 |
|||
 |
" I heard it |
||
December 11, 2009
· What might farming look like in 2050?
· Farm waste yields greener packaging
· Measuring nitrate levels in leafy greens
· Syngenta plants seeds for US expansion
· White House veggie patch goes high tech
What might farming look like in 2050?
(FastCompany.com) – As it stands, Big Agriculture companies like Monsanto dominate the farming industry with their patented, genetically-engineered crops. The burgeoning organic movement has slowly shifted the tide, but it's still hard to imagine a day when the small, organic growers hold sway over the multinational corporations that are currently in charge.
Protofarm 2050, a project put together by Design Indaba, tries to imagine what such a sustainable farming future might look like--and how we can get there.
Protofarm 2050 acknowledges that there is no silver bullet with the problem of sustainable farming, and instead focuses on an array of scenarios that could become viable in the future. Among them: intra-urban farming areas to cut down on travel time, vertical farming, and feeding livestock methane-reducing grass.
So what makes Design Indaba think this will actually happen?
Simply put, we have no choice. The world population is expected to balloon to
9.2 billion by 2050, and growing countries like
Want to see what a sustainable future food system might look like? Check out Design Indaba's video below.
Click here to check out the video
Green packaging may revolutionize the industry
(AFP via Google) – Two young American businessmen have developed a green alternative to ubiquitous polystyrene packaging -- made from farm waste and mushrooms -- that uses 10 times less energy to produce, and biodegrades into a natural fertilizer.
Called EcoCradle, the product can also be used as insulation and is grown, not manufactured, with no greenhouse gas emissions, such as CO2, as a byproduct, co-inventor Eben Bayer, 24, told AFP in an interview.
"We have developed a platform that we think is perfect for replacing the polystyrene that is used in packaging, because... it is biodegradable and it's created using almost no energy, almost no CO2 emissions," he added.
EcoCradle is planning to take on the 20-billion-dollar a year polystyrene industry dominated globally by a Dow Chemical subsidiary.
Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, classmates from the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in
"For each unit of EcoCradle we produce, compared to the same unit or volume of polystyrene, we use ten times less energy and emit eight times less CO2 over the life of the product from production, use and to disposal," Ecovative Design CEO Bayer said.
"Our long-term vision is actually to replace all plastic and foams and mitigate their environmental consequences... and this natural platform we have discovered or invented will allow us to do that," he said.
EcoCradle is a patented trademark
in the
Currently polystyrene, a plastic, is so prevalent in the packaging industry it accounts for 30 percent of all the waste in US landfills, Bayer said.
EcoCradle, on the other hand, degrades naturally in contact with water or moisture and has "a positive impact on the environment... as a natural fertilizer for plants."
The new product is made from agricultural byproducts including cottonseed hulls, buckwheat hulls and rice husk that are mixed with a filamentous fungi -- mycelium -- as a bonding agent -- and allowed to grow inside molds.
The mycelium secretes a powerful enzyme that decomposes the organic waste as it grows. After seven days at room temperature in the dark, a compact, ultralight, malleable material is formed that can resist temperatures of up to 800 degrees Celsius (1,472 Fahrenheit), Bayer said.
The production cost is comparable to that of polystyrene, he added.
At present, Ecovative Design has a
factory in northern
"Our vision is to take the same plant we have designed
and deploy it next year as a larger facility in the midwest
The factories require "a fairly low capital investment, in the order of millions of dollars," he said.
"It's low-tech biotechnology... it's almost closer to cooking or farming vegetables than it is to genetic manipulation."
Measuring nitrate levels in leafy greens
(ASHS) – Leafy green vegetables such as lettuce, Asian greens, and spinach can accumulate high concentrations of nitrate–nitrogen (NO3-N), which are potentially harmful if consumed by humans.
To measure NO3-N concentration in plant tissue, many laboratories use ion selective electrodes (ISEs). Relatively inexpensive and portable ISE nutrient monitoring devices, including the Cardy NO3-N meter, are widely used to measure fresh plant sap NO3-N levels. Although conventional means of measuring plant tissue NO3-N are accurate and reliable, they often require sophisticated equipment and trained technicians and can be time-consuming, expensive, and impractical outside of a laboratory setting.
A team of researchers from
Ott-Borrelli explained the impetus for the study, stating; "It would be advantageous for growers to have rapid and inexpensive methods to accurately measure plant tissue NO3-N, allowing them to make fertility and harvest management decisions for these crops." Samples for the study were taken from a larger experiment in which 24 varieties of lettuce, Asian greens, and spinach were harvested three times at two locations during winter.
Results from ISE and colorimetric analysis of the same dry leaf tissue extracts had a strong relationship (r2 = 0.92). The ISE was relatively easy to operate and affordable, suggesting it is an adequate substitute for automated colorimetric analysis of dry plant tissue extracts.
However, results of fresh whole leaf sap analyzed with the Cardy meter showed a poor relationship with dry leaf tissue extracted and analyzed using the ISE (r2 = 0.25) or with colorimetric analysis (r2 = 0.21). The study found that Cardy meter analysis of sap expressed from whole leaves was not comparable to ISE or colorimetric analysis of dry leaf tissue extracts for leafy green vegetables.
According to the research report published in the ASHS journal HortTechnology, "the study suggests that the extraction and analysis of fresh leaf sap with a Cardy meter is not comparable to procedures in which dry leaf tissue is extracted and analyzed with ISE or colorimetric procedures to determine NO3-N concentrations."
Syngenta plants seeds for US
(Wire Services) – Syngenta is expanding its
“This is all for the future,” said Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, president of Syngenta Biotechnology. “We have to take this step by step, but the first step is the purchase of the land.”
The new leased space is at the
Swiss company Syngenta’s biotechnology arm, Syngenta Biotechnology, is headquartered in RTP, where the company does research and development on genetic traits for various crops. The site’s work includes development of traits such as tolerance to herbicides and resistance to insects.
Syngenta Biotechnology opened in RTP in 1984. The company has grown to 200,000 square feet of laboratories, greenhouses and office space, not including the recently reached lease agreement. A company spokeswoman said Syngenta is currently hiring but does not have any projections for how many jobs future expansion would bring.
Syngenta currently employs more than 400 in RTP. Syngenta
Biotechnology also oversees a site in
White House veggie patch goes high tech
(The Baltimore Sun) – It is a different kind of hoops at the White House, where President Obama regularly plays pick-up basketball with friends and aides.
Perhaps taking the advice from a young woman intern the Slow Food blog, the White House has put so-called hoop houses over the White House vegetable garden, to trap the heat of the sun and continue to grow crops all winter.
Emily Stephenson made the suggestion, and even included diagrams of how the hoop houses could best be installed.
And, sure enough, the hoops when up and then the coverings went on. (Not the plastic that is ordinarily used, but a bio-friendly fabric.)
Eddie Gehman Kohan, who does such an excellent job of keeping track of such things on the blog Obama Foodorama, says the White House is growing lettuces, cabbage, winter radishes, onions, broccoli, turnips and carrots, which will only add to the harvest already calculated to be more than 1,000 pounds.
The White House is located deep in Zone 7 so, barring terrible cold, the garden should remain warm, cozy and productive in its sunny spot on the South Lawn.
A hoop house is actually much larger that what the White House has installed, which might more correctly be called row covers. You can actually walk inside a real hoop house and tend plants on tables.
But these row covers can easily be flipped off for weeding, watering or harvesting.
End Transmission