" I heard it through the AgLine"

December 21, 2009

 

 

·        Food Channel lists top food trends for 2010

·        Satellite shows CA groundwater drying up

·        Bug vs. bug – All natural growing in Arizona

·        Global warming’s new skeptic – Joe Sixpack

·        New Ag International conferences set for Miami

 

 

Food Channel lists top food trends for 2010

 

(Wire Services) CHICAGO – Experimentation nation, umami, and food with benefits are just three of the top 10 trends to watch in 2010, according to the experts at The Food Channel® (foodchannel.com).

 

The website released its top 10 for '10 based on research conducted in conjunction with CultureWaves® (www.culturewav.es) and the International Food Futurists®.

 

Keeping it Real

 

In a back-to-basics economy it is natural to return to basic ingredients. This isn't about retro, or comfort food, or even cost. It's about determining the essentials and stocking your pantry accordingly. It is about pure, simple, clean and sustainable. It is - dare we say - a shift from convenience foods to scratch cooking.

 

Experimentation Nation

 

Restaurant concepts are in flux as people redefine what going "out" to eat means. Gastropubs, fusion dining, shareables, and communal tables are all being tried. New concepts around "fresh" and DIY will do well. Experimentation is the trend, so we'll see concepts come and go.

 

More in Store

 

We predict growth in grocery stores, particularly as private label assumes prominence. Those old generics have morphed into their own brands, so that there is blurring and less of a caste system. Grocery stores are also doing things such as upgrading delis and fresh take-out sections, all the way to returning butchers to a place of prominence.

 

American, The New Ethnic(SM)

 

This is all about flavor delivery. Immigration has come to the plate, and we are now defining a new Global Flavor Curve. Part comfort, part creativity, the latest flavors are coming from the great American melting pot. So, it's about grandma's food, but the recipes may be written in Japanese.

 

Food Vetting

 

You are what you eat! That's what's leading this trend - our constant need for assurance that we are eating the right things, that our food is safe, that we are not ingesting pesticides or anything that will someday prove harmful. Call it food vetting or sourcing - the issue is that people are asking where their food comes from.

 

Mainstreaming Sustainability

 

People have mainstreamed sustainability, unlike a year ago, when we were somewhat afraid to use the word. America is just now learning how to be sustainable, and Americans are holding themselves responsible. In 2010 we'll see people and companies becoming sustainable for authentic reasons.

 

Food with Benefits(SM)

 

Call it what you will - nutritional, healthful, good-for-you - but this trend toward beneficial foods is growing at a pretty big rate. Expect food to either have nutrients added, or have the word "free" (gluten-free, allergy-free).

 

I Want My Umami

 

The "foodie" has settled into a more universal designation of someone who loves food - not a food snob. They are just as likely to want a PB&J as they are to try the latest soft shell crab sushi. And they may put French fries on it! The point is experimentation and a willingness to try new things.

 

Will Trade for Food

 

In an era when you can rent a name-brand purse for a special event, we want to know how we can apply that same concept to consumables. So what do we do in a bad economy when we have more time than money and skills that we still want to put to use? We barter. We predict that we'll all see more of the barter system come into play now that technology can assist with connections.

 

I, Me, Mine

 

It's the rise of the individual. While sharing has come into its own in restaurant concepts, there is a separate but equal trend toward individuality. It's part of the reason why we are making our own cheese, smoking our own meats, and making our own specialty desserts. Expect more attention to the individual, but it's not just about portion size--it's also about food that reflects personality.

 

Read more about the Top Ten Food Trends for 2010 by checking www.foodchannel.com.

 

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Satellite shows CA groundwater drying up

 

(UC Irvine via Medical News Today) – New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California's primary agricultural region - the Central Valley - and its major mountain water source - the Sierra Nevada - have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir. The findings, based on satellite data, reflect California's extended drought and increased pumping of groundwater for human uses such as irrigation.

 

At the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, UC Irvine and NASA scientists detailed the state's groundwater changes and outlined research on other global aquifers conducted via twin satellites called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. GRACE monitors tiny month-to-month differences in Earth's gravity field primarily caused by the movement of water in the planet's land, ocean, ice and atmosphere. Its ability to "weigh" changes in water content provides new insights into how climate change is affecting Earth's water cycle.

 

Combined, California's Sacramento and San Joaquin drainage basins have shed more than 30 cubic kilometers of water since late 2003, said Jay Famiglietti, UCI Earth system science professor and director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling. A cubic kilometer is about 264.2 billion gallons, enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-size pools. The bulk of the loss occurred in the state's agricultural Central Valley. The Central Valley depends on irrigation from both groundwater wells and diverted surface water.

 

"GRACE data reveal groundwater in these basins is being pumped for irrigation at rates that are not sustainable if current trends continue," Famiglietti said. "This is leading to declining water tables, water shortages, decreasing crop sizes and continued land subsidence. The findings have major implications for the U.S. economy, as California's Central Valley is home to one-sixth of all U.S. irrigated land and the state leads the nation in agricultural production and exports."

 

"By providing data on large-scale groundwater depletion rates, GRACE can help California water managers make informed decisions about allocating water resources," said project scientist Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Preliminary studies show most of the water loss is coming from the more southerly located San Joaquin basin, which gets less precipitation than the Sacramento River basin farther north. Initial results indicate the Sacramento River basin is losing about 2 cubic kilometers of water a year. Surface water losses account for half of this, while groundwater losses in the northern Central Valley add another 0.6 cubic kilometers annually. The San Joaquin basin is losing 3.5 cubic kilometers a year. More than 75 percent of this is due to groundwater pumping in the southern Central Valley, primarily to irrigate crops.

 

Famiglietti said recent California legislation decreasing the allocation of surface water to the San Joaquin basin is likely to further increase the region's reliance on groundwater for irrigation. "This suggests the decreasing groundwater storage trends seen by GRACE will continue for the foreseeable future," he said.

 

The California results come just months after Matt Rodell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Isabella Velicogna of UCI, and Famiglietti found groundwater levels in northwest India declining by 17.7 cubic kilometers per year between October 2002 and August 2008, a loss attributed almost entirely to pumping and consumption of groundwater by humans.

 

"California and India are just two of many regions around the world where GRACE data are being used to study droughts, which can have devastating impacts on societies and cost the U.S. economy $6 billion to $8 billion annually," said Rodell, who was Famiglietti's doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Other regions under study include the southeastern U.S., where GRACE clearly captured the evolution of an extended drought that ended this spring; Australia; and the Middle East-North Africa region. There, Rodell is leading an effort to assess regional water resources by using GRACE and other data to systematically map water and weather-related variables. He said GRACE may also help predict droughts, since it can identify pre-existing conditions favorable to the start of a drought, such as a deficit of water deep below ground.

 

Source: Jennifer Fitzenberger

University of California – Irvine

 

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Bug vs. bug – All natural growing in Arizona

 

(azcentral.com) – A war is waging in Tonopah, Ariz., but it doesn't bother Rob Lazzarotto. He pays for it.

 

"Bug warfare is expensive," said Lazzarotto, a self-described natural farmer who uses millions of insects to protect crops on his 5-acre farm.

 

Lazzarotto, aka Tonopah Rob, credits the success of his all-natural farm and market to the beneficial insects and animals that roam his property near Buckeye Road and 335th Avenue.

 

 

Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm hosts more than 2 million lady bugs, 20,000 green lacewings, several tricograma wasps and assassin bugs. Beneficial animals include iguanas, roadrunners and rattlesnakes.

 

"I don't use sprays or insecticides. Anytime I have a problem, I call my 'bug guy' and he sends me whatever I need," Lazzarotto said.

 

He buys insects from stores such as Arbico Organics in Tucson, which sells cases filled with beneficial insect eggs. The insects eat maggots, whiteflies and aphids, which can devastate crops.

 

Lazzarotto's bug army serves other purposes, too.

 

Earlier this year, Lazzarotto caught a swarm of bees to pollinate squash blossoms. Donning three layers of clothing, an onion bag over his head and duct tape to seal openings in clothes, he shook a swarm out of a tree and transferred it to an empty hive on his property.

 

"I was covered in bees. It was one of the neatest things I've ever done," Lazzarotto said.

 

Lazzarotto, 50, began farming nine years ago.

 

After the initial sale of 300 pounds of onions, the California native began to sell flower seeds and tomatoes at Valley farmers markets.

 

However, heavy competition and disillusionment with sales ethics made Lazzarotto rethink organic farming. He said small farmers like him "were being priced out of getting the 'certified organic' label."

 

Lazzarotto decided to go the natural route.

 

"In a way, (natural farming ) is more stringent, expensive and labor-intensive," said Erin Taylor, who researches field and vegetable crops for the University of Arizona.

 

Unlike organically grown farming, naturally grown farming is not regulated or subject to inspections by the Department of Agriculture or the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Taylor said naturally grown farming is based on an honor system.

 

"There is a lot of bad publicity against naturally grown (farming) because there is no government agency. But I feel a responsibility to be as true blue as possible and help the people coming to me to keep healthy," Lazzarotto said.

 

UA's Cooperative Extension in Maricopa County program is working to create a roster of organic and naturally grown farms in the Valley.

 

"We're hoping to develop programs that address the needs of those growers," Taylor said.

 

Despite difficult labor and expenses that exceeded $10,000 for last year's season, Lazzarotto keeps innovating and growing customers.

 

"We're branching out," he said of weekly markets.

 

Lazzarotto holds a Saturday market at Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm, which is about 30 minutes from the Interstate 10 and Loop 101 intersection.

 

"We would only see about 60 or 80 people on the first season (in fall 2005). I was overwhelmed because I was used to big numbers and I had too much food," he recalled.

 

Since then, the farm has grown to 4 acres in use for food production, and 1,500 visitors in 2008. The Saturday market includes tours of the grounds and a turkey and chicken petting zoo.

 

The market now also opens Sundays in front of an Ace Hardware store in Goodyear, "closer to civilization," Lazzarotto said.

 

"I think that seeing is believing, and I think that is why they come out here," he said of his customers.

 

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Global warming’s new skeptic – Joe Sixpack

 

(The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News) – Fresh from a global warming deal in Copenhagen, Denmark, President Obama returned to a cold, snowy Washington where the politics of global warming are slowly shifting underfoot.

 

Mr. Obama’s Copenhagen promise to cut US emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 will rely heavily on the cap-and-trade bill currently winding its way through the Senate. But a bill that was never going to be an easy sell has become even more fraught with potential complications during recent months.

 

Polls suggest that Americans have soured on Obama's climate strategy, and the "climategate" e-mail scandal has highlighted the public's increasing skepticism of the basic science driving some of the White House’s most aggressive policy prescriptions.

 

Flagging supportA new ABC News-Washington Post poll shows that two-thirds of Americans still believe the federal government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions from sources like factories and cars.

 

But the polling also shows that the public is increasingly dissatisfied with the president’s overall handling of the global warming issue. Support has slipped from 61 percent near the president’s 100-day mark to 45 percent this week.

 

Obama's actions in Copenhagen are a case in point. For example, 57 percent of Americans polled oppose the president’s proposal to provide $10 billion a year to subsidize emission cuts in developing countries.

 

The tone of the global warming debate had already begun to change before the raucous Copenhagen conference, though.

 

With several key decisions, Obama has set the scene for expanding the reach of climate-change imperatives – and science – into the lives of everyday Americans.

 

He has made a “green economy” a hallmark of the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February. He has prioritized the cap-and-trade bill and put into effect new auto mileage standards. And the Environmental Protection Agency has for the first time characterized carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, as a pollutant that it can control.

 

Climategate's impactBut he has spent virtually no time engaging the public about the truth of the science. The climategate scandal, in which leaked e-mails alleged that support for the manmade global warming scenarios were politicized, played directly into a growing ambivalence. The result could be flagging public support of drastic climate change measures, says Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.

 

“[Climate policy advocates including Obama] built up a narrative that, instead of bringing the public on board with dialogue and understanding, relied on emotion and authority,” writes Mr. Reynolds, who covered the summit for his blog on Instapundit, in an e-mail. “Now, the authority figures are losing authority, and the emotion is swinging the other way, as emotion generally does.”

 

In that light, what may be most problematic for the president is how the public perceives the scientists who have promulgated manmade global warming. Four in 10 Americans now say they place little or no trust in what scientists proclaim about the environment, a marked increase from recent years, notes The Washington Post. Distrust among Democrats has changed only marginally, but distrust among independents rose from 24 to 40 percent in the past year.

 

Republicans seek an advantageSince climategate broke, Republicans have hoped to push the doubt about climate change – or at least its cause – into the mainstream in a way that can impact Obama’s policy.

 

“This is a sea change in our culture,” Marc Morano, a former Republican staffer turned prominent climate change skeptic, told Politico earlier this month. “Wait until January or February. You’re going to see numbers [on belief in global warming] that have dropped through the floor.”

 

It is this hope, coupled with the potential economic impacts of a cap-and-trade bill (such as higher energy costs), that have Republicans hoping some moderate Senate Democrats vote against a bill next year. It will be "difficult to get 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass it," Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R) of Wisconsin told Fox News.

 

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New Ag International conferences set for Miami

 

(AgLineNews) – For the first time in its eight-year history, the New Ag International Conference and Exhibition will be held in North America.

 

Delegates and exhibitors from more than 25 countries have registered for the show to be held at the Hyatt Regency, Miami Beach, March 24-26, 2010.

 

Organizers report a large number of papers have been received and a complete schedule of presentations will be announced after the first of the year.

 

The following presentations will be among those offered the first day of the conference.

 

·        The need to boost the installation of microirrigation and fertigation systems around the world.

 

·        World trends in specialty plant nutrition.

 

·        Need for innovation in biocontrol of greenhouse pests.

 

·        Role of plant nutrition in IPM for suppressing plant diseases.

 

·        Plant genomics tools to predict the function and efficacy of biostimulants.

 

In conjunction with this conference, New Ag International has joined forces with the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) to co-organize on Tuesday 23rd March, 2010 and Wednesday 24th morning hours, at the same hotel a 1.5-day International Conference on Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers. 

 

More than 20 presentations by international experts will take place, covering the world markets for these products, their agronomic effectiveness and their effect on nitrous oxide emissions from various cropping systems, the latter being presented by Dr Ardell D.Halvorson, Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS (USA).

 

There is still time to register and book exhibition space. For more information, check out the New Ag International web site:

www.newaginternational.com

 

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