, required no government approval.

 

USDA will accept comments on the corn's possible approval until early July.

 

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Clemson University to build a vertical farm

 

(Clemson University via EurekaAlert.org) CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson University's Institute of Applied Ecology received EPA funding to develop a design-feasibility study to build a "vertical farm" in downtown Charleston.

 

The study, being done in collaboration with Clemson's Centers of Economic Excellence in Urban Ecology and Sustainable Development and the city of Charleston, will evaluate the repurposing of an existing building to house a vertical farm, powering it with solar and wind energy and using enhanced cyberinfrastructure and environmental informatics to monitor and operate the farm by incorporating the Intelligent River cyberinfrastructure network that will provide real-time remote-data acquisition.

 

As the world's population increases, developing farmable land will be a challenge. One option is to farm vertically instead of horizontally. Dense urban centers would have multistory buildings with floor atop floor of fruits and vegetables grown in highly environmentally efficient ways, such as using hydroponics and aeroponics.

 

Clemson University has formed an interdisciplinary team to conduct the analysis, which focuses on agriculture, horticulture, green building and the architectural potential of available sites that will be considered for a vertical farm location. Research elements will focus on water and energy self-sufficiency by incorporating elements of alternative energy sources and gray water collection and reuse; green-roof and vertical garden technologies; sustainable production of high­-quality organic foods within a reduced urban footprint; enhanced hydroponics; rooftop and vertical wetlands for urban farmwater quality treatment; and multilevel community-based sustainable development education.

 

"This is an exciting opportunity for Charleston, EPA, Clemson and its collaborators," said Gene Eidson, director of Clemson's urban ecology center. "To plan and design a vertical farm calls for an array of resources. There are so many topics to be addressed; everything from location, structure and access to economics, environmental sustainability and social justice. Input will not only span Clemson University areas of expertise, but also involve specialists from the College of Charleston, the Citadel and Trident Tech.

 

"The project will take more than academics," he said. "We look to Charleston leaders and the public to help create a plan for providing food in a sustainable way for cities. More and more people live in urban settings and environmental realities and stresses demand that we imagine and implement innovative ways to feed, house, employ and transport populations."

 

The study itself, as well as the potential for the development of an actual vertical farm, will have strong impacts on community connectivity. The study will provide a collaborative environment for Clemson University's faculty and graduate students to link with regional universities, technical schools and high schools to create an education hub for sustainability that spans from campuses into the communities.

 

The presence of a vertical farm would promote environmental justice by supporting innovative approaches to bringing healthy foods to socioeconomically stressed citizens and neighborhoods and encouraging citywide and regional healthy food initiatives. The study includes two opportunities for focused discussion on the plan — architects call them "charrettes" — to ensure public participation.

 

Vertical farming first was envisioned by Nancy Jack Todd and John Todd in 1993 in their book "From Eco-Cities to Living Machines." The concept was later expanded in 1999 by Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental sciences and microbiology at Columbia University. In the last few years, many mainstream and scientific articles have been written about the vertical farm concept — a high-rise approach to bringing fresh healthy produce from "tower to fork," emulating the "field to fork" movement toward a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

 

"EPA is very enthusiastic about this project. It explores how to transform overburdened environmental areas into vibrant and sustainable locations," said Gwen Keyes Fleming, regional administrator for EPA Region 4. "The feasibility study and plan are incorporating the best of EPA by using sound science and innovation to capture the core factors of launching an environmentally transformative initiative. The resulting work will be a model to inform and guide other cities and communities, particularly areas in need of revitalization."

 

The final study will be completed and presented to the city of Charleston in early 2012.

 

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Smile kids! You’re on Big Bro’s Calorie Camera

 

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters Life!) – The next time children in some elementary schools in the state of Texas try to sneak extra french fries onto their tray in the cafeteria line, the eye in the sky will be watching them.

 

Using a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the schools in San Antonio are installing sophisticated cameras in the cafeteria line and trash area that read food bar codes embedded in the food trays.

 

"We're going to snap a picture of the food tray at the cashier and we will know what has been served," said Dr. Roberto Trevino of the San Antonio-based Social and Health Research Center, which is implementing the pilot program at five schools with high rates of childhood obesity and children living in poverty.

 

"When the child goes back to the disposal window, we're going to measure the leftover."

 

The goal of the program is to cut down on childhood obesity by providing parents and school nutrition specialists with information on what types of food elementary students are eating.

 

They will then be able to design healthy meals based on students' real-life habits, the center's spokeswoman Denise Jones said. Parents will also be able to use the information to help them design healthier meals at home.

 

"We will be able to determine whether current programs that are aimed at preventing obesity work, and whether they are really changing students' behavior," Trevino said.

 

Officials will receive information on the nutrient and calorie counts of the food children have actually consumed.

 

The technology will identify the food, capture the nutrient levels and measure the food that children eat, according to Dr. Roger Echon of the center, who designed the program.

 

Echon on Wednesday showed reporters a printout of the reading from one student's tray at W.W. White Elementary School. It listed the size of the serving, and its calorie, fiber, sugar, and protein count.

 

He said the program can break down the data into total monounsaturated fatty acids, soluble dietary fiber, and more than 100 other specific measures.

 

Trevino said the children will not be photographed, and only children who have the permission of their parents or guardians will be allowed to participate.

 

He said that if the effort is successful in San Antonio, the plan is to implement similar programs in elementary schools nationwide.

 

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