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December 22, 2009
· Feds push farmers to use coal waste on fields
· Monsanto plans to let GM seed patent expire
· Water-saving technology is focus of project
· Millions of cranberries will form Olympic logo
· Veterans find peace working down on the farm
Feds push farmers to use coal waste on fields
(AP
via Yahoo! News) –
The material is produced by power plant "scrubbers" that remove acid rain causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. A synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says those toxic metals occur in only tiny amounts that pose no threat to crops, surface water or humans. But some environmentalists say too little is known about how the material affects crops, and ultimately human health, for the government to suggest that farmers use it on their land.
"Basically this is a leap into the unknown," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "This stuff has materials in it that we're trying to prevent entering the environment from coal-fired power plants and then to turn around and smear it across ag lands raises some real questions."
With coal wastes piling up around the coal-fired plants that produce half the nation's power, the EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture began promoting what they call the wastes' "beneficial uses" during the Bush administration.
Part of that push is to expand use of synthetic gypsum — a whitish, calcium-rich material known as flue gas desulfurization gypsum, or FGD gypsum.
The Obama administration has continued promoting FGD
gypsum's use in farming even as it drafts a coal waste rule in response to a
spill from a coal ash pond near
The EPA is expected to announce its proposals for regulation early next year, setting the first federal standards for storage and disposal of coal wastes.
EPA officials declined to talk about the agency's promotion of FGD gypsum before then and wouldn't say whether the draft rule would cover it.
Instead, the agency released a statement saying the heavy metals in the material are far less than the amount considered a threat to human health. Field studies have shown that mercury, the main heavy metal of concern because it can damage development of the human nervous system, doesn't accumulate in crops or run off fields in surface water at "significant" levels, it said.
"EPA believes that the use of FGD gypsum in agriculture is safe in appropriate soil and hydrogeologic conditions," the statement said.
Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, which advocates for more effective enforcement of environmental laws, said he's not overly worried about FGD gypsum's use on fields because research shows it contains only tiny amounts of heavy metals. But he said federal limits on the amounts of heavy metals in FGD gypsum sold to farmers would help allay concerns.
"That would give them assurance that they've got clean FGD gypsum," he said. "The farmers don't want to get a bad batch."
Since the EPA/USDA partnership began in 2001, farmers' use of the material has more than tripled, from about 78,000 tons spread on fields in 2002 to nearly 279,000 tons last year, according to the American Coal Ash Association, a utility industry group.
About half of the 17.7 million tons of FGD gypsum produced
in the
"If we can find safe ways to recycle those materials,
we're a lot better off doing that then we are creating a whole bunch of new landfills,"
Darrell Norton, a USDA soil scientist, said a predecessor of FGD gypsum produced about 25 years ago often had high levels of heavy metals because it had been mixed with coal fly ash. But FGD gypsum has no fly ash and is "environmentally clean," he said.
FGD gypsum is widely used in the South as a less expensive
alternative to mined gypsum, said Glen Harris, a soil scientist at the
Clay McDaniel, 47, who farms about 4,000 acres of peanuts
and corn near the southern
"If we buy a chemical that's toxic, it's got a skull and crossbones on it," he said. "But this does not come with any such warning. It's just a calcium source."
Monsanto plans to let GM seed patent expire
(The New York Times) – Facing antitrust scrutiny over its practices in the biotechnology seed business, Monsanto has said it will not stand in the way of farmers eventually using lower cost alternatives to its genetically modified soybeans.
In letters to seed companies and farm groups this week, Monsanto said that it would allow farmers to continue to grow its hugely popular Roundup Ready 1 soybeans even after the patent protecting the technology expires in 2014.
The letter countered a widespread impression in the agriculture business that Monsanto planned to force farmers and seed companies to migrate to a successor product called Roundup Ready 2 Yield, which will remain under patent and is more expensive.
The issue has potentially broad implications for the agriculture industry because Roundup Ready soybeans will be the first widely grown biotechnology crop to lose patent protection since gene splicing became a mainstay of crop science in the 1990s.
Because farmers and seed companies would no longer have to pay royalties to Monsanto on the gene after 2014, Roundup Ready soybeans would become agricultural biotechnology’s equivalent of a generic drug.
Monsanto’s statement comes as the Justice Department is investigating possible antitrust concerns in the seed business, looking in particular at Monsanto, which dominates the business of supplying crop traits developed through genetic engineering. Critics, including some competitors, say that Monsanto has great leverage over the seed business and growers through restrictive contracts that must be signed to use Monsanto’s genes or to grow the genetically modified crops.
Monsanto calls such criticisms baseless. But it certainly is getting harder for seed companies to avoid using the Roundup Ready bacterial gene, which makes the plants impervious to the widely used herbicide glyphosate, which Monsanto sells as Roundup.
That allows farmers to spray their fields to kill weeds
without harming the crops. More than 90 percent of the soybeans grown in the
Gerald A. Steiner, executive vice president for corporate affairs at Monsanto, said last week that Monsanto was not changing its policy on how it would handle the soybean patent expiration, but was merely clarifying its intentions.
“What’s different,” he said, “is we have made a very comprehensive communication of what we are going to do.”
But the widespread impression in the seed business was that Monsanto was backing away from a previous policy.
“The only thing we were told was that as of 2014 you would not be able to sell any more Roundup Ready 1,” said Jack Debolt, manager of Advanced Genetics, a coalition of small Ohio seed companies that license the Roundup Ready gene from Monsanto to put in their seeds.
Monsanto’s biggest competitor, DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred seed company, has also accused Monsanto of antitrust violations including, as it says in a lawsuit, an effort to “remove Roundup Ready from the market prior to the time when competitors will be able to produce a generic product.”
Mr. Steiner of Monsanto said one reason for the company’s letters this week was to counter statements made by Pioneer, which Monsanto has sued alleging patent infringement.
Roundup Ready seed can cost as much as $75 an acre compared
with $30 to $35 for soybean seeds that are not genetically modified, according
to James Beuerlein, a soybean specialist at
While Monsanto sells Roundup Ready seeds itself, it also licenses the technology to other seed companies. Some seed industry executives and academic soybean specialists say that Monsanto was not planning to renew licenses for that Roundup Ready 1 trait that expired before 2014, so that seed companies would have no choice but to move to Roundup Ready 2.
But in its letters this week, Monsanto said it would now extend all contracts for Roundup Ready 1 until the patent’s expiration date. It also said it would not enforce language in some contracts that would have required seed companies to destroy or return Roundup Ready seed when the patent expired.
And Monsanto said seed companies could continue to sell seeds containing the Roundup Ready 1 trait without jeopardizing their access to the successor technology.
Monsanto also said that after the patent expired it would allow farmers to save Roundup Ready 1 seeds from one year’s crop to plant the next. Monsanto said it would not enforce other patents that might protect those seeds.
Many soybean farmers used to save seeds, but with Roundup Ready seeds they have been contractually obliged to buy new seeds each year. Monsanto has taken legal action against hundreds, if not thousands, of farmers it has accused of saving seed.
“This is a pretty big concession for Monsanto,” said Shawn
Conley, a soybean specialist at the
Still, it is uncertain how long Roundup Ready 1 would survive in generic form. Some nations require licenses for the import of genetically engineered crops to be periodically renewed. Monsanto said it would maintain those licenses through 2017. But if they expired after that, American farmers would not be permitted to export the Roundup Ready 1 generic soybeans to certain countries, which would discourage them from growing those crops.
Monsanto said it was confident that most farmers and seed companies would move to Roundup Ready 2, which uses the same bacterial gene but places it in a different location in the soybean DNA. Monsanto said that Roundup Ready 2 crops would have higher yields, and that other desirable traits would be added to those crops over time.
Water-saving technology is focus of project
(
Now they have the funds and collaborations to study more water-saving technologies. UGA is part of a national team that received a five-year $5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative Grant. The goal is to save water, increase efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts of ornamental plant production.
To do that, they’re developing “the next generation of tools to precisely monitor plant water use, allow for better control of irrigation water applications, and increase the efficiency of water and nutrient use by ornamental growers,” said UGA horticulturist Marc van Iersel.
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty will use $520,000 of the grant to study affordable soil moisture sensors that can be used easily in greenhouses and nurseries.
Van Iersel has been working with sensors for six years. He’s shown that they work in his greenhouse and at test nurseries. And now he can make them feasible for growers.
He, along with UGA professors John Ruter,
Matthew Chappell and Paul Thomas, will work in their greenhouses, nurseries and
at test sites at Evergreen Nursery in
McCorkle saw the impact of using soil moisture sensors in a study UGA did last year.
“They were watering the plants using normal practices, and we were using soil moisture sensors to irrigate the plants,” van Iersel said. “We reduced water use by 83 percent.
“There’s definitely the potential for drastic water savings.
How much probably depends on a particular greenhouse or nursery, but throughout
the
UGA faculty will also study the water needs of different plants, such as petunia, poinsettia, hibiscus and hydrangea. Cooperators from other institutions will then develop software that will predict how much water these plants use.
Growers will be able to enter information like plant type and age, greenhouse light levels and temperatures to tailor the software. They will be able to estimate how much water they will need for their plants.
Hydrangeas will definitely be one of the plants,” van Iersel said, “because that is such an important crop, and it’s a plant that seems to need a lot of water. Growers have trouble keeping hydrangeas well-watered, and they’re often over-watered.”
John Lea-Cox from the
In addition to determining water needs, they will construct watering systems that greenhouse managers can use, understand and install themselves. By combining their expertise, this group aims to develop a commercially-available, affordable product within the next five years.
Other universities and research centers on the grant are
Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, Colorado State University, Cornell
University and the UM Center for Environmental Science. Commercial partners are
Decagon Devices in
Economists will look at whether the system is effective and economical for growers, van Iersel said. The questions they hope to answer are “how much water, fertilizer and labor are saved, is there less runoff, less water to treat? And how about labor savings?”
Van Iersel sees the project as more than just a way for the plant industry to save money by reducing water and fertilizer. It can be a way to decrease their environmental impact. And that would benefit society at large, he said.
“If we reduce water use in these greenhouses and nurseries by X number of gallons per year, what is that value to society?” van Iersel said. “If we can reduce runoff from greenhouses and nurseries, how much money is society saving by not having to clean up that water?”
For more details of the project goals, the university teams and the commercial partners, see http://www.smart-farms.net.
Millions of cranberries will form Olympic logo
(The Province) – Thirteen million cranberries — enough to be strung 550 times around the Richmond Olympic Oval’s speed-skating track — will be part of a huge, floating display in the Fraser River during the Winter Games.
The 13.6-tonne logo of the Canadian Olympic Committee will be 62 metres long by 70 metres wide.
It will depict a maple leaf and Olympic torch above the Olympic rings.
“The forms are going to be constructed in pieces and barged
into place and then anchored and assembled,” said City of
The cranberries will be supplied by
The display — a first in Olympic history — is part of a project to showcase local industries.
Other projects include a giant inukshuk
— up to seven stories high, and made out of stacked shipping containers — which
will be placed near the
A room-sized model of the Canadarm,
Two dancing dragons measuring 150 metres and 75 metres will be part of Chinese New Year celebrations on Feb. 14 as well.
The project will be paid by business and community partners who are underwriting the cost, Townsend said.
Veterans find peace working down on the farm
(AP via Yahoo! News) VALLEY CENTER, Calif. – When Carlos Rivera returned from fighting in Iraq and found work as an electrician, he felt co-workers who knew about his military experience were gawking at him. He went home angry each day.
That's not a problem at his current job working alongside
other combat veterans picking avocados, mixing organic fertilizers and
gathering basil amid northern
"I'm outdoors, not stuck inside somewhere feeling
suffocated," said Rivera, 25, who returned from
Rivera works at Archi's Acres, a
3-acre high-tech organic farm owned by Colin Archipley,
who served three tours in
Working the earth has long been recognized as good therapy for war veterans. About 20 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs centers have gardening programs, said Anthony Campinell, the VA's national director for work therapy programs. He said Archi's Acres is the only fully commercial enterprise of which he was aware.
Veterans have grown fruits, vegetables and flowers on a
12-acre parcel at the VA hospital in west
Patients at the
"How much better can one feel about themselves than if you can make a meal out of things that you grew?" said UCLA psychiatry professor C. Scott Saunders, who specializes in treating post-traumatic stress disorder among combat veterans.
Archipley, 28, whose unit took
part in the initial invasion of
Instead, he decided to try his hand at farming, despite having no background in agriculture. He and his wife Karen started with the 200 avocado trees left on the property they bought while he was still a Marine sergeant.
Realizing the trees were not enough to sustain a business, the Archipleys added herbs and leafy greens grown using hydroponics, a method of cultivating plants without soil that requires less water and land than traditional farming.
The balmy air in Archipley's sunlit greenhouse is thick with the aroma of basil, bunches of which poke through holes in long plastic tubes arranged in vertical rows. Thin streams of water enriched with a potent "compost tea" run silently along the bottoms of the tubes.
Wrinkled leaves of chard and deep-green lettuces sprout outside the greenhouse.
Archipley said he knew other vets would be solid employees and they would benefit from the distraction provided by steady, regimented labor, just as he had.
"When our hands stop working and our minds start running, that's when bad things start to happen. So we keep the work load heavy. We stay busy," he said. "For me, if I slow down, if I stop doing what I'm focussed on, that's when I can get myself in trouble."
Archipley said he thinks his workers are soothed by the farm's rural atmosphere, since the noise and pace of city life might remind them of the urban battle zones where many fought.
Jeffery Scanlon, who places veterans at Archi's
Acres as manager of the VA's work therapy programs in
"The plants aren't talking back to them," he said. "You feel more in touch with something that doesn't give you what we would consider negative feedback."
Archipley pays a fee to the VA to cover salaries and placement program expenses. The VA takes care of the workers' insurance, health care and other costs.
Archipley's staff has grown from two to eight since he began hiring the veterans, and he recently bought an adjacent three-acre parcel where he plans more greenhouses and outdoor growing facilities.
The farm's growth is being sustained by demand for its products, which are sold at area Whole Foods outlets, other grocery stores and farmers' markets.
Scanlon said he has spoken with VA administrators about replicating the collaboration with the farm in other parts of the country. The emphasis on greenhouse cultivation makes it a model for areas too cold for year-round field farming, he said.
Campinell said he's open to that idea, but his department would need to find other hydroponic farms that want to hire veterans, since the VA doesn't set up new businesses.
The veterans at Archipley's operation, meanwhile, appear grateful for the opportunity to put down their own roots in civilian life.
"This type of work, gardening, getting your hands in the mix, it all helps," said Anthony Licon, whose 21 years in Army and Marines special operations forces took him to trouble spots in the Middle East, Central America and other locations.
Rivera said talking with customers at farmers markets has helped him the most.
"I'm dealing with people and looking them in the eye and learning how to be happy around people," he said.
"The other jobs I had, I used to just go home and be angry," he continued. "Now I actually look forward to work."
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