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US (AZ): Farming Sustainably With Aquaponic Produce
It began years ago with a pledge from Chef Ken Harvey to provide his guests at Loews Ventana Canyon with food made from the freshest possible ingredients, and Harvey hasn’t cut any corners in sourcing his meats, cheeses, breads and produce from sustainable purveyors.
But it was his first meeting with the founders of Merchant’s Garden, a local aquaponics farm, which put his nearly pathological commitment to the principle of sustainability on an exciting new path. This ultimately resulted in his vow to grow and harvest onsite enough lettuce to serve his tens of thousands of guests per month, year-round, with only one percent of the water that’s used in conventional farming.
Occupying a climate-controlled storage space that wasn’t being fully utilized, the new hydroponic garden is the last stop on the lettuce’s journey before it lands on a guest’s plate. That journey begins aquaponically at Merchant’s Garden, where the lettuce spends its newborn month being fed through its young root system by water enriched by nutrients from biofiltered tilapia waste. It’s then transported live to Loews Ventana Canyon, 7000 N. Resort Drive, in floating containers, with its roots still submersed in the nutrient-rich water, for a subsequent cycle of hydroponic growing prior to harvest.
Harvey is currently growing Bibb and Red Cherokee lettuces, as well as three varieties of Romaine. His garden system’s capacity is nearly 300 heads per harvest, with multiple harvests per month, which equates to a full acre of farming if the lettuce was grown in the ground. And he tells me that he’s only using 200 gallons of water per month in a recirculating system that only loses water through evaporation and transpiration.
Publication date: 5/9/2019
How Technologies Can Save Our Earth’s Resources
It’s not a secret that within a bit more than a century, the world science has made a quantum leap that led to numerous technical and technological inventions in various fields and industries.
How Technologies Can Save Our Earth’s Resources
By Ansh Sharma
May 17, 2018
It’s not a secret that within a bit more than a century, the world science has made a quantum leap that led to numerous technical and technological inventions in various fields and industries.
Today, we can hardly imagine our life without the Internet, mobile telecommunications, wireless connections, and a whole variety of gadgets and items that make our life easier, work more efficiently, and leisure more enjoyable. However, the biggest paradox about this vigorous technological breakthrough is that technologization and industrialization severely impact the environment and exhaust natural resources. In fact, we are slowly “killing” the Earth, which is our common home, with our own hands.
Initially aimed at life improvement, today, the technological progress might lead to a global disaster. Greenhouse effect, freshwater, and food shortage as well as the lack of other vital resources are not a myth anymore but rather a frightening reality. For this reason, the world leading scientists and inventors join their efforts to stop this and make technologies work for the humanity and help solve our environmental problems.
Renewable Energy
Solar water heaters, solar chargers, and solar powered outdoor lights, as well as other major and minor heating and lighting solutions based on the solar energy, are already common things for many households and even enterprises all over the world. With the energy and fuel being the biggest issues, modern technologies are being maximized and optimized to efficiently turn the power of wind, sun, and water into energy to replace traditional energy sources.
Let’s Drive Electric Cars
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions destroying the ozone layer are the biggest hazard for the atmosphere. Industrial plants powered by natural gas, coal and other types of fuel as well as ordinary vehicles, quickly growing in numbers, are the major CO2 generators. While it is still pretty hard to find a truly functional technological solution for factories and large-scale plants, today, we can easily replace a gasoline-powered vehicle by an electric car to cut at least some part of harmful CO2 emissions. Recently, scientists have also introduced a device that can recycle CO2 emissions to obtain a hydrocarbon fuel.
Living in Smarter Homes
There has been developed a great many technologies to set up a so-called smart and environmentally friendly home. These are mostly intended to reduce energy loss and, as a result, energy consumption by controlling heating, air conditioning, lighting, and ventilation systems operation.
Growing population needs more food while growing cities leave less land for traditional agriculture. Vertical farms that can be arranged in urban skyscrapers will help produce crops all year round even in non-agricultural areas. Meanwhile, robots designed specifically for farming can handle anything from simple planting to complex monitoring that will let greatly optimize basic processes.
Though many environmental technological inventions still require optimization, improvement, and enhancement to become viable and fully functional, great chances are that in a decade or so, they will become mainstream and will seem the only correct solutions.
GrowLife, Inc. Launches Line of Eco-Friendly Products to Meet Growing Demand for Sustainability in Indoor Cultivation Practices
GrowLife, Inc. Launches Line of Eco-Friendly Products to Meet Growing Demand for Sustainability in Indoor Cultivation Practices
March 14, 2018
KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GrowLife, Inc. (PHOT) (“GrowLife” or the “Company”), one of the nation’s most recognized indoor cultivation product and service providers, today announced the launch of a new line of sustainable eco-friendly products for the indoor cultivation market. These new products will allow GrowLife’s customers to play a role in providing a greener economic footprint compared to traditional indoor cultivation methods while remaining efficient on output and profitability.
The new product line was strategically curated by the Company’s expert growing consultancy team to offer products that are not only high quality and affordable, but also offer significantly decreased environmental impacts compared to traditional products.
The product line, which features products from all categories of indoor growing, includes items such as lighting, nutrients and growing mediums, climate control devices, and overall plant care products. The Company saw an unmet need in the indoor cultivation market, which faces consistent criticism for its environmental footprint, for high-quality, sustainable products that yield similar output results as traditional products. The Company understands the demand for these types of products will continue to increase as end consumers’ demand for green practices increases following national trends toward sustainability.
“GrowLife is committed to offering its customers innovative technologies and products that help them to achieve maximum efficiency and profitability while satisfying their end consumers,” said GrowLife CEO Marco Hegyi. “The launch of this product line assists in that commitment by offering a sustainable solution with all of the efficient production benefits our customers expect. These green products will enable our customers to make the important shift to more sustainable indoor growing practices that will garner more trust from their customers while preparing them for any further regulatory and social obligation placed on this industry with respect to sustainability.”
In addition to the product line, the Company will offer eco-friendly growing tips and resources to its customers through its renowned support and education platform. For more information on the GrowLife ECO line or to purchase products, please visit Shopgrowlife.com/ECO.
For more information about GrowLife Inc., please visit the company’s website.
About GrowLife, Inc.
GrowLife, Inc. (PHOT) aims to become the nation’s largest cultivation service provider for cultivating organics, herbs and greens and plant-based medicines. Our mission is to help make our customers successful. Through a network of local representatives covering the United States and Canada, regional centers and its e-Commerce team, GrowLife provides essential goods and services including media, industry-leading hydroponics and soil, plant nutrients, and thousands more products to specialty grow operations. GrowLife is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington and was founded in 2012.
Contacts
Public Relations
CMW Media
Cassandra Dowell, 858-264-6600
cassandra@cmwmedia.com
www.cmwmedia.com
or
Investor Relations
info@growlifinc.com
Need For Modern Technology Use In Agriculture Stressed
Use of modern techniques and technologies in Agriculture is the need of the hour which carries equal significance for both the businessmen and the men of science and technology.
Need For Modern Technology Use In Agriculture Stressed
Rukhshan Mir (@rukhshanmirpk) February 14, 2018
Use of modern techniques and technologies in Agriculture is the need of the hour which carries equal significance for both the businessmen and the men of science and technology
LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News
Use of modern techniques and technologies in Agriculture is the need of the hour which carries equal significance for both the businessmen and the men of science and technology.
It was the upshot of the speeches delivered at a seminar on 'High-Value Agriculture' held here at Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Wednesday. The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Ceo Yuksel Seeds, Turkey Yaqub Yuksel, Convener LCCI Standing Committee on Mechanized & High Value Agriculture Mian Shafqat Ali, Ex-vice Chancellor Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi Dr Rai Niaz Ahmed, Dr Khawaja Asif, Mian Shaukat Ali, Faisal Iqbal Sheikh and Naeem Hanif also spoke on the occasion.
The experts said that there was a dire need for reforms in the agriculture sector and addition in the cropped area as a country could not afford to stay where it was today in terms of cropped areas and per hectare yield, because it was already running well short of per capita food availability.
They said that yield gap in the four major crops of Pakistan was three times from the best producers in the world such as China and Egypt.
They said that low yield had contributed to the poverty in rural areas besides forcing the country to import agriculture produces to feed its population.
Malik Tahir Javaid said the agriculture sector of Pakistan continued to be the single largest and dominant driving force for growth which contributed almost 19.5 percent in Gross Domestic Product.
It was the main source of livelihood for 42.3 percent of total labour force despite the fact that agriculture mechanization in Pakistan was very limited. He said that area under cultivation for important crops accounted for 23.85 percent of the value added in overall agriculture.
Wheat accounted for 9.6 percent of the total value added in agriculture and cotton production was 10.67 million bales. For the sake of increasing the share of agriculture sector in GDP, the existing area of cultivation had to be increased on war-footing.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that due to lack of technology usage in the agriculture sector, we face the problem of crops yields gaps. The average yields production in the agriculture sector of Pakistan was far below the level of those countries that used the technology in their agriculture sector, he said, citing that level of yields of different crops was 50 to 83 percent lower than the average of other countries of the world.
He said the prospects of Pakistan's economic prosperity heavily depended on the performance of agriculture sector. It had to be evaluated that government was giving subsidy to farmers at various stages of purchasing fertilizers, pesticides, seeds as well as selling their output at support prices but still this sector had not succeeded in enhancing the level of productivity.
He said that in the present scenario of water scarcity, the sustainable food security of Pakistan had to be ensured by way of adopting new techniques. "There are many developing countries like Pakistan which are encouraging corporate farming and in parallel to that, they are fostering high-value agriculture that includes vertical farming, hydroponics farming, aquaponics farming and arctic farming etc.
If government helps the farmers in acquiring these technologies at affordable prices then it is highly likely that new employment opportunities will be created and the productivity will also increase." Mian Shaukat Ali said that Chamber of Commerce and Industry played an important role to promote agriculture sector of any country.
All Chambers of Commerce and industry of Pakistan should pay attention to agriculture so that they could highly contribute to the development of this sector. He said that another problem of the agricultural sector was lack of agricultural graduates or their non-seriousness towards agricultural developments, adding that had they worked for the development of this sector seriously it would be beneficial for the country.
Peek Preview of Hubitus Urban Sustainability Hub in Israel
Peek Preview of Hubitus Urban Sustainability Hub in Israel
Hubitus at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens will be a zero-energy hub with smart water and solar collection systems, built from recycled containers.
By Abigail Klein Leichman FEBRUARY 5, 2018
Hubitus - the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
The architectural plans are completed for Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability, and it’s easy to see why the co-founders are fielding inquiries from botanical gardens all over the US and Canada.
“We took the entrepreneurship hub model from the startup world and adapted it to the environmental world. This is something that has never been done before, definitely not at a botanical garden,” says co-founder and director Lior Gottesman.
She and co-founder Adi Bar-Yoseph have described Hubitus, a unique co-working space for environmental entrepreneurs, environmental artists and designers, urban planners, social activists, gardeners and urban farmers, at international conferences in Hawaii, Miami, San Diego and St. Louis.
Open classrooms at Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
Recently they accepted invitations from the heads of the Chicago Botanical Gardens and the UC Davis Botanical Gardens in California.
“We are invited to talk all over the world as botanical gardens rethink their social role,” Gottesman tells ISRAEL21c. “We’ve taken it to the next level by having change agents sitting in the garden. We’re the startup nation so it’s clear this innovation will come from here.”
Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
Hubitus already exists virtually for the past three years, providing courses, training, events and professional connections to 80 change agents. The hub also runs outreach programs including an initiative to establish sustainable gardens in preschools.
The physical space to house 30 Hubitus members was planned with the input of that community in coordination with Noam Austerlitz, a prominent Israeli “green” architect and lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s schools of architecture and environmental studies.
Office of Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
The zero-energy hub will generate as much renewable energy as it uses, aided by intelligent water collection and solar energy systems. “It will be built entirely of recycled containers using green construction techniques,” says Gottesman.
“In addition to the workspaces, our hub also will have classrooms, open spaces, rooftop gardens, green walls and more because our community needs places to prove and demonstrate concepts in areas such as beekeeping, hydroponics and vertical gardening.”
Closed classroom at Hubitus – the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Hub for Urban Sustainability. Simulation by Sharon Golan
The grading of the site has started, with funding from Leichtag Foundation, and further fundraising is being conducted through JNF Australia and the Jerusalem Foundation. In addition to Austerlitz Architecture, the hub has engaged the services of Shlomo Aronson Architects for landscape design.
The Vertical Farming Conference
How will we feed 10 billion people? Where will food for 400 Megacities be produced? And how can we grow as healthy, sustainably and independently from fossil resources as possible?
THE VERTICAL FARMING CONFERENCE
The international conference SKYBERRIES explores the emerging topic of vertical farming for the first time in the German-speaking region. SKYBERRIES presents the state-of-the-art of vertical farming and urban gardening and invites all participants to take part in this future business field. Both conference days define knowledge baselines, raise current and future challenges of food security, outline possible solutions and bring them into action. SKYBERRIES is an interactive, networking and knowledge exchange focussed new art of conference.
Learn more about vertical farming and our team
PART OF URBAN FUTURE GLOBAL CONFERENCE
SKYBERRIES is part of the URBAN FUTURE global conference and thus combines the largest global meeting of city-changers with the first Vertical Farming conference in the German-speaking world. Participants of the conference, like architects, city-planners, mayors and sustainability managers will have access to any part of the SKYBERRIES and URBAN FUTURE conferences and will have the opportunity to participate in discussions with scientists, entrepreneurs, and start-ups at the Congress Center. All tickets are valid for both conferences.
MEET OUR INSPIRING SPEAKERS
BUY YOUR OFFICIAL TICKET HERE
Take advantage of our special rates for SKYBERRIES and buy your official conference ticket in our ticket shop!
All tickets guarantee full access to both conferences SKYBERRIES and URBAN FUTURE.
WELCOME TO VIENNA!
SKYBERRIES and URBAN FUTURE will take place at the Vienna Exhibition & Congress Center. The conferences are an official green event – we make all efforts to provide all conference materials digitally, also we encourage all participants to travel as eco-friendly as possible. Thank you for your contribution to the environment!
MESSE WIEN, Exhibition & Congress Center:
MORE WEBLINKS:
Directions map within Vienna (PDF)
Info on parking at Messe Wien (Website)
Exhibition and Congress Center (Website)
Floorplan of Messe Wien (PDF)
ADDRESS & DIRECTIONS:
Messeplatz 1, 1020 Wien, Austria
ACCESSIBILITY
It is our goal to make SKYBERRIES as accessible as possible. Please let us know of any individual needs of yours that we could take into consideration. Contact us, we are happy to assist.
CONTACT SKYBERRIES
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+43 (0) 660 1128544
office@skyberries.at
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Cape Town May Be First Major City To Run Out Of Water
Cape Town May Be First Major City To Run Out Of Water
By Peter Chawaga, Associate Editor, Water Online
Though this time of year typically means an abundance of water supplies throughout the U.S., a major foreign city is having to contend with the possibility that it will run out of water entirely.
“After three years of unprecedented drought, the South African city of Cape Town has less than 90 days worth of water in its reservoirs, putting it on track to be the first major city in the world to run out of water,” reported Time. “Unless residents drastically cut down on daily use, warns Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille, taps in the seaside metropolis of four million will soon run dry.”
The city predicts that, based on current supplies and water use, it will run out of water on April 22. This upcoming “day zero,” as officials are calling it, is forthcoming despite already tight restrictions on water use for residents.
“Cape Town’s four million residents are now only allowed 23 gallons of water per day,” per CBS News. “Next month that goes down to 13 gallons. Compare that to the average American who uses around 100 gallons daily. Thirteen gallons doesn’t allow for much — a 90-second shower, a quick toilet flush, basic dishwashing, weekly laundry, and a large bottle of drinking water.”
Meanwhile, local farmers have only been able to plant a fraction of what they normally would. And this would decrease even more, potentially down to nothing, if taps are turned off entirely.
Beyond restricting water use, there seem to be few solutions in sight. Adjacent to the ocean as it is, Cape Town has explored desalination options. But it’s doubtful that this will solve the problem in time.
“Now the city is playing catch up, hastily (and expensively) installing desalination plants and looking into groundwater extraction,” Time reported. “But it’s unlikely any of those systems will be brought online before Day Zero, or even before the rainy season is due to start up again in May (if indeed it does).”
For similar stories visit Water Online’s Source Water Scarcity Solutions Center.
Image credit: "Downtown Cape Town," David Stanley © 2014, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Sustainability and Global Food Systems
Sustainability and Global Food Systems
September 18, 2016 by Brian Colwell
Farmers and ranchers are already facing devastating impacts from the realities of Climate Change – including severe floods, extreme heat and drought, and increased pressures from changing disease and pest patterns.
Global Food Systems are under attack. We need Sustainability NOW!
Major advantages of conservation agriculture are:
- Reduced wind and water erosion of topsoil
- Increased water use efficiency through improved water infiltration and retention
- Increased nutrient use efficiency through enhanced nutrient cycling and fertilizer placement adjacent to seed
- Reduced oscillation of surface soil temperatures
- Increased soil organic matter and diverse soil biology
- Reduced fuel, labor and overall crop establishment costs, and
- More timely operations
Enter LEGUMES!
It’s a win-win situation for the environment AND the economy when it comes to introducing legumes into agricultural systems, says new research, but the
“…ability to reverse negative trends is jeopardized by Climate Change as food legumes are mostly grown rainfed and are being exposed to increasingly variable and extreme weather.”
That’s bad news, because Legumes are a #4IR “Smart Food”
Good for you, good for the planet, and good for the smallholder farmer. Pulses like chickpea and pigeonpea contribute towards the new Sustainable Development Goals to reduce poverty and hunger, improve health and gender equity, promote responsible consumption and help adapt to climate change.
Pulses are an amazing protein and might save the Planet!
Beans and Sustainable Agriculture:
- Lower Carbon footprint
- Water (In)Security
- Nitrogen Fixing & Soil Microbial Diversity
1. Lower Carbon footprint:
Pulses have a lower carbon footprint in production than most animal sources of protein. In fact, one study showed that one kilogram of legume only emits 0.5kg in Co2 equivalent, whereas 1kg of beef produces 9.5 kg in CO2 equivalent .
The very low contribution of legumes is well illustrated in the graph below. It shows that lentils are one of the foodstuff that contributes the least emissions, far fewer than turkey, salmon or other common sources of protein.
How do Beans reduce Carbon Emissions?
- Low water use results in low energy use.
- Reduces nonrenewable energy in the entire crop rotation by 22-24%. Pulse-Pulse-Wheat cropping has 34% less carbon footprint compared to a Cereal-Cereal-Wheat cropping pattern.
- Better farming practices, including use of pulse crops, can lower the average carbon footprint by 24 to 37%.
- Nitrogen fertilizers contribute to carbon footprint as its energy footprint is over 7.5 times more than other fertilizers such as phosphate and potash.
- Pulses help reduce use of chemical fertilizers by fixing nitrogen.
2. Water (In)Security:
It’s more efficient to obtain protein from crop products than animal products. Water used to produce 1g protein in milk, eggs and chicken meat is 1.5 times, for mutton it is 3.3 times and for beef 6 times more than that used for pulses. Crazy.
In addition, many pulses use water differently than traditional farming crops. They extract water from shallower depths, leaving deep soil water for the following crop (crop rotation). Water use characteristics of pulses effectively increases the water use efficiency of the entire crop rotation.
3. Nitrogen fixing and soil microbe diversity:
Pulses fix atmospheric nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen fixing soil bacterias living inside their root systems.
“A 125-year debate on how nitrogen-fixing bacteria are able to breach the cell walls of legumes has been settled. Scientists now report that plants themselves allow bacteria in. The fact that legumes themselves call the shots is a great finding…”
Chickpea leaves 20.4 kg/ha of residual nitrate in the soil after harvesting which is the highest among pulses. Production and application of nitrogen fertilizer accounts for 57% to 65% of the carbon footprint of each crop. Pulses help in efficient use of soil phosphorus by breaking down insoluble phosphates in the soil.
Soil microbe diversity:
Different compounds from pulses feed soil microbes and this benefits overall soil health. Crops grow better in soils with diverse soil organisms as they help break down and cycle nutrients more efficiently.
Crops grow better in soils with diverse soil organisms as they help break down and cycle nutrients more efficiently. Presence of diverse soil organisms tend to ‘crowd out’ disease-causing bacteria and fungi, resulting in healthier plants. Growing pulse crops in rotation enables the other crops to benefit from these large, diverse population of soil organisms.
WOW! I didn’t know beans were so important!
With Climate Change offering massive disruption to global food and water security, and with legumes both impacted by and impacting agricultural carbon emissions, it’s important to understand WHERE legumes come from, how future production will be impacted by further climate changes, and what’s ALREADY being done.
There are 18 priority dryland cereal and legume farming (agri-food) systems worldwide:
The most important of these systems, in terms of area and population, are found in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The farming systems in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia and East Asia are also important, but dryland cereal and legume crop distribution data show that South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are the most important regions for crop improvement and adapted crop management practices.
The high levels of malnutrition in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa can be addressed in part by nutritious DCL crops, which are often important sources of protein and micronutrients. Biofortification of DCL crops could be an important consideration in these areas. Clearly, the high rural and urban population found in, and depending on, DCL farming system regions suggest the importance of these systems for research and development aimed at improving agriculture and livelihoods.
In the case of the pulses: Chickpea, the common bean, cowpea, faba bean, groundnut, lentil, pigeonpea, and soybean.
“Grain legumes are often referred to as the ‘poor people’s meat,’ …They’re extremely important to those who cannot afford meat, milk or fish to meet their protein needs.”
In Africa, increasing areas of common bean are being sown while areas under mung bean and black gram have increased in South and East Asia. These increases are attributed mainly to the availability of improved varieties, such as shorter duration and more disease-resistant mung bean, rather than any improvements in agronomic management. Africa remains the major producer of cowpea, but there has been no appreciable increase in area sown or yield over the last decade. In contrast, cowpea area and yields have increased in Asia, probably as a result of availability of improved varieties. India is the major producer of pigeonpea, but area and yields have remained relatively stable over the past decade. Myanmar appears to be the only country where pigeonpea area and yields have increased. This has been mainly driven by the export market to neighboring India.
Beans in Africa:
Cowpeas are an important staple in the diets of 200 million Africans, roughly 18 percent of the population. Smallholders devote more land to groundnuts than any other legume in Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 11 million hectares.
Beans are an important legume crop in Zambia, where 60 percent of the population lives in poverty and more than 350,000 suffer from food insecurity. Unfortunately, bean production in this African country is severely limited by diseases, insects, low soil fertility and drought.
In the east African nations of Malawi and Tanzania, chemical fertilizer is extremely expensive and supplies are extremely limited. Consequently, the ability of pulses to fix soil nitrogen in these regions is critical. Because of poor soil health and drought, these countries stand to reap many benefits from the production of pulses. Bringing improved pulse cultivars to the region is an important step to increase food security and improve health and nutrition.
“…small farmers in Africa are getting two to three times lower production rates than what can be done on research station sites… generally due to under-management – lack of use of improved seeds, poor varieties and suboptimal use of agronomic practices.”
Globally, the area sown to beans has increased primarily due to increases in both Africa and Asia.
The demand-supply gap for the legumes is perpetually increasing widening day-by-day which will lead to a huge shortfall in the supply to the ever increasing global population in coming years. The only option is to maximize the efforts toward developing improved high yielding cultivars possessing resistance/tolerance to the major stresses especially in context of Climate Change.
Moves toward more ecological-based approaches in managing nutrition, weeds, diseases, and pests of food legumes offer prospects for greater inclusion of food legumes in cropping systems.
Although adoption of conservation agriculture is widespread in large-scale commercial agriculture (especially in the cereals), it is only at initial stages in resource-poor smallholder situations. A boost in food legume production by resource-poor farmers is a dire necessity due to static or declining production trends for most of these commodities in developing countries, yet increasing global demand for legume grain.
Technology to substantially increase and stabilize yields of food legumes in most areas is available but its rapid adoption appears restricted by Industrialized Agriculture…
THE END???
Resources:
- BBSRC: BioScience for the Future
- NSAC’S BLOG
- Pest Management in Grain Legumes: Potential and Limitations
- New Phytologist
- Emerging genomic tools for legume breeding: current status and future prospects
- Catch the Pulse
- Global Pulse Confederation
- Dryland cereal and legume priority farming systems worldwide
- Translational Genomics in Agriculture
- Pulses Handbook 2016
- Breeding Annual Grain Legumes for Sustainable Agriculture
- Legumes in Sustainable Agriculture
- Legumes: the Solution to Human Health and Agricultural Sustainability
- Can legumes solve environmental issues?
- Legumes give nitrogen-supplying bacteria special access pass
- Introduction to Legumes (links to all articles by same author)
- These Plants Are the Pulse of Sustainable Farming and Healthy Eating
- Can We Improve the Nutritional Quality of Legume Seeds?
- Legume Innovation Lab
- AgBioResearch
- Use of grain legumes residues as livestock feed in the smallholder mixed crop-livestock production systems in Ethiopia
- Finding niches for legumes in smallholder farming systems
- LegumeCHOICE
- Innovations in agronomy for food legumes
The United Arab Emirates is Building a $354 Million City With Driverless Cars, Greenhouses, and Solar-Powered Villas
For much of the 20th century, the United Arab Emirates was known as one of the world's biggest oil producers and, as a result, greenhouse-gas emitters.
The United Arab Emirates is Building a $354 Million City With Driverless Cars, Greenhouses, and Solar-Powered Villas
Sustainable City outside Dubai, UAE.Dubai Sustainable City
January 30, 2018
For much of the 20th century, the United Arab Emirates was known as one of the world's biggest oil producers and, as a result, greenhouse-gas emitters.
But in the past two decades, the UAE government has made an effort to lower its own dependency on fossil fuels, shifting toward more environmentally-friendly sources to power its cities.
The UAE aims to have 75% of Dubai's energy come from clean sources by 2050. If the city pulls that off, it would have the smallest carbon footprint in the world.
As part of this larger goal, local company Diamond Developers is building a city 18 miles outside central Dubai that's designed to produce more energy than it consumes. Called Sustainable City, the development is expected to cost $354 million and be fully complete by 2019.
Find out more below:
In 2013, Diamond Developers started building Sustainable City, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Dubai Sustainable City | Source: Arabian Busines
The 113-acre city aims to curb CO2 emissions as much as possible. Cars are banned from most neighborhoods.
Dubai Sustainable City
Residents are only permitted to take public transport, drive electric-powered smart cars, or take horse-drawn buggies.
Dubai Sustainable City
Instead of gas stations, there are 250 charging stations.
On January 22, Dubai's transport authority signed an agreement to operate electric driverless cars in the new city. Homeowners also get a free electric golf cart or a $10,000 subsidy toward buying another electric vehicle.
Dubai Sustainable City
Residents can also ride the city's electric buses for free.
Every home's roof features solar panels.
Dubai Sustainable City
And a 98-foot-wide park with 2,500 trees also helps reduce air pollution.
Dubai Sustainable City
Diamond Developers is building the city in two phases.
Dubai Sustainable City
The first phase — which opened in 2015 — includes 500 villas, 89 apartment buildings, 11 dome greenhouses that cut through the center of the development, 32,300 square feet of outdoor urban farms, and 1.16 million square feet of office and retail space.
Dubai Sustainable City
The retail space includes fitness centers, community pools, and an equestrian centre with 32 stables.
Dubai Sustainable City
There are also two man-made lakes with recycled water, according to The Khaleej Times.
The second phase is under construction and will feature a school, mosque, a science museum, a country club, and a mall.
Dubai Sustainable City
Also as part of this phase, a new hotel that uses less energy than it generates will go up — the first of its kind in the Middle East, according to developers. They also claim that the city's new research center will produce more energy than it consumes.
In recent years, the UAE has worked toward similar city-from-scratch projects. Some have been more successful at attracting residents than others. Only around 300 people live in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, though it was planned for 40,000 residents.
Dubai Sustainable City
Source: Business Insider
Sustainable City has garnered more interest from UAE residents (or at least those who can afford to live there, since homes start at $1 million). Approximately 1,800 people have bought homes, while around 900 rent.
Dubai Sustainable City
Source: CNN
The metropolis signals that the UAE is trying to march toward a more sustainable future.
New Jersey: Governor Murphy's Team Wants to Put The Garden Back in Garden State
MURPHY’S TEAM WANTS TO PUT THE GARDEN BACK IN GARDEN STATE
CARLY SITRIN | JANUARY 30, 2018
Governor’s advisory committee wants more state support for agri-tourism, a revived Jersey Fresh program, and to get more people involved in farming
Agriculture has always been a keystone of the state’s economy; if no longer dominant in dollars, it certainly still plays a significant role in the Garden State’s image. The Department of Agriculture’s transition report underscores that fact, with its advisory committee hoping to enhance New Jersey’s public image by supporting agritourism efforts and bringing back the sidelined and underfunded Jersey Fresh program.
The new Murphy administration appointed a transition committee for each of the state’s cabinet-level departments, seeking advice and information on what the departments’ stakeholders — experts, analysts, business leaders, officials of non-profits, etc. — view as priorities for the administration. The report on agriculture was among a number that were released publicly last week: These are just advisory reports — Murphy has no obligation to follow their advice.
Make New Jersey Fresh Again
One of the recurring themes throughout the report is the need for strong state branding — starting with the Jersey Fresh program.
The report takes former governors to task for drastic funding cuts over the last decade that have reduced the marketing program's budget from a peak of $1 million down to $50,000, an amount they say barely covers the cost of the inspection and grading efforts.
The advisory committee calls for Murphy not only to revive the program, but also to permit farmers to sell home-baked goods, farm beer and cider, and industrial hemp. As it stands, New Jersey is the only state where selling home-baked goods is prevented by law.
Another rebranding effort would focus on the 2.25 million acres of wineries in the southern counties of Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, Monmouth and Salem which the report targets as a growing tourist space.
The report calls for the creation of road signs and other promotional materials dubbing that region the "Coastal Plains Wine Corridor” which they believe could become the "Napa Valley of the East." The advisory committee recommends putting the Economic Development Authority and Rutgers Agricultural Experiment Station program (NJAES) in charge of this effort, giving interested wineries access to EDA loans for winery expansion, vineyard establishment, and necessary equipment.
More Farmers
The report also emphasizes the need to get young people interested in farming again. According to the report, New Jersey farms are facing a decline, with the average age of a New Jersey farmer at 60. What's more, because the state resources set aside to preserve farmland come with the exception that the land should remain in farming, that creates a need for a new generation of farmers.
To combat this issue, the advisory committee recommends pouring more resources and budgetary support into the research efforts at the NJAES, which is the main source of technical support for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural professionals in the state. The report also seeks to get young people involved though Future Farmers of America (FFA), 4H, and vocational tech programs.
The report also recommends making changes to encourage urban, niche, and beginner farmers by extending tax benefits to farms under five acres and removing barriers to urban farming such as the department of health regulation that prohibits small farms from accepting food stamp benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and WIC.
The issue of food deserts in some New Jersey cities is also targeted in the report, which advises directing the department of agriculture to work with education programs and establish EDA loan programs to get beginner farmers the equipment and information they need to start urban farms.
Food Security
According to the report, the number one priority for the Murphy team should be immediately restoring the “heat and eat" benefits that would make it easier for those participating in the SNAP program, which is overseen by the federal Department of Agriculture, to also receive help paying heating bills. While in office, Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly vetoed budget language that would have restored the program and according to recent Benefits Data Trust research, some 160,000 Garden State residents have seen their SNAP benefits dip by about $90 a month due to Christie's actions.
It also recommends streamlining food insecurity programs like SNAP, WIC, school breakfast and lunch, adult-care food programs and food assistance for disaster relief into two departments (Agriculture, and either Human Services or Health) and making them easier to apply to.
Deer and Insects
The report also touches on some issues that are more difficult to categorize like deer-hunting permit changes and funding for an insect laboratory.
Deer in the state are largely overpopulated and have been negatively impacting farmers by contributing to annual crop losses of up to 40 percent, according to the report. In response, the committee recommends a “strategic deer management plan” that would “develop target population numbers for a sustainable herd” — all of which really means more deer hunting. Some of the proposed regulations include allowing bow hunting during summer months and creating an all-season, all-zone, “Earn-A-Buck” program similar to ones in states like Indiana and Virginia where more does and antlerless deer can be taken per buck until the population “has reached a scientifically acceptable level.” This would be a change from the current law which restricts doe counts in some zones and in some seasons unless a hunter is in possession of an unlimited doe tag.
The committee also supports repairing and funding the Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory, a facility constructed in the mid 1980's for research related to raising and releasing insects like weevils and beetles to control invasive species in New Jersey.
6 Places Where Soil-Less Farming is Revolutionizing How We Grow Food
If it seems like “water, to which farmers have added the necessary nutrients for plant growth.hydroponic systems” are everywhere, that’s because they are. Hydroponic farming is one efficient way to grow fruits and vegetables in small spaces without the use of soil. Instead of dirt, plants grow down into
6 Places Where Soil-Less Farming is Revolutionizing How We Grow Food
by Greg Beach
If it seems like “hydroponic systems” are everywhere, that’s because they are. Hydroponic farming is one efficient way to grow fruits and vegetables in small spaces without the use of soil. Instead of dirt, plants grow down into water, to which farmers have added the necessary nutrients for plant growth. These are then absorbed, along with water, through a plant’s roots. Light is provided either by the sun or specially designed grow lights, with many sustainable systems powered by renewable energy sources. Aquaponic farming incorporates fish into the soil-less system, using the closed-loop nutrient cycle from fish digestion to their advantage. Some systems even feed nutrients to plants through the air! From water-less deserts to the sun-less underground, soil-less farming is offering new possibilities to feed an increasingly urban, growing global population in a more Earth-friendly way.
1. Stores
With consumers increasingly conscious of their environmental impact, many stores have realized that going green is good for business. Big-box store Target began a series of trials in spring 2017 in which vertical, hydroponic gardens were installed in various Target locations to provide customers with the freshest possible produce. In collaboration with MIT Media Lab and Ideo, Target designed a system that is capable of growing leafy greens and herbs with minimal water usage. The company hopes to someday branch out into other crops, such as potatoes, zucchini and beets. MIT may even offer Target use of rare heirloom tomato seeds for its project. Meanwhile, IKEA has teamed up with Denmark-based SPACE10 to design high-tech hydroponics systems in-stores and in homes.
2. Deserts
In preparation for a future dominated by climate change, in which oil becomes a lesser part of the world’s energy diet, Saudi Arabia has taken several major steps to build a more sustainable system in its challenging desert region. One such move is the rethinking of many traditional farming practices, especially focused on reducing water usage. A farm in the town of Jeddah uses neither water nor soil, rooting plants in mid-air while providing their nutrients through a mist. Designed by AeroFarms, the system is the first aeroponic farm in the Middle East and hopes to someday acquire all its water needs through capturing humidity in the air.
Related: The future of food: how dry farming could save the world
If a desert farm chooses to go hydroponic, there are ways to grow without draining freshwater supplies. In arid South Australia, SunDrops Farms grows 15% of the country’s tomato crop through a solar-powered hydroponic system. To eliminate the use of precious freshwater, SunDrops sources its water from the nearby saltwater gulf, which is then desalinated through the reflected heat of the sun.
In a very different kind of desert, soil-less farming helps growers from the Arctic to Antarctica make the most of a short growing season.
3. Cities
As the global population becomes more urban, cities are investing in more local food production systems that offer economic development opportunities and reduce a city’s carbon footprint. In a warehouse on the Near East Side of Indianapolis, Farm 360 are growing vegetables on a hydroponic system that is exclusively powered by renewable energy and uses 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods. The harvest is sold in local grocery stores while the farm supports dozens of living-wage jobs to residents of the neighborhood.
In even the most isolated urban areas, soil-less farming finds a home. With its ability to receive vital supplies and support a functioning economy severely restricted by the Israeli blockade, Gaza has stepped out onto the rooftops to grow its own food. Beginning in 2010, a United Nations-funded urban agriculture program equipped over 200 female-headed households with fish tanks, equipment, and supplies to build and maintain an aquaponics growing system. This initial spark has encouraged others to create their own and to teach others of this valuable skill.
4. The Underground
Farming without soil can often take place beneath the soil. In Paris, Cycloponics runs La Caverne, a unique urban farm that grows mushrooms and vegetables in an underground, formerly abandoned parking garage. The farm’s hydroponics system uses special grow lights to ensure the vegetables have what they need to survive. The mushrooms grow in a special medium and, through their respiration, provide valuable CO2 for the plants to thrive. La Caverne may have found inspiration from Growing Underground, London’s first underground farm. On 2.5 acres of unused World War II-era tunnels, Growing Underground produces pea shoots, several varieties of radish, mustard, cilantro, Red Amaranth, celery, parsley, and arugula.
Related: 7 agricultural innovations that could save the world
Honorable mention: shipping container farms. Although these may be mobilized on the surface, they may as well be underground due to the closed roof of most shipping containers. The solar-powered hydroponicsLA-based Local Roots can grow the same amount of vegetables, at cost parity, with 99 percent less water than traditional farming.
5. On the Water
Some soil-less growing operations take it a step further, leaving the ground behind entirely and opting for a farm floating on water. Barcelona-based design group Forward Thinking Architecture has proposed a progressive solution to the decreasing availability of arable land by creating floating, solar-powered farms. Using modules that measure 200 meters by 350 meters, Forward Thinking’s design allows for expansion and custom configuration of farms. Each module has three levels: a desalinization and aquaculture level at the bottom, then a hydroponic farming level, topped off by a level of solar panels and rainwater collection. The company estimates that each module would produce 8,152 tons of vegetables a year and 1,703 tons of fish annually.
Related: NexLoop unveils water management system inspired by spiders, fungi, bees and plants
Greenwave takes an alternative approach to soil-less, floating farming by combining the cultivation of shellfish and seaweed, both profitable crops that also help to clean the aquatic environment and absorb greenhouse gases. The farm requires little external input, pulls carbon dioxide from the air and water, and consumes excess nitrogen that could otherwise result in algal blooms and dead zones.
6. Your Home
Yes, you too could get in on the soil-less action. Whether you prefer to DIY or you’d rather something more straightforward, there are options for every style.
Lead image via Depositphotos, others via MIT OpenAg, Sundrop Farms, Esther Boston, Cycloponics, GreenWave, and Urban Leaf
A New Report on SSL’s Energy-Saving Potential in Horticultural Applications
A New Report on SSL’s Energy-Saving Potential in Horticultural Applications
DOE has just released a report that examines the energy-saving potential of LED lighting in horticultural applications. All three main categories of indoor horticulture were investigated: supplemented greenhouses, which use electric lighting to extend the hours of daylight, supplement low levels of sunlight on cloudy days, or disrupt periods of darkness to alter plant growth; non-stacked indoor farms, where plants are grown in a single layer on the floor under ceiling-mounted lighting; and vertical farms, where plants are stacked along vertical shelving to maximize grow space, and the lighting is typically mounted within the shelving units.
DOE utilized data from U.S. agriculture and horticulture censuses, as well as catalog and product specification databases for horticultural lighting products, and interviewed growers, utilities, lighting manufacturers, retailers, and other industry experts.
Among the findings:
- Based on current performance, LED lighting offers 24% to 30% reduction in electricity consumption per ft2 of grow area for each of the three categories.
- Non-stacked indoor farms employ the most energy-intensive lighting, with incumbent technology using about 60W/ft2 and LED lighting 41.8 W/ft2.
- Of the three categories of indoor horticulture, vertical farms have seen the highest adoption of LED lighting, which comprises 66% of all lighting in that application, while LED products make up only 2% of the lighting in supplemented greenhouses and 4% of the lighting in non-stacked indoor farms.
- In 2017, horticultural lighting installations in the U.S. consume a total of 5.9 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, which is equivalent to 61 trillion Btu (tBtu) of source energy consumption. Of this 5.9 TWh, 89% comes from lighting in non-stacked indoor farms, 10% from supplemental lighting in greenhouses, and 1% from lighting in vertical farms.
- If all horticultural lighting today was converted to LED technology, annual horticultural lighting consumption would be reduced to 3.6 TWh, or 37 tBtu, which represents energy savings of 40%, or $240 million.
For the complete findings, download the full report.
"WaterFirst". Seeds&Chips Concludes The Call For Ideas
“WATERFIRST!”, SEEDS&CHIPS CONCLUDES THE CALL FOR IDEAS
65 projects, 23 countries, 4 continents: impressive numbers reflect a global response to the call for the best solution to the water crisis
The top project will receive a 10.000 euro prize dedicated to Ambassador Giorgio Giacomelli in honor of his work on water conservation and management
Milan, 22 January 2018 – The international call for submissions has concluded for the WaterFirst! Initiative, promoted by Seeds&Chips, The Global Food Innovation Summit, in collaboration with the National Research Council (CNR), The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), and UNIDO ITPO Italy, the Italian Investment and Technology Promotion Offcies, part of the United Nations Organisation for Industrial Development. The international competition was launched to identify the most innovative technology and ideas to solve the problem of sustainable water management, the most urgent challenge with which the world will be confronted in the near future.
In just two months, “WaterFirst!” received an overwhelming number of applications from around the world, demonstrating both the urgency of the theme and global scale of the problem of water management: proposals came in from the Americas to the Middle East, and from Africa to Europe. The 65 proposals selected to advance to jury consideration will appear on the Seeds&Chips platform to share their work on developing intelligent methods and sustainable practices to meet the challenges of water conservation, pollution, waste, and sanitation.
The jury, composed of experts and scientific advisors to the Summit from IIT, CNR, and UNIDO ITPO Italy, will select and announce the 30 project finalists on 2 February 2018. These 30 semi-finalists will be awarded an exhibition space at the next edition of the Global Food Innovation Summit, to be held from 7-10 May 2018 at MiCo, Milano Congressi.The final 5 projects will receive a hospitality stipend for travel and accommodation costs to facilitate their participation in the Summit. Finally, the best project among the final 5 will receive a 10,000 euro award in recognition of their work.
Along with this cash prize, a special award dedicated to and named for Ambassador Giorgio Giacomelli, will be given to the winner of the WaterFirst! Initiative on May 10, during the Summit. Giacomelli, a Milanese diplomat who passed away in 2017, devoted his illustrious career to the conservation and management of water resources. In 2006, he was named an honorary member of the UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation by then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
Director of UNIDO ITPO Italy Diana Battaggia stated, “Emily Dickenson once wrote that ‘water is taught by thirst’. Today, almost 2 billion people suffer from thirst, with World Bank estimates expecting that figure to double by 2050. It’s not a problem that only affects developing countries: it affects the whole world, and the threat is only increasing. In large cities like Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Barcelona freshwater resources are running out and brackish water is infiltrating the subsoil. The fact is that 97% of the Earth’s water supply is salt water and we need low-cost technologies to desalinate it. This is but one example which highlights the central role that technology must play in facing the challenge of the century.”
Roberto Reali of the CNR’s Department of Bio-Agroalimentari Sciences confirmed this: “The problem of resources has always been at the crux of agricultural production. Ameliorating access to resources, whether in advanced or developing countries, is the only way to shed light on both the constraints as well as the opportunities we face. It is only by investigating the planet’s resources that we can hope to formulate some answers.”
IIT Scientific Director Roberto Cingolani added, “If we look at the distribution of water resources around the world it’s clear that water is scarce where there are few energy resources, and such shortages lead to conflict and instability. The study of technology for the conservation and sustainable management of water must be a priority at the global level, and it is an area to which our Institute has been dedicated for a very long time.”
“It is immensely satisfying to receive such a large and diverse pool of candidates for this competition,” said Marco Gualtieri, founder, and Chairman of Seeds&Chips. “This is a clear signal not only of the level of attention to water on a global level but more importantly of the profound commitment to meet this challenge with innovative and sustainable solutions. We are proud to award the best project and include them in our ecosystem so that they can effectively contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. We are convinced that initiatives like these, with partners like UNIDO, IIT, and CNR, who are authorities in the field, will be an essential tool both to find and support concrete solutions that address this incredible challenge. Moreover, we are particularly honored to be able to dedicate this award in memory of the extraordinary example left to us by Ambassador Giacomelli.
Seeds&Chips, The Global Food Innovation Summit, founded by entrepreneur Marco Gualtieri, is one of the most significant global events in the field of Food Innovation and is an exceptional showcase entirely dedicated to the promotion of technologically advanced solutions and talent from all over the world. The Summit brings together some of the most influential actors in the world of food innovation to discuss the themes, models and innovations that are changing the way food is produced, transformed, distributed, consumed and experienced. At the Third Edition of Seeds&Chips, President Barack H. Obama delivered the keynote address in his first post-presidency appearance. The Summit welcomed over 300 international speakers, 240 exhibitors and 15,800 visitors, recording 131 million social media impressions in four days. The Fourth Edition of the Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit will take place at MiCo, Milano Congressi, from 7-10 May 2018. The Fourth Edition will welcome another impressive roster, including former US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Blue Hill Farm Owner Launches VC Firm with $30m Fund
The co-owner of Blue Hill Farm and Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant in upstate New York has launched Almanac Investments to extend the values of regenerative agriculture into venture capital
Blue Hill Farm Owner Launches VC Firm with $30m Fund
JANUARY 23, 2018 EMMA COSGROVE
The co-owner of Blue Hill Farm and Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant in upstate New York has launched Almanac Investments to extend the values of regenerative agriculture into venture capital. The firm’s launch is backed by $30 million, which founder David Barber says will be invested in consumer packaged goods (CPG), experiential retail, and agriculture and hospitality technology companies.
Regenerative agriculture, a method of farming based around soil restoration and overall land health, is the main focus of Blue Hill and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, which Barber co-founded with his brother chef Dan Barber. Almanac Investments will align with many of the values of Stone Barns.
Though the fund is seeking investments supportive of regenerative agriculture and the circular economy, David Barber says that the term “impact investor” does not apply. Barber does not believe “impact” needs to be the primary driver because he already links sustainability with financial returns.
“These businesses will, in our view, be the best long-term investments and the ones where we can contribute the most value over time,” Barber explained. “It’s a very different role for capital because it’s not just aspirational investment.”
Almanac has already made three investments, including packaged soup brand Nona Lim, food business incubator network Pilotworks, and Blue Cart, which is a wholesale order management software platform for buyers and sellers in the hospitality industry.
Barber has been investing in food and agriculture startups for years as an angel investor and has worked closely with like-minded venture firms like S2G Ventures. With Almanac, he hopes to compound the support he has been able to give to startups.
“To really help these businesses, I needed to professionalize the advice we’re giving and the help we’re offering and to really coordinate resources in a way that benefits the entrepreneur,” Barber said.
Specifically, Almanac is looking to support early-stage CPG products that are intentional about their supply chains, as well as experiential retail in the quick-serve restaurant space, an area in which players increasingly compete on the transparency of their sourcing.
“It’s about a moment in time where capital can play a real role,” he said. “The role we want Almanac to play is to ensure that the capital is used to support the future food system we aspire to. Opportunistic capital that intends to use the food system purely for the purposes of generating more capital, will be leaving the greatest long-term value creation on the table.”
Almanac is targeting investments in the ballpark of six figures, with the possibility of larger follow-on investments down the road — a strategy that Barber says is a response to the funding landscape for food businesses right now.
Barber also says that he’s not married to the traditional venture capital timelines, seeking to be a long-term investor on a “very selective basis.”
Zoe Feldman, a former intern at Stone Barns who spent the last ten years in R&D and venture strategy at PepsiCo and Chicago-based VCCleveland Avenue, has joined Almanac as managing director.
WISErg Brings Funding Total to $57m for Food Waste Tech with Series C
WISErg Brings Funding Total to $57m for Food Waste Tech with Series C
JANUARY 18, 2018 EMMA COSGROVE
Food waste-to-fertilizer technology startup WISErg has raised a $19.2 million Series C round, bringing the company’s total fundraising to $56.6 million.
The round was led by family office Laird Norton Company, with Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners and other existing investors also participating.
Founded in 2009 by ex-Microsoft employees Larry LeSueur and Jose Lugo (LaSueur has since left the company), WISErg provides grocery stores with a way to recycle expired produce and leftover prepared foods with their self-contained digester, the Harvester.
Almost any food is fair game for the Harvester, including meat, fish, and produce. The machine extracts any nutrients remaining in the food and stabilizes the solution so that it can be transferred to a WISErg location in the region. Essentially, the machine prevents the food from putrefying and reduces odors, pests, and greenhouse gas emission that commonly result from the decomposition process.
At the Washington facility, the waste material is transformed into liquid fertilizer that is 100% water soluble and approved for use in organic crop production. According to WISErg, its patented technology generates nitrogen that is more readily available compared to other organic fertilizers. There are no application restrictions and the liquid can be applied using a wide variety of fertilizer equipment including drip tape, sprayers, and overhead irrigation.
The potency of WISErg’s product are due in part to the cold process used to create the fertlizer that still removes all pathogens from the waste.
“There are various hurdles in our process that the pathogens can’t jump over,” explained CEO Brian Valentine.
WISErg will use the new funds to build a second facility in California in order to serve growers in California, Arizona, and Mexico with an eye on Central and South Americas. According to Valentine, the company sold 1.5 million gallons of fertilizer marking a 300% increase on 2016, which he expects to continue.
In California, the company will try a new model where food waste is hauled from grocery stores to a central facility. About half of the new funds will go toward building and staffing up the new facility, while the other half will be put to use developing new fertilizer products. A facility producing four to nine million gallons of fertilizer annually costs under $6 million to build.
WISErg’s Seattle operation includes 14 harvesters onsite at grocery stores, which produces four million gallons of fertilizer per year. The California facility once completed will produce nine million gallons per year says Valentine.
Valentine told AgFunderNews that though food waste rescue and digestion startups are becoming slightly more common, withKDC Ag and Industrial/Organic getting going on the east coast and California Safe Soil also in California, he doesn’t see other food waste rescue businesses as competitors. “There is so much food waste that is an untapped resource at this time. The more people that can figure out how to process it and utilize it instead of dumping it or burning it, the better.”
Valentine says his real competition is with other fertilizers. WISErg’s product offering to date has been certified organic nitrogen fertilizers for fruit and vegetable farms, but the company is developing conventional products as well as fertilizers aimed at row crops like soybeans for launch in 2018.
Though WISErg’s fertilizer has a two-year shelf life and travels well, the company’s largest operating cost is shipping, hence the move closer to California’s vegetable growers. Locating near growers and timing production with the growing season means that WISErg can minimize both storage and shipping costs. And Valentine plans to follow the growers.
Saudi Arabia’s Neom Will Become The World’s First Truly Smart City
Saudi Arabia’s Neom Will Become The World’s First Truly Smart City
JANUARY 17, 2018 BY MIKE WHEATLEY
Saudi Arabia is proposing to build what it claims will be the world’s first truly “smart city”. Called Neom, the developers envisage a 10,230 square mile city and economic zone located in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk region, which is located along the north-west coast of the country, facing Egypt across the Red Sea.
The description of Neom is a Utopian one, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman saying at the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Riyadh last October that the city will “function independently from existing government framework” with its own taxes, a judicial system, and labor laws.
Development of the city will be led by former Alcoa chairman and CEO and Siemens AG former president and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and international investors are committing a staggering $500 billion to fund its development, with a projected completion date of 2025.
The city will follow an earth-friendly, post-oil atmosphere, with robots performing functions such as security, logistics, home delivery, and caregiving; Neom will be generated solely by wind and solar power.
The name Neom comes from the first three letters from the Greek prefix “neo,” meaning “new.” The fourth letter is from the abbreviation of “Mostaqbal,” an Arabic word meaning “future.” The city will be located in the northwest corner of the Kingdom, and includes land within the Egyptian and Jordanian borders.
Its website proclaims it to be the “world’s most ambitious project.”
Here’s a deeper dive into what to expect:
- Energy and Water. Vast fields of solar panels partnered with wind turbines, which will light up large stretches of energy grids, storing power for this and future generations. Buildings will remain clean and the air will remain fresh and clear.
- Mobility. All-green transport systems, including a bridge that will link Asia with Africa. This will help Neom become known as a global hub of connectivity.
- Biotech. Neom is destined to become a nexus for healthcare research and innovation, including next-gen gene therapy, genomics, stem cell research, nanobiology, and bioengineering.
- Food. Neom will lead the way with arid and seawater farming, and solar-powered greenhouses. Also planned are vertical urban farms and locally grown produce.
- Advanced manufacturing. The systems making Neom move will include personalized, fully automated point-to-point transfers, passenger drones, self-learning traffic systems, and other innovations in research and development, supply, transport and infrastructure.
Mike Wheatley is the senior editor at Realty Biz News. Got a real estate related news article you wish to share, contact Mike at mike@realtybiznews.com.
How This Greenhouse And Fish Farm Operation Is Fuelled
How This Greenhouse And Fish Farm Operation Is Fuelled By Bitcoin Mining
Local company using waste heat from bitcoin miners to operate new business in St. Francois Xavier
By Samantha Samson, CBC News Posted: Jan 04, 2018 5:00 AM CT Last Updated: Jan 04, 2018 6:34 PM CT
Myera Group uses waste heat from bitcoin miners to keep their building warm enough to grow plants like lettuce. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC News)
- Where to invest: Bitcoin or Canadian Tire money?
- Beyond bitcoin: How cryptocurrencies are changing the world
- Bitcoin's dirty secret: it wastes an incredible amount of energy
More than 30 computers sit on the second floor of a former car museum west of Winnipeg, quietly working to mine bitcoin.
The heat generated by those computers, which are verifying bitcoin transactions by solving cryptographic puzzles, helps warm nearby plants in a makeshift greenhouse.
To water, the trays filled with lettuce, basil and sprouted barley fodder, Bruce Hardy, the owner of this 20,000-square-foot building in the Rural Municipality of St. Francois Xavier, clicks a button.
A pump waters the plants with wastewater from tanks located on the first floor in which around 800 Arctic Char swim and breed. The wastewater from the tanks is rich in nitrates, a great fertilizer for the plants upstairs.
It's a complex operation but that's the beauty of it, according to the owner.
"It's all connected, much like Earth," said Hardy, president of Myera Group.
'A popular move'
His company's goal is to use technology to create sustainable food systems.
Hardy runs his own software company and has been in the bitcoin mining business for two years. He used to pay for air conditioning to cool off the computers but quickly realized there was a better use for the heat.
"When bitcoin came, they were an excellent proxy for what a server could do in terms of emulating heat, and whether we could use that heat for agricultural purposes," he said.
About a year ago, he opened his operation in the old Tin Lizzie Auto Museum and the former Grey Nuns convent located on Highway 26 just west of Winnipeg
The greenhouse operation is small right now, but Hardy says he hopes to create several greenhouses in St. Francois Xavier that are fuelled by waste heat from bitcoin mining. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC News)
"From what we've seen so far, it looks like a popular move for the community," says Dwayne Clark, the Reeve of the RM of St. Francois Xavier. "It's already cleaned up what used to be an eyesore for a number of years."
The company is still experimenting with using the heat from bitcoin mining in different ways. Right now, about one-quarter of the second floor is filled with computers and plants, but Hardy hopes to eventually fill the space.
Starting the operation would have been a lot more difficult without the bitcoin cash, said Hardy. The price of a bitcoin is hovering around $19,000 Cdn.
"The revenue from those bitcoins has helped me to keep staff on, it's helped me create these displays so we can show people what we're doing in agriculture innovation," said Hardy.
Hundreds of Arctic Char swim in these tanks at Myera Group's operation in St. Francois Xavier. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC News)
Ways to use 'Manitoba's gifts'
Hardy hopes his operation becomes a place where people can research and develop sustainable food systems while programmers work with bitcoin technology.
Australian researchers and Chinese investors have expressed interest in his operation, he said.
Manitoba is a prime location for electricity-intensive operations like this, said Hardy.
"Hydro is one of our best assets in the province," said Hardy.
Manitoba has the cheapest commercial hydro electricity rates in the country and among the lowest temperatures of major North American cities, making it attractive to bitcoin miners.
"If we can take our energy and use it here in Manitoba, we value-add that energy, and we can do all sorts of great things," he said.
Bruce Hardy, president of Myera Group, hopes to create a global campus in St. Francois Xavier for food sustainability. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC News)
Reclaiming Our Cities, Starting From Food
Reclaiming Our Cities, Starting From Food
10 JANUARY 2018 MICHELA MARCHI
Over half the world’s people now lives in cities, an extraordinary statistic given that in 1900, just over a century ago, only 10% of the population was urban.
And the trend is continuing in the same direction: Predictions estimate that 75% of us will be city-dwellers by 2050. The roots of this anthropological upset lie in the very idea of progress, in that paradigm of infinite, rule-free growth that dominates the West: Modernity is by definition urban. The rural and natural are disappearing from our lives and everything that lies outside the metropolitan area is swallowed up and transformed into mere function, answering to the city’s needs, or rather adapted to the urban organization of the world. But could we rethink the urban fabric and the metropolitan area, starting from a recovery of that lost rurality? Could we imagine and above all design our cities in a way that recolonizes with greater humanity the spaces in which modernity lives?
Modernity has in fact forgotten to answer a fundamental question: If everyone lives in cities, then how will we be fed? Who will feed us? How is the food that arrives in our metropolises produced, distributed, sold, consumed (and shamefully wasted), now and in the future?
The industrial production model has in practice engulfed every aspect of our life, and most worryingly has relegated agriculture and rural areas to a marginal role, with a removal of the rural that is not only physical but also intellectual. This has progressed so far that agricultural areas are perceived and treated by urban and regional planning as “not yet urbanized” spaces. And yet until a few decades ago, the agricultural areas at the edges of cities had close links with the centers, and many areas inside the cities themselves were being cultivated and serving important functions such as maintaining the climate during the hottest season. These days the most common image we have of agriculture in cities is limited to urban food gardens, which, especially in Italy, tend to be “marginal” in all senses: often illegal and located along the edge of railway lines or in other degraded, peripheral areas. And environmental education often struggles to leave room for the multidisciplinary food education that could ensure children and young people get the training they need to interpret the world from different perspectives, prioritizing social and environmental aspects over purely productivist ones.
What has happened? And how can we reappropriate those spaces, rural identity and agricultural knowledge that would allow us to tackle the challenge of an urbanized future at the mercy of a dramatically changing climate?
Agriculture and Urbanization: A Common History
As architect Carolyn Steel writes in Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives, this process of urbanization began 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, when agriculture and urbanizationdeveloped side by side. It is no coincidence that these activities developed at the same time, she says. Cities and agriculture are linked and each needs the other. She outlines the subsequent course of history, as the domestication of wheat gave our ancestors a food source that allowed them to establish permanent settlements. The cycles of the harvest then went on to dominate life in cities throughout the pre-industrial era. Not only was food grown and reared within the city, but streets, squares and other public spaces were the only places where food was bought and sold. We need to imagine cities full of food, places in which it would be hard to ignore where your Sunday lunch came from, given that it had probably been bleating outside your window a few days earlier, as the picture of Smithfield in 1830 reminds us.
The birth of the railway and a food revolution
Only a decade later the railways had arrived, with pigs and sheep among the first passengers. Suddenly these animals no longer reached the city markets on their own trotters, but were slaughtered somewhere in the countryside, out of sight and out of mind. This changed everything. Cities were able to grow in every shape and direction, with no more geographical restraints limiting its growth and access. Just look at how London developed in the 90 years following the arrival of the trains, morphing from a small, compact, easy-to-feed cluster to a vast sprawling metropolis that would be very hard to feed if food was only being transported on foot or by horse.
With cars came the total emancipation of the city from any visible relationship with nature, and then the arrival of foodstuffs that made us dependent on unsustainable models, harmful to us and the planet: factory farms, monocultures, the indiscriminate use of pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers that leave the soil sterile, products that travel across continents, refrigerated and plastic-wrapped, consuming water and emitting greenhouse gases with terrible effects on the climate, the environment and our health.
What can we do about all this?
It is not a new question, and in fact Thomas More was already asking it 500 years ago in his Utopia, writes Steel. More describes a series of semi-independent cities, a day’s walk apart, where everyone enjoys cultivating vegetables in their gardens, and eats communal meals together. Another famous utopian vision is that of Ebenezer Howard and his “garden cities”: a similar concept of semi-independent cities surrounded by arable land and linked by railways. Attempts were made to make them a reality, but they failed. Carolyn Steel explains that there is a basic problem with these utopian visions, which is that they are utopian. More chose this word intentionally because it has a double derivation from the Greek: It can mean a “good place” (eu +topos) or a “non-place” (ou + topos), in other words an ideal, something imaginary that we can never have.
From Utopia to Sitopia
Instead, as a conceptual tool for rethinking human settlements, Steel proposes “sitopia,” from the Ancient Greek sitos (“food”) and topos (“place”). In order to think about the question of human cohabitation and how we want to see our urban future, we must realize that we already live in a sitopia, that our world is guided by food and that if we become aware of this then we can use food as a powerful and extraordinary tool. This process starts from knowledge, from educating people so that they can recognize what they are eating. We must rediscover markets and we must demand and put into practice policies that can renew a pact with the countryside. We must act on the food supply chain, valuing quality and encouraging direct sales, including in the restaurant industry, making sourcing easier and launching awareness-raising campaigns.
Many cities have already introduced urban agriculture programs to support food production: Ghent, for example, has involved restaurateurs in the spread of a local quality brand and the promotion of a vegetarian option on restaurant and café menus as well as in school cafeterias. Through the creation of 50 community kitchens, Vancouver is encourging neighbors to be more social and to cook together. Lusaka has involved local women in the development of a program to help them start their own food businesses, while Toronto has developed a strategy with local residents to come up with a list of healthy foods to be sold within affilitated shops located within food deserts.
We must look at how agriculture offers sustainable solutions to designing and living in cities, imagining food systems that take into account urban needs and lifestyles, but also and above all the challenges that the future holds for us. And the future can be imagined starting from the education of our children, our young people, starting perhaps with the cultivation of an educational food garden supported by serious food and environmental education programs that talk about prevention and health too. This process must necessarily expand to the entire surrounding area and region so that it is not reduced to mere administrative marketing.
Sources
“Food and the city,” Slowfood 44, February 2010
How France Became A Global Leader In Curbing Food Waste
n February 2016, France became the first country in the world to prohibit supermarkets from throwing away unused food through unanimously passed legislation.
How France Became A Global Leader In Curbing Food Waste
PROGRESS WATCH
France isn't an obvious frontrunner in food recovery, but new legislation has helped catapult the nation to the top of the 2017 Food Sustainability Index.
Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
Story Hinckley | @storyhinckley
JANUARY 3, 2018 —France is a culinary leader – both at the table and, more recently, in the trash can.
In February 2016, France became the first country in the world to prohibit supermarkets from throwing away unused food through unanimously passed legislation. Now, supermarkets of a certain size must donate unused food or face a fine. Other policies require schools to teach students about food sustainability, companies to report food waste statistics in environmental reports, and restaurants to make take-out bags available.
These laws “make it the norm to reduce waste,” says Marie Mourad, a PhD student in sociology at Sciences Po in Paris who has authored several reports on French food waste. “France is not the country that wastes the least food, but they have become the most proactive because they want to be the exemplary country in Europe.”
France’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. The country earned top ranking in the 2017 Food Sustainability Index, a survey of 25 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas conducted by the Economist and Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation (BCFN).
The people of France wasted 234 pounds of food per person annually, according to the BCFN report, which is drastically better than France’s international counterparts, compared to about 430 pounds per capita thrown away year in the United States.
Small scraps make big impact
Food waste, or unused, edible food, is a global issue. Each year, some 1.3 billion metric tons, or one-third of all the food produced, is thrown away, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. Recovering just 25 percent of that wasted food could feed 870 million hungry people – effectively ending world hunger.
Not only does food waste fritter away valuable resources like water, arable land, and money, but it also fills up landfills, which emit methane. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter behind the United States and China.
“Food waste is so urgent because where and how we produce food has the biggest impact on the planet of any human activity,” says Jason Clay, senior vice president of food and markets at the World Wildlife Fund.
“In the US, we don't have champions in government who are thinking much about food, nevertheless food waste,” says Mr. Clay. “That has separated us from France: they have people who took up this issue politically.”
French National Assembly member Guillaume Garot helped frame the legislation with his previous experience as the former junior minister for the food industry – a position that in and of itself proves France’s dedication to the issue, say experts.
However, France is not an obvious frontrunner in this field.
Over the past decade, Britain has demonstrated far more statistical success, says Craig Hanson, global director of food, forests, and water at the World Resources Institute, and Denmark has made news with new projects like ugly produce grocery stores. Comparatively, France’s law is new, and as the Guardian reported after it was passed, only 11 percent of France’s 7.1 million metric tons of wasted food comes from supermarkets.
But to Clay, Ms. Mourad, and other food recovery advocates, the law is important symbolically. Neither the United States, nor Britain or Denmark, have comparable government legislation.
“Making it illegal for supermarkets to throw away food is massive,” says Jonathan Bloom, author of the book “American Wasteland.” “That legislative step has impacted all levels of the French food chain.”
Before the 2016 law, French supermarkets typically donated 35,000 metric tons of food annually, roughly one-third of food banks’ total supply, Jacques Bailet, president of the food bank network Banques Alimentaires, told the Guardian in 2016. If supermarkets can increase their food bank donations by only 15 percent this could mean 10 million more meals for needy French each year.
This law improves not only the quantity of donated food, say experts, but also the quality. Food banks typically are supplied with canned goods, rather than nutritionally valuable foods like meat, vegetables, and fruit.
“The fight against food waste should become a major national cause, like road safety, that mobilizes everybody,” said Mr. Garot in a press release. “That implies that every authority, at every level, plays its part.”
Exclusive Look Inside Downtown's Newest Development
Exclusive Look Inside Downtown's Newest Development
Epicenter will be the king of sustainability
By Mary Claire Patton - Digital Content Curator
January 08, 2018
LakeFlato Conceptual Rendering
SAN ANTONIO - The Mission Road Power Plant is transforming into the architecturally stunning, clean energy, multiuse Energy Partners Innovation Center, or EPIcenter.
“EPIcenter is an extraordinary, history-making project that will cement San Antonio’s worldwide role in the new energy economy and reflects the culmination of our collective experience,” EPIcenter CEO Kimberly Britton said.
LakeFlato -- the San Antonio-based architectural firm behind the environmentally sustainable project -- says energy, partnerships, and innovation make for a fitting name for a space that will combine education, research, and development.
EPIcenter will be an environmental leader, Lake Flato says, and could garner international recognition for energy performance.
The conceptual design showcases technology and interaction between indoor and outdoor spaces.
There will be grand public lobbies, open work-spaces, small private offices, an auditorium that also works as a conference center, exhibit space and more.
The capital campaign for EPIcenter is already underway and has an estimated $74 million goal.
“Support for the project will come from foundations, corporations, and individuals both within and outside of San Antonio,” Britton said.
Epicenter will be the king of sustainability:
- Circulation towers double as vertical green walls and water collection devices, connecting the sublevel to the rooftop gardens.
- Air-conditioning condensate will be harvested and reused for flushing toilets and irrigating living vertical walls.
- Solar panels will be visible throughout the entrance to EPIcenter and other exhibition areas.
- Natural light will cut building energy use, and heat gain from electric light, by 25 percent.
Dashboards at strategic locations throughout the building allow occupants to see a real-time display of building performance, resource production and building systems at work. The dashboards will enable occupants to see the impact of their behavior on overall building performance, according to an EPIcenter brochure.
See conceptual renderings of the EPIcenter:
Slideshow: Concept designs for San Antonio's EPIcenter
EPIcenter represents San Antonio’s new think tank that unites entrepreneurs, technologists and communities to foster creative ideas for a brighter energy future, according to LakeFlato.com.
Construction is slated to begin as soon as a critical mass of funding is secured.
Officials project to complete the project in 2020-2021.