" I heard it through the AgLine"

November 10, 2009

 

·        Winter? N.Y. veggie farmer keeps on growing

·        Monsanto to reacquire Pfizer research campus

·        ‘Friends’ buck the aging trend in Canadian ag

·        Ag library a new resource for beginning farmers

·        Acidic Ozone Water kills H1N1 virus – study

 

 

Winter? N.Y. veggie farmer keeps on growing

 

(news10now.com) BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- With winter weather fast approaching, most New York produce farmers are now preparing to shut down until spring, but for Mike Harris of Lone Maple Farm, it's just the beginning of another growing season.

 

"By having the hydroponics in the greenhouse like this, we don't really care what the weather's doing outside," said Harris. "If it freezes, they're still nice and cozy in here."

 

Hyrdoponics allows Harris's crops to thrive indoors on a liquid nutrient solution, eliminating the need for soil. So while his competitors are forced to close shop with the first frost, this third generation Binghamton farmer will be harvesting produce well through winter.

 

"You're looking at June to October if you grow the things outside. When you grow them in the greenhouse like this, you can essentially grow them year round," explained Harris.

 

Here's how hydroponics works: a tank is filled with nutrient saturated water. In the tank is a pump that sends the water through a series of tubing to each of the plants so they can absorb the nutrient solution.

 

"By giving the plants all the nutrients that they need, they're happy plants, and happy plants have all the very valuable nutritional elements in them," said Harris.

 

And down at Lone Maple's on-site market, business has picked up with news of the farm's extended season.

 

"We're always looking for something that's fresh and homegrown," Ron Kradjian, a long time customer.

 

"I just love the taste of the end of the season tomatoes. And that's just what these taste like and here it is November," added Father James Tormey who also frequents the market.

 

"Really the emphasis is on providing the service of having the freshest fruits and vegetables around. If we've got happy customers, who are able to get really good fresh produce, for an extended period of time, that's really what our goal is," said Harris.

 

A goal his customers say has already been fulfilled.

 

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Monsanto to reacquire Pfizer research campus

 

(AP via Yahoo! News) – TRENTON, N.J. – Less than a month after buying Wyeth, drug giant Pfizer Inc. has mapped out a new structure for its research and development operations.

 

The plan, announced Monday, will bring the closure of six of their 20 research facilities, reorganize and consolidate others, and cut the jobs of roughly 15 percent of scientists and laboratory technicians.

 

New York-based Pfizer solidified its position as the world's biggest drugmaker with its $68 billion purchase of drug and vaccine maker Wyeth on Oct. 15.

 

The two executives heading the combined research operation told The Associated Press exclusively that integrating and reorganizing the two companies' laboratories will boost research productivity and efficiency and save money as well.

 

Major sites being consolidated including a sprawling Wyeth facility in Collegeville, a suburb of Philadelphia, and a large facility in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, Mo., that is being sold back to its original owner, Monsanto Co., for $435 million. Pfizer will retain a small research operation there, a spokeswoman said.

 

In addition, Pfizer will eliminate about 35 percent of the 16 million square feet of research space it now has around the world.

 

It will now have five key research centers, each focused on a couple of specific disease areas, plus nine other laboratories with specialized research capabilities. Research operations in Princeton, N.J.; two sites each in New York and North Carolina, and one in the United Kingdom will be closed.

 

"We have really built the very best from the two companies," Martin Mackay, president of research and development for pills and other traditional medicines, said in an interview.

 

The five primary research centers will be two Wyeth facilities, in Cambridge, Mass., and Pearl River, N.Y., and three Pfizer facilities, in La Jolla, Calif.; Groton, Conn., and Sandwich, United Kingdom.

 

Before the companies combined, Pfizer had about 9,000 researchers and technicians, and Wyeth roughly 4,500. Besides those losing their jobs, some will be asked to move to other sites.

 

Savings from the job cuts and the plant closures will be poured into research on key diseases Pfizer is targeting, including Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases, cancer, pain and inflammation, diabetes and infectious diseases, plus new vaccines.

 

"We essentially will have a portfolio up and running on the diseases that we care about this year," said Mackay.

 

That's an unusually fast transition for an already-huge company that just completed one of the industry's biggest deals ever.

 

By comparison, when Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert Co. in 2001, it spent the next two years making a series of decisions about what to do with different parts of the research organization. It still hadn't finished the integration of the two companies when it bought another drugmaker, Pharmacia Corp., in 2003.

 

Moving quickly to eliminate uncertainty for employees is essential for maintaining research productivity and innovation, as well as "employee dedication," said Mikael Dolsten, president of research and development for vaccines and biotech drugs.

 

Those areas were both strengths of Wyeth's, key reasons Pfizer bought the company, which was based in Madison, N.J.

 

Affected employees were being notified today.

 

Monday's announcement "will allow many of our external partners to know which sites, which units they'll be working with," Dolsten said.

 

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‘Friends’ buck the aging trend in Canadian ag

 

(thestar.com) – One innovative experiment to inject youthful vitality into Canada's aging farm sector looks a bit like the cast of the TV sitcom Friends transported from Manhattan to an organic farm 45 minutes east of Montreal.

 

In this case, the "friends" are Frédéric Thériault and couples Renée Primeau and Reid Allaway, and Emily Board and Dan Brisebois, ranging in age from 28 to 31. The five met while studying agriculture and environmental science at McGill University. Though all grew up in urban settings, they desperately wanted to farm according to what Thériault calls applied environmental science – organics.

 

Daunted by the challenges of entering the high-risk agricultural sector, they joined forces, established a workers' cooperative and developed a unique business plan that has delivered what has largely eluded Canadian farmers over the past few decades: financial stability, creative fulfilment, companionship in an often lonely pursuit, and pride in producing healthy food.

 

They represent the most optimistic future for food production in Canada.

 

The other future? Not so bright.

 

Between 1996 and 2006, Canadian farmers under the age of 35 stepped off a demographic cliff – nearly 50 per cent left agriculture. More than 40 per cent are now over the age of 54, and one-third of all farmers, controlling half of all Canadian farm assets, will retire in the next 15 years, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

 

The reason is clear: Farmers have been caught in the middle of a corporate squeeze play that has all but destroyed independent diversified Canadian farms.

 

Increasing consolidation of agribusinesses – seed, fertilizer and chemical companies – has resulted in soaring input costs. At harvest, farmers face the same consolidation among retailers and processors, forcing prices down, often below the cost of production. The top four retailers now control 71 per cent of the food market, according to CIBC World Markets Inc., and they have the power to source cheaper food globally. Just two companies, XL and Cargill, have a 95 per cent lock on Canadian finished cattle slaughter.

 

The result? According to the National Farmers Union (NFU), while profits were flowing to massive agribusiness and food companies, realized net incomes for farmers plunged to zero for much of this decade.

 

Without a strong strategy to revitalize farming, especially mid-size farms, the bleak scenario is a corporate takeover of the 50 per cent of farm assets coming available by larger corporate farms (farms of 3,500-plus acres grew at a rate of 50 per cent between 2001 and 2006), and even processors and retailers. Control of Canada's food supply could fall into even fewer hands.

 

That's a scenario many Canadian policy-makers just don't want to contemplate, says food policy expert Rod MacRae. "The implications are too severe."

 

Yet, in this crisis, there is a golden opportunity to shift Canadian farming into a more sustainable future.

 

Young people, like "the friends," want into agriculture, but they're interested in ecological farming and producing food for local markets.

 

To avoid high start-up costs, the five rented 12 acres from a 1,500-acre organic crop farm operated by three brothers, the Dewavrins. "They really wanted the example of young farmers on the land for their children," says Brisebois.

 

The friends then secured a $40,000 new-farm establishment grant from Quebec's ministry of agriculture, perhaps the most innovative farm start-up program in Canada. With it, they bought the limited equipment and supplies required to set up their Tourne-Sol vegetable farm, powered largely by the sun and their own physical labour. For a stable source of income, they rely not on government programs but selling directly to customers through a Community Supported Agricultural program and two weekly farmers' markets. The prices are affordable – about retail prices for produce – yet return a viable living to the young farmers who estimate they feed more than 1,200 people a season.

 

Families clearly love the connection to the people who grow their food, and the farm. Many visit weekly to pick up their veggie basket. The young farmers established a picking garden so that families can enjoy plucking and eating veggies right from the soil. "They say it's a highlight of their week," says Brisebois. "The kids just run wild through the garden, and they're eating and loving vegetables."

 

The young farmers also take care to nurture their own joy in producing food. The co-op model affords them a lifestyle most farmers can only dream of. They contain their work to 50-hour weeks during the growing season, pay themselves salaries with benefits, take most weekends off as well as a summer vacation, and enjoy down time in the winter to pursue other interests or take part-time jobs off the farm. And while they share overall planning, they still get the rush of running an independent business that farmers crave. Each takes responsibility for an area of the farm and has turned individual passions into new ventures – cut flowers, organic seed production, and medicinal tea herbs.

 

Says Brisebois: "We're able to run a profitable farm without breaking our backs. We live modest lives but we're not worried financially. We make our own decisions. We work outside. We eat really well. I love the diversity of tasks, the constant decision-making. Really, I love everything about farming."

 

In Ontario, there is a growing clamour for food grown this way. Demand for organic food is soaring by about 20 per cent a year, while the number of organic farmers is increasing by only between one and five per cent a year.

 

Switching to such labour-intensive, organic systems would require a massive influx of labour. But that employment and rejuvenated local food economy would be a major stimulus to stagnant rural economies. However, enticing these talented young innovators will require major intervention.

 

Non-profits are stepping into the breach. In Ontario, organizations such as FarmStart and Everdale Farm's Farmers Growing Farmers offer training and business planning for people hoping to realize their farm dreams. That work is helping fuel a resurgence in small farms – those less than 70 acres grew by nearly 20 per cent from 2001 to 2006.

 

One creative idea is the "condo farm" – several diversified farms and even processing ventures operating within one large farm. That model is one way new Canadian farmers might gain access to expensive land.

 

FarmStart runs a "matchmaking" service that links up landowners who don't want to farm their land with new farmers looking for land.

 

Established farmers Ineke Booy and Martin de Groot, who run Mapleton's Organic Dairy, near Mount Forest, discovered that their best marketing venture was offering free land to a new organic farmer, Caitlin Hall, who set up a market on the farm. "People come to the farmer's stall and they always come in for at least an ice cream," says de Groot.

 

The Afri-Can FoodBasket, a non-profit food security movement, teaches leadership and farming skills to Toronto teens. Last summer, it established some 20 backyard gardens in the Lawrence Heights and Jamestown communities, and worked a two-acre plot on the McVean Incubator Farm, 50 acres set aside for agriculture by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

 

Next year, executive director Anon Lololi said the group plans to grow specialty herbs and vegetables such as okra, callaloo and sorrel for ethnic restaurants in the Toronto area. Lololi sees tremendous potential for new Canadian farmers serving Toronto's multicultural communities – and many want to farm. "Ontario farmers are still sleeping. They haven't engaged the most multinational city in the world. Farmers say they don't know how to grow this stuff. Well, they can connect with people who do."

 

For all the sparkles of ingenuity in the non-profit sector, governments show little appetite for sustaining independent farming in Canada.

 

According to food policy expert MacRae, the Ontario government has focused its succession planning on encouraging children of farm families to enter the field – and few want to. Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said the Ontario government has committed to establishing a young farmer's program but, so far, there is no sign of it. "We'll be doing something, when the resources are available," she said.

 

MacRae, a professor at York University, says governments lack urgency on the matter. "Agriculture never gets its due in terms of its importance unless there's a huge crisis."

 

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Ag library a new resource for beginning farmers

 

(Wire Services) – WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The American Farm Bureau Federation is partnering with the USDA's National Agricultural Library to create the National Curriculum and Training Clearinghouse for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. The new information-sharing program will help those who have decided to pursue a career in agriculture and will help support Farm Bureau's commitment to rural development.

 

The clearinghouse is a component of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, a competitive grant initiative that is part of the 2008 farm bill. The clearinghouse will be supported by a five-year, $1.5 million grant from USDA.

 

"This is a great opportunity for Farm Bureau to provide information to beginning farmers on how to start and stay in farming and ranching," said AFBF President Bob Stallman. "We are providing in-kind support to the National Ag Library with outreach, publicity, educational seminars and our annual conference where other project grants will be highlighted."

 

The clearinghouse will use the grant money to develop a Web site and databases to serve beginning farmers and ranchers, with particular focus on those categorized as underserved. The clearinghouse will provide education, training, outreach and mentoring materials to beginning farmers and ranchers across the United States. AFBF will serve as a conduit for distribution of the information.

 

"Our goal at Farm Bureau is to help farmers be successful and to move agriculture forward," said Dan Durheim, coordinator of AFBF's Young Farmers & Ranchers program. "The projects included in the clearinghouse are fascinating and diverse: an agricultural entrepreneurial program in Missouri, legal and technical support for beginning and immigrant farmers in Minnesota, effective business practices to Navajo farmers in Arizona, business planning and sustainable practices for women in the Northeast, and absentee forest landowner training in Tennessee."

 

Farm Bureau will host a beginning farmer and rancher conference annually that will be held in conjunction with the AFBF Young Farmer and Rancher Conference, beginning in Orlando, Fl. in February 2011.

 

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Acidic Ozone Water kills H1N1 virus – study

 

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found that acidic ozone water can deactivate H1N1 viruses very effectively, offering a promising disinfectant for the millions of people trying to avoid the disease. Acidic ozone water (AOW) is made from regular tap water mixed with a small amount of acid such as hydrochloric acid, along with an ozonized gas that can be produced in the lab. After deactivating the virus, the substance eventually decays into plain water, leaving no residue or harmful materials in the environment.

 

Scientists Han Uhm of Ajou University in Korea, along with Kwang Lee and Baik Seong of Yonsei University in Korea, have published the results of their study on the H1N1 disinfectant in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters. Besides being environmentally benign, AOW also has the advantage that it may cost significantly less to prepare compared with chemical disinfectants.

 

During the past several months, H1N1 has infected thousands of people worldwide and has proven to be a highly contagious disease. Attempts to combat the disease have included preventative vaccines and the use of disinfectants to prevent the spread of the disease. However, most of these disinfectants have chemicals that can harm the environment.

 

In the current study, the researchers found that they could make neutral water acidic by mixing a very small amount of hydrochloric acid into the water. Adding just 22 grams of hydrochloric acid to one ton of neutral water can change the pH value of the water from 7 to 4. As the scientists explain, the negative chlorine ions have a sterilizing effect on viruses, and a strong acidity in general also has a sterilizing effect.

 

Although acidic water itself can partially inactivate the H1N1 virus, the scientists also added an ozone gas concentration of more than 10 mg/liter to the water to enhance the sterilization effect. All the viruses were killed after five minutes of mixing the acidic ozone water with about 430,000 viruses in the environment.

 

When observing the number of viruses killed in a given time, the researchers found that the acidic ozone water had a synergic effect, outperforming the sum of the individual effects of acidic water and ozone water. Part of the reason for the enhanced sterilization is that, while ozone decays over time due to impurities, the acidification of water slows the decay, prolonging the time of disinfection.

 

In another experiment, the researchers found that E. coli cells treated with acidic ozone water at pH 4 and an ozone concentration of 20 mg/liter destroyed the cell envelopes. Based on this observation, the scientists speculate that acidic ozone water may work by destroying the H1N1 virus envelopes, disabling their ability to establish an infection.

 

“Most of the virus inactivation experiments in our lab have been conducted using the host cells for viruses,” Uhm told PhysOrg.com. “The host cells used were the cells from advanced animals like green monkey kidney cells, human cells, or egg cells. These cells are breeding well even after the exposure to acidic ozone water. Meanwhile, the microbe cells are killed very effectively by AOW. I believe that some kinds of antioxidant in the advanced cells may protect the cells from ozone attack. But the microbe cells without the antioxidant may be destroyed by the strong oxidation activity of ozone in AOW.”

 

Uhm added that the AOW could be used in a variety of areas to avoid the spread of H1N1.

 

“AOW may be abundantly available due to its easy preparation,” he said. “I am not an industrialist, but a scientist. I do not have any specific plan to make it available by myself, but some capable people may do. The AOW may be useful in hospitals, in livestock industries, in dairy farms, in seafood industries, or in agriculture. I initially studied the AOW for protection of mankind from an attack of bio weapons.”

 

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