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December 28, 2011
· Local markets spawn a big job boost
· Unlocking the secrets of medicinal plants
· Worm compost aids plant disease control
· Growers may someday burn, blast weeds
· Book examines climate change and crops
Local markets spawn a big job boost
(SFGate.com)
– In 1997, only 70 people were employed at businesses on the block of
Many in the city credit Bi-Rite Market, a specialty grocery store, with fueling the neighborhood's economy, not just by bringing other businesses to the street but by supporting other Bay Area companies.
"Our (mission statement) is knowing the person behind the product, and having them be local makes that possible," said Kirsten Bourne, marketing director at Bi-Rite. "Surely we sell Italian wines and French cheeses. But as much as possible we go with local."
Model of the future
Michael Shuman - an economist, author and research director
for Cutting Edge Capital, an
So-called CFEs are locally owned, employ locals, and use mostly local goods and services.
"There's good evidence to show that CFEs generate more jobs - two to four times the amount per dollar of sales - and generate more income and wealth for (their) communities than non-locally owned businesses, even ones that source goods from the area," said Shuman, whose report "Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in the World Marketplace" shows how these types of businesses grow local economies while becoming more competitive globally.
The report was issued by the Business Alliance for Local
Living Economies and the
While Bi-Rite was not part of the study, it fits the mold.
The
The store is well known for supporting and promoting
regional purveyors - everything from produce and chocolate to jams and barbecue
sauces. Last year it spent $6.9 million doing business with small companies,
most of them from
Food startups take off
And the cycle continues. Last year Bi-Rite started showcasing Michele Manfredi's SFQ Original San Francisco-style Barbecue Sauce in its store when her company was a tiny startup and she did everything by hand.
SFQ is still fairly small, but now Manfredi can afford to outsource her kitchen work, jarring and label making. She could probably save money by scouring the Internet for cheap labor, cheap jars and even cheaper labels.
But she's decided to go regional - most of her ingredients
are sourced in the Bay Area, her jars are from an
"I looked even closer to home," she said. "But it was a challenge finding someone to work with a small producer."
Dafna Kory of Inna Jam, a
"It's hard to be a farmer," she said. "As a high-volume buyer - I'll buy 30 flats of strawberries at a time - they're able to sell to me without a distributor and that means more profit for them, which enables them to pick longer and keep pickers on their payroll."
Kory also buys her jars locally, rents commercial kitchen
space in
"I've already had to quadruple my production this year to keep up with demand," she said, adding that she produced 30,000 jars of jam this year. "Next year I plan on having year-round staff."
Kathleen Merrigan of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the government values local food businesses so much that it's willing to help with the cost of doing business.
In fact, Congress has mandated that 5 percent of the money set aside for the USDA's Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program go to farmers who sell their products regionally.
There's a good reason for it, she said.
"Studies show that farmers who sell locally and regionally employ 13 full-time workers per $1 million revenue earned," she said. "Farmers who don't sell locally or regionally employ three workers for every $1 million in revenue earned."
Economists suspect that local sales require more employees to work farmers' markets and fruit stands and to deliver to local stores. Because it fuels the market - a 2009 Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship study showed that farmers' markets in that state pumped more than $71 million into the economy - the USDA is committed to farmers who practice the model.
Guaranteed loan
That's why when Watson Coast Produce - a wholesale fruit and
vegetable company that buys from local farms, distributes to 13 counties in
"We basically left no risk to the bank because we believed in what this company is doing," Merrigan said.
There are dozens of USDA programs through the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative geared toward helping local food businesses, she said.
"This is about jobs, the economy and community vitality," she said. "It's created a renaissance in agriculture and that's very exciting."
Unlocking the secrets of medicinal plants
(Mississippi Business Journal) OXFORD — Scientists at the University of Mississippi, together with colleagues at a number of other institutions around the country, have developed new resources poised to unlock yet another door in the hidden garden of medicinally important compounds found in plants.
The resources were developed by the Medicinal Plant Consortium, led by Joe Chappell, professor of plant biochemistry in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. They grew out of a $6-million initiative from the National Institutes of Health to study how the genes of plants contribute to production of various chemical compounds, some of which are medicinally important.
“Our major contribution to this project is to provide
bio-genetic samples of well-known medicinal plants for the advancement of drug
discovery and development,” said Ikhlas Khan, UM
professor of pharmacognosy and assistant director of
the university’s
“Most people are unaware that over 50 percent of the current anticancer drugs have originated from medicinal plant sources. Additionally, according to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of the world’s population relies on herbal medicines for their health needs. Many plants are commonly used as dietary supplements as well as other natural products that come to consumers in the form of cosmetics, fragrances and household products.”
The MPC project also includes participants from Michigan
State University, Iowa State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M
University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
“Thanks to the funding received for these projects, the talents and skills of experts from all of these institutions have been brought together with the goal of forging a new model in drug discovery,” said Chappell, the MPC project coordinator.
Some well-known medicines have come from plants. For instance, the foxglove plant gives us the cardiac muscle stimulant digoxin, and the periwinkle plant offers a source for the widely-used chemotherapy drugs vincristine and vinblastine. Similarly the anticancer agent Taxol is derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia).
These and many other medicinal plants, often commonly found in household gardens and flower boxes, represent cornucopias of compounds ripe for discovering and developing diverse medicinal applications.
“The current understanding of the molecules and genes involved in the formation of plant-derived medicinal compounds is very incomplete,” Chappell said. “However, the ability to conduct genome-wide studies of model plant species has resulted in an explosive increase in our knowledge of and capacity to understand the biological processes.”
The work conducted at the
“This research will provide the scientific community with several sets of valuable data that can be used to significantly further the understanding of how the inherent transcriptomic information encoded within each of these medicinally important plants allows for the respective production of their unique chemistries,” Smillie said.
During this two-year project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, researchers from the consortium set out to develop a collection of data that would aid in understanding how plants make chemicals, a process called biosynthesis. This knowledge ultimately could make it possible to engineer plants to produce larger quantities of medicinally-useful compounds as well as different versions with other therapeutic potential.
To develop the resources, the researchers studied the genes and chemical composition of 14 plants known for their medicinal properties or compounds with biological activity. These included plants such as Ginkgo biloba, Hoodia gordonii, Panax quinquefolius and Valeriana officinalis that were provided by the UM researchers. Altogether, these efforts are providing a rich toolbox for researchers to discover the means for how nature’s chemical diversity is created, thus empowering efforts to uncover new drug candidates and increase the efficacy of existing ones.
Khan and his UM colleagues obtained materials for the medicinal plants in the study. His lab also performed the initial processing of materials to determine the plants’ chemical profiles and to obtain their genetic blueprints to study how genes control the various chemical compositions.
“This work offers a valuable data resource for understanding the genes, enzymes and complex processes responsible for the biosynthesis of important plant-derived drugs,” said Warren Jones, who manages this and other research grants in biotechnology at NIH’s National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, through which the ARRA funds were provided. “The collaborative effort should greatly contribute to our ability to understand and exploit the rich biochemistry found in plants.”
Worm compost aids plant disease control
(Cornell University) – Organic growers could soon have another weapon in their arsenal, courtesy of the humble worm.
Cornell researchers have found that vermicompost
-- the product if composting using various species of worms -- is not only an
excellent fertilizer, but could also help prevent a pathogen that has been a
scourge to greenhouse growers. By teaming up with a
Building on previous research conducted by Professor Eric Nelson's research group in the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Ph.D. student Allison Jack has shown that beneficial microbes in vermicompost can colonize a seed's surface and protect it from infection by releasing a substance that interferes with the chemical signaling between the host and the pathogen.
"We know the microbes are actually adding something the zoospores don't like," Jack said. "Now we just have to find out what it is."
Eric Carr, a master's student in Nelson's lab, is focusing on the suppressive qualities of vermicompost on a different stage of the life cycle of Pythium aphanidermatum, a pathogen whose mobile spores infect seedlings, causing them to "damp off," or wither, shortly after germination. The research, he said, helps contribute to opportunities to turn waste products like manure into important disease-suppressive soil amendments.
"At some point in our lives, we're going to have to start using these types of natural resources and use them more efficiently; when that times comes, we'll have a better idea of how it works," Carr said.
Certain composts can suppress diseases, research has shown, but what is still unknown is which of the thousands of undescribed microbes in healthy compost are responsible for suppressing which diseases.
Another challenge in identifying suppressors and harnessing them is the variability of different composts.
To overcome this issue, Jack has teamed up with Tom Herlihy, who produces 2.5 million pounds of vermicompost a year through his
Most seeds are treated in this country with chemicals," Herlihy said. "If we know our vermicompost can suppress Pythium, wouldn't it be nice if we could come up with a vermicompost-based solution, rather than a chemical one?"
There could also be economic benefit if the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, allows Herlihy to market his product as a biopesticide.
A related project at Cornell focuses on vermicompost's organic fertilizing capability. Horticulture assistant professor Neil Mattson was recently awarded a $203,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study how organic growers can incorporate vermicompost into their potting mixes for better nutrient management. The three-year research project will begin this spring.
"What a lot of these growers tell us is fertility issues are the hardest to solve organically," Mattson said. "This is a community that is doing a lot of great things. We want to make their production systems even more profitable. We want to promote production systems that promote healthy environments."
Provided by
Growers may someday burn, blast weeds
(Tri-State Neighbor) – Two emerging weed control technologies for organic and other producers were rolled out and discussed at the 2011 Sioux Falls Organic Agriculture Conference.
Both tackled what is the No. 1 agronomic concern of organic farmers - weeds - with one technology hoping to burn away weeds, while the other would blast them away.
Integrated weed management specialist Stevan
Knezevic of the
With organic herbicides going as high as $1,000 per acre, Knezevic said this an exciting option for avoiding the use of herbicides and that although it's been around for the last 50 to 60 years, he said it could be at the point after his six years of research that kinks have been worked out and it could be usable in fields.
What the machine does is use mounted, carefully-directed propane burning units to throw a flame on top of plant tissue to increase the temperature within the weed so that the plant expands and bursts its cell walls, effectively killing the weeds.
The farmer can move through the field from 3 to 5 mph, with anything in the path of the heat affected. About 10 gallons of propane per acre can be used to kill plants from those emerging to those 18 inches tall.
Two major concerns are allowing the crop plant to survive with little or no yield loss and to prevent fires in the field.
What a producer doesn't want is to have the growing point of the crop plant to meet the heat source, Knezevic said.
"I call that the kiss of death," he said.
While the flamer works well on corn and soybeans, the simple message on wheat fields is don't use it.
As for weeds, the grass species are a little trickier to control, compared to broadleaf types, the researcher said.
In the broadleaf plants, the growing point is always on the top of the plant so it can safely be smoked and be successfully killed.
The growing point on grass species is a different story. In the first three or four weeks of growth, the growing point can be below the soil surface where the heat can't penetrate effectively.
It may kill the top of the plant, but it can keep emerging so what's needed is higher rates and repeated flaming of the grasses.
In his research, when cultivation is added to the process, it can be more successful with grasses because after the grasses are knocked down by the flaming and covered with dirt by the cultivation, it has been found that the weeds don't recover.
After an effective flame application, to tell if it worked is fairly easy as a visible fingerprint will show up on the leaf surface.
As for crops, corn can be tolerant to burning of the weeds because the growing point is below the soil surface, while soybeans and sunflowers can be OK in the cotyledon emerging stage and then again in the later vegetative stages.
Producers can broadcast the flaming operation before crop planting, after planting but before crop emergence, into the crop to eliminate weeds there and finally directed between crop rows.
Knezevic and his team has found yield losses in some of the field trials so far. However, despite some injuries to the crop plants when flaming, many have been found to recover quite well a week or two later.
"You have to know what you're doing," he said. "You can do a lot of damage to your crop if you don't know what you're doing."
That's the same advice for keeping fires out of the fields. Knezevic said a producer needs to know how much residue is on the field before starting the flaming operations.
"You got some good running shoes?" he joked to the organic farmers.
"If you have a lot of trash out there, it's going to catch on fire," he said. "But if you're moving along about 4 mph and if you do the flaming a day after a rain and the residue is still wet, you'll be OK."
Early season flaming is also better, because it can be less dangerous than the late-season effort.
One evolution in Knezevic's research has been the adding of hoods or shields over the propane nozzles to keep the energy contained as the heat wants to rise. The hoods can be opened up on the flamer when the crops are taller, allowing the plants to flow safely through the flaming machine.
Other improvements have included adding an ignition system from the cab for running the propane torches, having kits designed so the torches and hoods can be added to existing cultivators, working on the correct calibration in the torches to determine how much propane is needed and the research on combining cultivating and the flaming.
Knezevic said there is a possibility of mounting the flamer on the front of the cultivator, burning the weeds, and then running the cultivator on behind, thus cutting down on trips across the field and using less propane.
Knezevic is writing a manual on the use of the flamers and hopes to get the technology out, with the Lincoln company planning to produce about 30 to 50 of the flame weeding machines by spring, covering four rows to start with and then using what could be a more productive eight-row machine.
The researcher couldn't release the name of the company because negotiations between the two parties are under way at this time.
Organic farmers also heard a presentation on a weed blaster,
a project led by USDA researcher Frank Forcella at
the ag experiment station at
The researcher started his project when he was thinking of a possible use for apricot pits and discovered they could be used in sandblasting.
Why not try blasting weeds, he thought, in organic farming operations.
His first experiment using a walnut grit in a greenhouse was successful with 95 percent of small weeds dying with one blast. As they got bigger in the two- to three-week stage, he had a 90 percent kill rate with one blast.
An email was sent to
Forcella received a grant and took
a research trip to
After those encouraging studies, Forcella wondered if it would work in the field. So back home in Morris in 2009, his team rigged up a compressor with a tank of corncob grit and tested the concept on corn June 17 when it was at the three- to four-leaf stage. Plants attacked were pigweed, foxtail and lambsquarter. The treatment hit weeds at the base of the corn plant. They repeated the process June 23, with fairly dramatic effects as they achieved 87 percent weed control by the end of the growing season in late August.
The researchers repeated the experiment in 2010, with corn at the one-, two- and five-week growth stage. Three applications of grit were applied and once again the weed kill success was 90 percent by the end of the growing season with corn yield data gathered, too.
Forcella said they have been tweaking the experiments with how to place nozzles, what type of nozzles, changing air pressure, timing of applications, which weeds it worked on better and which crops tolerate the blasting.
This past year, they tried an experiment on soybeans. Some damage was found to the beans, but when they continued to the end of the growing year, damage to the plant exposed to grit once or twice had only a yield loss when the blasting was done as the soybeans were emerging from the ground in the cotyledon stage. At other times, it didn't seem to have any effect on the yields.
That was only one year of testing, so more experiments are needed, Forcella said.
He said if not used on corn or soybeans, the blasting could
work on high value crops, for example, on vineyards on
So what's next?
Forcella said they are planning on-farm tests this spring and summer in a field-scale demonstration project. Researchers plan to harness the energy of a 150 horsepower tractor, using a manifold to distribute that compressed air, sending the compressed air and the grit to four pairs of nozzles, with one nozzle on each side of the crop row.
The economics of the system will also be examined.
A new grant has been obtained and the researchers are
working with
Organic growers from
"I'm sure we will have our share of problems, and there will be a lot of tweaking, but that's kind of expected," Forcella said.
Book examines climate change and crops
(ENN.com) – The type of agriculture practiced in a given region depends heavily on the climate and weather that region receives. So naturally, with climate change, agriculture will be forced to change. Certain crops will have to be discarded for alternative crops which may grow better in the new climate. In other cases, agriculture will simply be no longer sustainable. Farms may have to close down or move to different latitudes or elevations. The unpredictable nature of climate change will make this quite a conundrum for farmers and the world at large.
One man has attempted to explain it all through a book which
can help guide us through a potentially rocky transition. Ariel Dinar, director
of the Water Science and Policy Center at the University of
The writers of the book make the argument that climate change will likely have a significant impact on agriculture around the world. The changes will be in the form of temperature, precipitation, CO2 concentrations, and available water flows.
"Developing countries already face food problems," said Dinar. "The effects of climate change on agriculture in these and other countries will depend on how well the agricultural sector can adapt through technology institutions, and better management practices. Developing countries are better able to engage in adaptation since mitigation is much harder for these countries to do."
Dinar first began his studies on climate change in 1994 and realized the effects on agriculture were largely ignored. The effects could be particularly dire for developing countries where farming is still relatively low-tech and there is a strong reliance on steady climate. Livestock as well, would be particularly hard hit.
"It soon became clear to me that people did not know much about adaptation to the effects of climate change," he said. "The net effect of climate change on agricultural production is still not well understood. It's not just the production of food from crops that is involved, but also livestock. Agriculture suffers from climate change, but it also contributes to it through land use and abuse, as well as the adoption of practices that are unsustainable where climate change is concerned such as unsuitable cropping patterns and irrigation technologies."
For more information: http://wspc.ucr.edu/books/Handbook%20Climate%20Change.pdf
End Transmission