" I heard it through the AgLine"

November 5, 2010

 

 

·        Seed bombs away for guerrilla gardeners

·        Russia muscling in on Potash takeover

·        Delay veggie harvest to prevent E. coli

·        Organic produce not always healthier

·        ‘Evergreen agriculture’ boosts crop yields

 

 

Seed bombs away for guerrilla gardeners

 

(TwinCities.com) – Tully Hall doesn't look like a criminal.

 

She pays her taxes, loves her family and obeys the law — with one glaring exception.

 

Hall is a guerrilla gardener. She plants flowers and vegetables on land she doesn't own — like a growing number of undercover green thumbs emerging from the shadows.

 

To Hall and her furtive cohorts, beautifying ugly land can't be a bad thing. "All it means is that a little bit of ground is being improved," said Hall, gazing at her 8-by-12-foot garden on city property behind her town home.

 

Many people have seen the work of guerrilla gardeners but don't know it. The eco-outlaws sneak flowers into land by freeway exits, abandoned city gardens or vacant lots.

 

Some make their own "seed bombs" — green grenades made of compressed compost, fertilizer and seeds, designed to be thrown onto soil.

 

"When I am riding my bike, I look for vacant lots and just throw in a couple of my seed bombs," said Bridget McDonald of Minneapolis, who started guerrilla gardening last year.

 

"A month later — flowers!"

 

Some guerrilla gardeners remain hidden. But any decent detective would notice greenery seems to follow in the footsteps of Bonnie Lawrence of St. Paul.

 

For 19 years, she has planted near schools, sidewalks and workplaces.

 

She planted flowers, shrubs and crabapple trees along Fairview Avenue under the Interstate 94 bridge. She has beautified freeway interchanges.

 

"I encourage people to do it," Lawrence said. "It puts people on the street, instead of just working in their back yard. You get to know your neighbors."

 

In some cases, gardeners do their dirty work with officials' knowledge and backing. Take Jeanne Weigum of St. Paul, for example. Near Snelling and Concordia avenues, the city of St. Paul installed a special water tap on a fire hydrant for Weigum so that she can hook up her watering hose to tend to a garden she planted on city land.

 

But often, her gardening is less governed and more guerrilla.

 

She confesses to planting unauthorized gardens on city property at Lexington Parkway and Summit Avenue and other locations. She's especially proud of the garden at Summit and Mississippi River Boulevard, by a monument.

 

McDonald, the Minneapolis seed-bomber, compared her hobby with graffiti.

 

"Graffiti is destructive," she said. But with seed-bombing, she can leave her mark on the community in a constructive way.

 

"It's my little way of giving nature a way to fight back," she said.

 

She is thinking of branching out into vegetables. But that would require more commitment, including constant maintenance. "I am trying to identify an area where I can sneak in and tend to it," McDonald said.

 

PRETTY TO SOME, PAIN TO OTHERS

 

The thrill of illegal planting is lost on city officials.

 

They know the gardening is well-intentioned, but it's an annoyance. They say no one has a right to plant anything on city land any more than they could plant a garden in a neighbor's yard.

 

Woodbury's chief building official, Ron Glubka, said the gardens are often neglected when the gardener moves or loses interest.

 

Even gardener Lawrence admitted it was tough to maintain the impromptu gardens. "Everyone likes the fun part — planting — but no one wants to pull the weeds," she said.

 

Allowing a garden such as Hall's, Glubka said, would set a precedent. And private use of city land isn't allowed in Woodbury.

 

The City Council recently passed a rule forbidding "encroachment," the use of city property by an individual. It was passed in response to homeowners who trim trees on park land to improve their views, mow wild areas or build fences that block maintenance vehicles.

 

Lawrence has encountered another official objection — the notion that she is endangering union jobs. But she said tending green areas is a low priority, especially in a climate of cost-cutting.

 

"When will a custodian have time to do this?" she said.

 

Hall lives in a town house near the CityWalk complex in Woodbury. With almost no garden space of her own, she took over a future construction site behind her home.

 

"It was mowed once a year. It was used for nothing and got 10 full hours of sun a day," she said. "I couldn't stand it."

 

In 2009, she asked for permission to plant a garden, and the city turned her down. This spring, she did it anyway.

 

The lush garden sits in the vacant lot like an oasis in a desert. It's surrounded by a four-foot black fence and ringed with a flowerbed. Inside is a virtual produce aisle: broccoli, tomatoes, beans, fennel, lettuce and squash.

 

She was given a June 7 deadline to tear out the garden but has asked for an extension. She will get a chance to appeal the decision sometime this summer.

 

If she is shut out, will she quit or just shove her illegal activities more deeply underground?

 

"I think I would try to find something else," she said, "through other channels."

 

HOW TO BUILD A SEED BOMB

 

A seed bomb, aka a seed ball, is a self-contained weapon used by guerrilla gardeners.

 

The golf-ball-sized bombs can be purchased commercially or made at home. Each contains seeds and compost, and some include fertilizer.

 

Clandestine gardeners toss them into any area they think needs beautification, including vacant lots, abandoned gardens and roadway easements.

 

In Los Angeles, Greenaid vending machines have sprung up to sell them. Manufacturers say the bombs are tailored for local growing conditions.

 

Bridget McDonald of Minneapolis makes her own, using this recipe:

 

# Start with three parts dried compost, one part seeds, five parts soil and one or two parts water. Sift the dry ingredients together, add the water and roll the mixture into balls. Let them dry for one or two days.

 

# The preferred seeds are native to Minnesota, including sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers and clover.

 

For more information about guerrilla gardening or seed bombs, visit guerrillagardening.org.

 

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Russia muscling in on Potash takeover

 

(AFP via Yahoo! News) – Russian agriculture firm Phosagro wants to make a rival bid for the world's biggest fertilizer maker Potash Corp to counter a hostile offer by mining giant BHP Billiton, a report said this week.

 

The Vedomosti business daily said that the head of Phosagro had written to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying that the acquisition of Potash Corp would be a "significant geo-political instrument for the country's leadership."

 

Phosagro's chief Vladimir Litvinenko is a close ally of Putin from his home city of Saint Petersburg and played a major role in his 2004 presidential campaign, Vedomosti said.

 

The report said that Putin had handed the dossier to his powerful deputy prime minister Igor Sechin who had now charged state institutions with preparing proposals for the purchase of Potash Corp.

 

The importance of potash fertilizer has grown over the last years owing to mounting demand for food in the world and rapidly-expanding China is a major importer of the product.

 

Russia is already a major potash fertilizer producer and Litvinenko told Putin that the country would control 70 percent of the world potash fertilizer market if Phosagro launched a successful bid.

 

Russia's two leading potash producers, Silvinit and Uralkali, would not be appropriate bidders due to anti-monopoly concerns, Litvinenko said.

 

"Control over this resource can be seen as one of the necessary elements of state food security," he added.

 

Phosagro had a a turnover in 2009 of 56.9 billion rubles (1.8 billion dollars) and with political backing it would not fear bidding for the larger Potash Corp, Vedomosti said.

 

Litvinenko said that financing for half the purchase had already been agreed with Canadian banks while the other half would need to come from Russian financial institutions like the main state lender Sberbank.

 

Potash Corp is currently valued at 43 billion dollars, Vedomosti said.

 

Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton in August launched a hostile all-cash takeover bid for Potash Corp valuing it at 40 billion US dollars but this was immediately rejected by the Canadian firm.

 

According to media reports, the Canadian government has until late Wednesday to give its decision on the BHP Billiton bid.

 

The company's home region of Saskatchewan has said it opposes the bid and although it cannot stop the takeover of Potash Corp it can influence a federal decision.

 

A Phosagro spokesman said in a statement to AFP that it would not comment on the report until the Canadian government gives its decision later Wednesday on whether to approve the BHP Billiton bid.

 

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Delay veggie harvest to prevent E. coli

 

(Purdue University via PHYSORG.com) – E. coli can live for weeks around the roots of produce plants and transfer to the edible portions, but the threat can be minimized if growers don't harvest too soon, a Purdue University study shows.

 

Purdue scientists added E. coli to soil through manure application and water treated with manure and showed that the bacteria can survive and are active in the rhizosphere, or the area around the plant roots, of lettuce and radishes. E. coli eventually gets onto the aboveground surfaces of the plants, where it can live for several weeks. Activity in the rhizosphere was observed using a bioluminescent E. coli created by Bruce Applegate that glows when active. Applegate, a co-author on the project, is an associate professor in the food science and biological sciences departments at Purdue.

 

"E. coli is actually quite active in the rhizosphere. They're eating something there - probably plant exudates," said Ron Turco, a professor of agronomy and co-author of the study published in the November issue of the Journal of Food Protection.

 

Turco said the E. coli didn't survive on the plants' surfaces more than 40 days after seeds were planted. Harvesting produce at least 40 days after planting should reduce the possibility of contamination, but he warned that E. coli could still come from other sources.

 

"In actual field application, you pick up other things that are all around," Turco said. "You don't just get the plants that are 40 days old. An animal getting loose in a field could also contaminate plants."

 

Mussie Habteselassie, Turco's former postdoctoral researcher and now an assistant professor of soil microbiology at the University of Georgia's Griffin campus, said harvesting practices in manure-treated fields can be critical for produce crops.

 

"If you harvest young and old plants together or mix them after harvesting, there is risk of contamination of the older plants," Habteselassie said. "If plants are uprooted during harvest, there is also a possibility of contamination from E. coli living in the rhizosphere."

 

Producers should apply manure to fields well in advance of planting and harvesting. Turco said a wait of 90-120 days between manure application and harvesting, with a minimum of 40 days between planting and harvesting, should minimize the chance of E. coli contamination.

 

Turco said he would continue studying E. coli's ability to survive in different situations, including in water and processed produce. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the research.

 

Provided by Purdue University

 

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Organic produce not always healthier

 

(American Chemical Society via Eureka Alert) – With the demand for organically produced food increasing, scientists are reporting new evidence that organically grown onions, carrots, and potatoes generally do not have higher levels of healthful antioxidants and related substances than vegetables grown with traditional fertilizers and pesticides.

 

Their study appears in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

 

In the study, Pia Knuthsen and colleagues point out that there are many reasons to pay a premium for organic food products. The most important reasons for the popularity of organic food products include improved animal welfare, environmental protection, better taste, and possible health benefits.

 

However, the health benefits of organic food consumption are still controversial and not considered scientifically well documented.

 

The scientists describe experiments in which they analyzed antioxidants termed "polyphenols" from onions, carrots and potatoes grown using conventional and organic methods. They found no differences in polyphenol content for organic vs. traditional methods of growth. "On the basis of the present study carried out under well controlled conditions, it cannot be concluded that organically grown onions, carrots, and potatoes generally have higher contents of health-promoting secondary metabolites in comparison with the conventionally cultivated ones," the report states.

 

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‘Evergreen agriculture’ boosts crop yields

 

(ScienceDaily.com) – A unique acacia known as a "fertilizer tree" has typically led to a doubling or tripling of maize yields in smallholder agriculture in Zambia and Malawi, according to evidence presented at a conference in the Hague.

 

The findings were central to the arguments of agroforestry experts at the conference, who urged decision makers to spread this technology more widely throughout the African nations most vulnerable to climate change and food shortages, and to think differently about more practical ways to solve the problems that are most pressing to smallholder farmers.

 

Speaking at The Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, Dr. Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, said that evergreen agriculture -- or the integration of fertilizer trees into crop and livestock-holding farms -- is rapidly emerging as an affordable and accessible solution to improving production on Africa's farms.

 

"Doubling food production by mid-century, particularly in Africa, will require nonconventional approaches, particularly since so many of the continent's soils are depleted, and farmers are faced with a changing climate," Garrity said. "We need to reinvent agriculture in a sustainable and affordable way, so that it can reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases and be adapted to climate change."

 

Garrity spoke to leading agriculture and climate scientists, policymakers, development experts, and private sector representatives from around the world gathered at The Hague to develop a concrete action plan for linking agriculture-related investments, policies, and measures to transition agriculture to lower carbon-emitting, climate-resilient growth.

 

In a recent article in Food Security, Garrity and co-authors highlighted how evergreen agriculture has already provided benefits to several million farmers in Zambia, Malawi, Niger and Burkina Faso. Fertilizer trees draw nitrogen from the air and transfer it to the soil through their roots and leaf litter, replenishing exhausted soils with rich sources of organic nutrients. The trees bolster nutrient supply, increase food crop yields, and enhance the production of fodder, fuel and timber. These systems also provide additional income to farmers from tree products, while at the same time storing much greater amounts of carbon than other agricultural systems.

 

For example, farmers in Malawi have increased their maize yields by up to 280 percent when the crop is grown under a canopy of one particular fertilizing tree, Faidherbia albida. Unlike most other trees, Faidherbia sheds its leaves during the early rainy season and remains dormant during the crop-growing period. This makes it highly compatible with food crops because it does not compete with them for water, nutrients, or light -- only the bare branches of the tree's canopy spread overhead while crops of maize, sorghum, or millets grow to maturity below. The leaves and pods also provide a crucial source of fodder in the dry season for livestock when nearly all other plants have dried up. The trees may continue to provide these cost-free benefits for up to 70 to 100 years.

 

In Niger, there are now more than 4.8 million hectares of millet and sorghum being grown in agroforests that have up to 160 Faidherbia trees on each hectare.

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already noted that transforming degraded agricultural lands into agroforestry has far greater potential to store carbon than any other managed land use change.

 

Researchers suggest that integrating agroforestry into farming systems on a massive scale would create a vital carbon bank. The IPCC estimates that a billion hectares of developing country farmland is suitable for conversion to carbon agroforestry projects.

 

A broad alliance is now emerging of governments, research institutions, and international and local development partners committed to expanding evergreen agriculture and agroforestry. The International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the European Union, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and the UN Environment Programme are among those interested in developing partnerships to move the evergreen agriculture agenda forward.

 

"We are already working with 18 countries across the African continent to develop national plans for the accelerated implementation of evergreen agriculture," Garrity explained.

 

The next step is to further refine and adapt the technologies to a wider range of smallholder farming systems in diverse agricultural environments, so that millions more farmers can benefit now and for generations to come from such sustainable solutions to their food production challenges.

 

"Evergreen agriculture allows us to glimpse a future of more environmentally-sound farming where much of our annual food crop production occurs under a full canopy of trees," said Garrity.

 

For more information on evergreen agriculture, visit: http://www.worldagroforestry.org/evergreen_agriculture

 

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