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September 7, 2011
· Climate change feeds fear in the heartland
· Organic farming seen profitable long term
· Sweet potatoes gaining healthy popularity
· Breakthrough in crop disease protection
· Breeder boasts world record chile pepper
Climate change feeds fear in the heartland
CHICAGO (Reuters) - It can't happen here, can it?
The
When horrific images of drought or famine in Africa, Asia or
other regions land in American media,
The
But climate change fears are sounding some warning bells.
Some scientists and agronomists are becoming increasingly
concerned about the real effects they see now on growing conditions in the
Midwest, the vast black-soiled region long the core region of the
They also say that not only skeptical farmers but also government authorities are trying to quietly adapt, from equipment to planting to research.
"We don't have a long-term reserve. We have a global
food supply of about 2 or 3 weeks," said Eugene Takle,
Professor of Agricultural Meteorology and Director of the Climate Science
Program at
"We've become insensitive to climate -- with air conditioning, irrigation and better practices," he said. "Well, I think we need to rethink that. Just how vulnerable are we?"
Takle and others say the future is now.
"It's not the long-term climate trends," Takle says, "It's the variability. It's the extreme events that have brought the vulnerability of agriculture to climate into the forefront. We think about, and wring our hands for awhile."
Jerry Hatfield, Laboratory Director at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in
"We don't have to think about 2030 or 2050, in the recent memories we've had a lot more variability in our weather," Hatfield said. "This increasing variability of weather, which is associated with our changing climate scenarios, is going to continue to increase the variability in production.
"That's what concerns a lot of us," Hatfield said.
GOVERNMENT FUNDING RESEARCH, FARMERS ADJUSTING
The IPCC, which has been attacked by climate change skeptics, concluded in 2007 that increased frequency of heat stress, droughts and floods are "creating the possibility for surprises, with impacts that are larger, and occurring earlier, than predicted using changes in mean variables alone."
"Climate variability and change also modify the risks of fires, pest and pathogen outbreak, negatively affecting food, fiber and forestry," the Panel said.
Despite the attacks by skeptics, IPCC's conclusions have been accepted as valid by institutions like the U.S. National Academies of Sciences.
In June 2009, the science academies of the G8 countries,
plus
Takle said
"Farmers say they don't believe in climate change, but you look at how they spend money and are adapting," he said.
Takle pointed to bigger machinery
to allow faster and denser seeding amid rainier springs in the
But many of the changes are more subtle and hidden than the
weather events that grab the headlines, like the massive wildfires, flooding
and tornadoes that have hit agricultural areas of the
Takle said measurable trends of
more humidity, for example, has led to higher night-time summer temperatures in
the
In
"It's very important that we recognize the
vulnerability," Takle said. "We have
situations like in
The U.S. Agriculture Department this year issued its first grants to study crops and climate change.
"If you're interested in adapting to changes in
climatic norms you need to have access to diversity," said Randy Wisser of the
Other grants will address greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate, notably methane from livestock and carbon dioxide from growing crops.
"We are just trying to find a suitable way to keep
these farmers in business. It took generations to create the problem it will
take generations to fix the problem," said William Horwath
of the University in
"It's a pretty darn complex problem," Hatfield said. "We poke at it, but we need to get very serious about how do we think about adapting our crop production goals to the concepts of variability."
Organic farming seen profitable long term
(American Society of Agronomy) – Organic farming is known to be environmentally sustainable, but can it be economically sustainable, as well?
The answer is yes, according to new research in the September-October issue of the Agronomy Journal. In an analysis of 18 years of crop yield and farm management data from a long-term University of Minnesota trial, an organic crop rotation was consistently more profitable and carried less risk of low returns than conventional corn and soybean production, even when organic price premiums were cut by half.
Previous research has almost universally found the same
thing: Organic farming practices can compete economically with conventional
methods, says the current study’s leader, Timothy Delbridge,
a
What sets the
What gave organic production the edge wasn’t higher crop yields, however; instead it was organic price premiums. In their absence, the net return from a 2-yr, conventional corn-soybean rotation averaged $342 per acre, compared to $267/ac for a 4-yr organic rotation (corn-soybean-oat/alfalfa-alfalfa), and $273/ac for its 4-yr conventional counterpart. When a full organic premium was applied, though, the average net return from organic production rose to $538/ac, significantly outperforming the conventional systems both in terms of profitability and risk. And organic production was still more profitable when the price premium was reduced by 50%.
Organic price premiums are often the main reason why farmers think about switching to organic production, Delbridge explains, which means they also often wonder what would happen if the premiums declined. It’s for this reason that the researchers considered different premium levels (full, half, and none) in their analysis—not because they necessarily expect the premiums to go away anytime soon, he notes.
The cost of production was also a factor: The conventional 2-yr rotation had higher production costs on average ($198/ac) than either the 4-yr conventional rotation ($164/ac) or the organic one ($166/ac). The difference primarily came in weed management, Delbridge says. The price of purchasing chemical herbicides in the 2-yr conventional rotation exceeded the cost of controlling weeds mechanically in the organic system, leading to higher overall production costs in the conventional rotation, even though organic production involved more field operations, Delbridge adds.
Delbridge cautions that the
analysis relied on organic yields from an experimental trial that sometimes
exceeded the average yields actually achieved by organic corn and soybean
producers in
More importantly, he adds, “What we’re looking at here are results between an established organic and an established conventional system. This research doesn’t take into consideration the issue of the transition itself: how difficult or costly that may be.”
Still, if growers can successfully weather the transition, the study offers convincing new evidence that the change will be a lucrative one over the long haul.
Summarized from:
Economic Performance of Long-Term Organic and Conventional
Cropping Systems in
Timothy A. Delbridge,* Jeffrey A. Coulter, Robert P. King, Craig C. Sheaffer, and Donald L. Wyse
Agronomy Journal
https://www.agronomy.org/publications/aj/view/103-5/aj10-0371-pub.pdf
Sweet potatoes gaining healthy popularity
(Los
Angeles Times)
It's the beginning of harvest season and, once again, his bounty of orange- and yellow-fleshed roots is looking promising.
"You used to see cotton fields and grapevines out
here," said Garcia, 54, whose family grows and packs sweet potatoes out of
their
"Now the talk is sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, how can I get more sweet potatoes?"
Forget the marshmallows and the Thanksgiving buffet table. The sweet potato has become a year-round food.
Over the last decade, Americans have more than doubled their
consumption of the thin-skinned vegetable, according to the United States Sweet
Potato Council:
Diners overseas, too, have developed a fondness for it.
Here in the
"It has a nice sweetness but is still savory," said Adam Fleischman, chief executive of Umami Restaurant Group. "That combination, the sweet-savory, is really popular right now."
Besides, Fleischman said, "they're familiar to people, but still something different to try."
Garcia, the central
Inside the facility, the air smells sweet and earthy as
workers gently drop the potatoes into a washing station and hand-sort them as
they move down a conveyor belt. Nearby, boxes of potatoes sit waiting for
trucks to take them to Costco and other grocery retailers in the
"People love them, and farmers notice that," Garcia said.
That growth was driven in part by a shift in nutritional and culinary circles. Although traditional white potatoes still dominate the potato market, doctors and weight-loss groups touted the benefits of whole roasted sweet potatoes — which are higher in fiber and Vitamin A than traditional white potatoes, and lower on the glycemic index.
Yet it was cooks' slicing up sweet potatoes and dunking them into a deep fryer that fed the public demand.
The number of restaurants offering sweet potatoes has grown 14% in the last three years, according to a survey of 704 restaurant menus conducted by Chicago-based market research firm Technomic Inc. Much of that increase comes from restaurants featuring sweet potato fries.
Packaged-food giant ConAgra Foods, seeing a lucrative
market, opened a new $156-million plant in
"If you're in the restaurant business, you know the
country is changing to healthier selections, or selections seen as being
healthier," said Harry Balzer of the NPD Group,
a market research firm that has been tracking
"So restaurants are looking for a new version of something the public already loves: the typical French fry.... If companies can set up the same infrastructure for processing sweet potatoes that they have for [white] potatoes for French fries, the market could be huge."
Such potential has spurred
Most of the
Unlike other parts of the state, Stoddard said, the sandy soil here helps the transplanted slips easily spread and grow. And sweet potatoes are extremely heat tolerant, so they can handle the region's hot summer days and moderate nights.
But farming them can be very labor intensive. Weeds are pulled by hand. Much of the harvest is done manually, too, because sweet potatoes bruise more easily than typical white potatoes. That, in turn, means profits can be thin.
"I've heard about people ripping out grapevines to plant sweet potatoes," Stoddard said. "You have to remember that, at least right now, this is still a specialty niche crop."
Breakthrough in crop disease protection
(University of Nottingham via PhysOrg.com) – A new form of resistance to fungal disease has been discovered in oilseed rape, one of the world’s most important crops, which could hold the key to developing disease resistant crops.
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus) is attacked by the Light Leaf Spot fungus (Pyrenopeziza brassicae), which
can reduce yields by a third. Until now one of the main forms of protection has
come from spraying crops with fungicides. This year a record number of crops
were affected by the disease in the
Now a team of scientists from The University of Nottingham, Rothamsted Research and KWS UK Ltd, have used plant breeding methods to discover a new form of built-in resistance to the light leaf spot fungus. They have shown how a so-called “R gene” which produces a protein inside the plant stops the pathogen reproducing asexually during the growing and cropping season, but still allows sexual reproduction at the end of the season. This significantly reduces the chances of light leaf spot disease becoming established and spreading in growing crops.
Dr. Paul Dyer, an expert in fungal biology at The University of Nottingham and co-author and co-supervisor on the research project, said: “This new resistance gene provides a valuable way to prevent plant pathogens reproducing at a key stage in their life cycle and could lead to a significant reduction of light leaf spot infection in growing crops. This discovery could lead to new strategies for breeding resistance against crop pathogens and increase yields while reducing costs to the farmer and damage to the environment by reducing the use of fungicides.”
The research, published in the journal Plant Pathology, was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Oilseed rape is one of the world’s most important brassica crops, readily visible by its bright yellow
flowers. Grown for the production of vegetable oil, and for use in biodiesel
and animal feed, oilseed rape makes a significant contribution to the
agricultural economies of Europe,
Whilst there is a major drive to increase global food yields by controlling diseases some fungicides will be banned under new European Union legislation. Those that will still be available are likely to be too expensive to use in developing countries.
Dr. Dyer said: “Our discovery could change the way we look at protecting arable crops from disease. It offers new possibilities for breeders and a way of reducing the use of expensive and potentially damaging fungicides.”
Breeder boasts world record chile pepper
But now her son is hoping to beat it with a pepper of lengthy proportions.
It measures about 15.5 inches, Lytle said, and is the "Big Jim" variety first developed by and named after his chile-pioneer father, who died in the `70s.
"We're in the process of recording it right now," he said. "It's not a real easy deal to record it in the record books; you have to go through a lot of red tape."
Lytle is seeking recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Hatch Mayor Judd Nordyke said the previous record was 13 inches.
Prior to the 15.5-inch pepper pod, "we found a couple running about 17," Lytle said. But those inadvertently got mixed in with the rest of the crop.
"We were picking them and found them," he said. "The guy pulled them into the bag, and we lost them. We're still looking."
Lytle said the longer-than-normal peppers are from a project he's been working on for several years to improve the older Big Jim variety. Length is one trait they're seeking, he said, but others include greater production and consistent pepper pods.
"We're growing it for the fresh market," he said. "The vendors like a big chile because it's more appealing to the customer."
Despite farmers' battles with drought and extremely hot weather, the chile quality is "beautiful, absolutely gorgeous," Lytle said.
Nordyke said Lytle's father worked with Roy Nakayama, renowned in the county for his chile crop breeding work, in creating the variety of his namesake.
The long chile is notable not only because it's a record, but because the Lytles' attempt to create heftier pods helps improve the industry as a whole, Nordyke said.
"There's a bigger market for bigger and more meaty chiles," he said.
End Transmission