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Seeds&Chips 2018 - International Summit on Food Innovation begins on May 7
Seeds&Chips 2018
International Summit on Food Innovation begins on May 7: Water takes center stage in a dialogue between startups, incubators and opinion leaders from around the world
On May 7th, the Summit opens with a keynote address from Howard Schultz, Executive Chairman of Starbucks, one of the most successful companies in the world and renowned for their commitment to CSR
On May 8, 68th US Secretary of State John F. Kerry will deliver a keynote speech on the impact of the food system on global climate change and sustainable political initiatives
Other honored speakers include Nathan Myhrvold, ex CTO of Microsoft, co-Founder of Intellectual Ventures and principal author of the Modernist Cuisine; Howard Yana Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer of Mars Incorporated; Sarah Toumi, CEO and Founder of Acacias for All: Seth Goldman, Executive Chairman of Beyond Meat.
12 April 2018- The fourth edition of Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit, the most important international event dedicated to Food Innovation, was presented today in Rome at the Farnesina. In attendance at the participation were Vincenzo De Luca, Director General for International Promotion, Culture and Innovation; Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director-General, FAO; Alan Rizzi, Undersecretary for the presidency of the regional council, Lombardy Region; Diana Battaggia, Director of UNIDO ITPO Italy; Giorgio Marrapodi Director General for Development Cooperation; Marco Gualtieri, President and Founder of Seeds&Chips; Livia Pomodoro, President of the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy; HRH Princess Viktoria de Bourbon de Parme, advocate for the participation of young farmers at Seeds&Chips; Francesco Loreto, Director of DISBA - CNR; Massimiliano Costa, Director of ShareTheMeal, the first app developed by World Food Programme to fight global hunger; and Harald Cosenza, CEO of Robonica.
Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit, will take place from May 7-10 at MiCo- Milano Congressi. Over four days, conference sessions and meetings will be held on a diverse range of themes related to food and innovation, from climate change to robotics, from e-commerce to precision agriculture, and from food waste to circular economy, with many more topics to be featured. There will be an exhibition hall featuring startups, companies and incubators who will present their projects to visitors, and more than 200 speakers from around the world including investors and policymakers who will discuss the major challenges facing the planet.
This year’s Summit has placed particular focus on the subject of water, which stands as one of the greatest global challenges in the coming years. Seeds&Chips began this focus with the WaterFirst! Initiative, which launched a Call for Ideas in November 2017 for innovative projects in water conservation and management. The initiative, in collaboration with UNIDO ITPO Italy (the Office for the Promotion of Technology and Investments of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization), the National Research Council (CNR) and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), was aimed at innovators from around the world working on the sustainable use of water. The competition received 65 submissions from 23 countries and 4 continents, and of the final 30 projects, 5 will be awarded a "hospitality" contribution for the trip and accommodation in Milan during the Summit. The top project will win a 10,000 euro prize dedicated to Ambassador Giorgio Giacomelli, a Milanese diplomat and honorary member of the UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, who passed away last year.
Marco Gualtieri, President, and Founder of Seeds&Chips noted that "The fourth edition of Seeds&Chips represents a crucial step in a path set forth worldwide in 2015 when food and the environment became the leading themes of the debate on the future. From EXPO to the signing of the SDGs at the United Nations to the Paris climate agreement, in that one year, the world really began to grasp the importance of food and environmental issues to the future of our planet. Today the challenges set forth in those 12 months come to the Seeds&Chips stage, through the voices of both young people and some of the most important actors in the world food revolution. Seeds&Chips wants to continue along this revolutionary path in the knowledge that all of these messages, new models, innovations, and opportunities related to food must be disseminated to every corner of the planet ".
Diana Battaggia, Director of UNIDO ITPO Italy, said: “We don’t need more food, but more technology and applied innovations to bring about economic growth and lift people out of poverty in developing countries and feed the world in the coming decades. UNIDO ITPO Italy elevated the importance of innovation in the agribusiness sector as a fundamental enabler of economic growth in developing countries, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals – Agenda 2030. This is the reason why we have strengthened our relationship with Seeds&Chips year after year by acting as an advisor for developing countries, where agriculture remains the backbone of economic activity and employment”
Michele Scannavini, President of the Italian Trade Agency (ITA), said:” For the second consecutive year, ITA is proud to collaborate with Seeds&Chips to promote this event on the international stage, and to offer Italian companies the opportunity to meet with influential figures from around the world. Italy has one of the most highly evolved food systems and a tremendous edge in food technology, with particular strength in innovation that emphasizes efficiency and sustainability. Italian industry is widely recognized abroad, and Seeds&Chips represents a unique platform to launch interesting new proposals from our various startups.”
The nation of The Netherlands is a partner for the forthcoming edition of The Global Food Innovation Summit, with the participation of HRH Princess Viktoria de Bourbon de Parme who will collaborate on a series of farming-related initiatives with Seeds&Chips. The project focuses on assisting farmers in developing countries in the use of innovative technologies to bolster their living and working conditions, as 80% of the world’s food is produced by family farmers, most of which live in severe poverty. To ensure food security and to continue to feed the global population, we need a new generation of farmers who can take advantage of the most innovative technologies to achieve sustainable economic, social and environmental development. At the May 8th session, young farmers from Honduras, Senegal, Algeria, and India will participate in the Summit along with Carola Schouten, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture of the Netherlands and Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD.
HRH Princess Viktoria de Bourbon de Parme stated, "I am excited about this collaboration with Seeds&Chips as it is a unique opportunity to connect the network of small farmers in developing countries with young innovators who will participate in the fourth edition of the Summit. Working together, we can help limit hunger in the world and transform the global food system in a sustainable way. "
The program
As in years previous, the impressive roster of speakers come from a range of fields and diverse backgrounds to discuss the challenges and solutions in the global food system. Among the honored keynote speakers are John Kerry, the 68th US Secretary of State and Howard Schultz, Executive Chairman of Starbucks. Other prestigious guests include Nathan Myhrvold, ex-CTO of Microsoft, co-Founder of Intellectual Ventures and co-author of the Modernist Cuisine; Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights; Sam Kass, chef advisor to former US President Barack Obama and architect of the healthy eating revolution in the White House; Howard-Yana Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer of Mars Incorporated and one of the most influential minds in the food revolution; Shazi Visram, founder of Happy Family Organics and named by President Obama as one of the most influential people in the world in the field of healthy baby food; Seth Goldman, Executive President of Beyond Meat, one of the largest and most important producers of plant based protein; Sarah Toumi, Founder of Acacias for All, which has planted one million Moringa trees, bringing this highly prized superfood to countless people; Phil Lempert, the well known face on NBC TV in the US known as The Supermarket Guru; Danielle Nierenberg, Founder of the Food Tank; Nicolas Jammet, one of the Presidential Delegates invited by Michelle Obama to EXPO 2015 and co-founder of Sweetgreen, one of the most innovative fast food concepts in the world; Robert Opp, Director of Innovation & Change Management Division of the World Food Programme. These are but a few of the many speakers and influential actors that will be in attendance.
Corporations and Startups
This year a number of startups, companies, and incubators from all over the world will bring their products to display and will discuss how technological innovation is the keystone for defining a sustainable and accessible food universe. Some of the most interesting startups in the world of food innovation will be present such as Ambrosus Technologies GmbH, an open source blockchain ecosystem from Switzerland that guarantees quality and safety for food and pharmaceutical products; Algama, a French company that produces micro algae, one of the superfoods of the future; Desolenator, water purifier through an innovative distillation process, from the Netherlands; LeanPath, the leading global provider of integrated hardware and software solutions for culinary institutions, from the US; Beyond Meat, maker of a revolutionary burger made of vegetable proteins that perfectly mimics meat; Apeel Sciences, a technological and environmental leader in the agricultural sector; Dishq, an Indian company which uses food science and data to understand and predict taste preference; Italian company Tannico, the largest online wine store; Taste Srl - Vinhood, another Italian startup dedicated to wine; and Robonica, producer of smart greenhouses with a fully automated home-grown hydroponics system. In total, over 100 startups and companies will be exhibiting their latest innovations.
Seeds&Chips has always paid particular attention to the part that young people have to play in the future of food, and each session will have at least one speaker under 30 years old. In addition, each session will be opened with remarks from a Teenovator, a young person between 13 and 19 years old who is particularly engaged in food innovation and plays a leading role in the food revolution through their actions.
This year, there will be a number of innovative formats at The Global Food Innovation Summit, such as GiveMe5! Where young innovators will have the opportunity for 5 minutes of one-to-one time with a global leader where they can present their projects, ask questions, or gain inspiration for their future. Among the leaders giving their 5 minutes this year are: Howard Schultz, John F. Kerry, Nathan Myhrvold, Kerry Kennedy, Sam Kass, and Adrian Percy, Head of Research & Development at Bayer Crop Science.
The Summit also organizes the Big Brother Innovation Program, a format dedicated to “scouting” innovative startup projects by leading companies in the food industry. The Big Brother Innovation Program gives innovators as well as large companies the chance to meet and discuss ideas, as an important opportunity to advance CSR.
Finally, on May 10th, the Seeds&Chips Awards will be presented to the most innovative projects present during the course of the Summit.
A number of expert scientific advisors will also be present at the Summit to support the many startups in attendance, including representatives from the National Agency for New Technology, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), and the National Research Council (CNR)
This year’s edition of the Summit is also under the patronage of the European Commission, the Ministry of Environment and Protection of Territory and Sea, Lombardy Region, the City of Milano, Ismea, and the World Food Program (WFP) Italia. WFP will also be promoting ShareTheMeal, its mobile-first fundraising app that allows users to donate a meal to a child in need with a simple tap on their smartphones. Part of the revenue from ticket sales to the Summit will be donated to support WFP’s emergency food assistance programmes in Northeast Nigeria.
Tetra Pak is an official partner of Seeds&Chips, and as part of their participation will release a limited edition of sustainable water bottles during the Summit. The bottles, branded with key messages linked to water consumption, greener consumption, sustainability, and circular economy, with be equipped with a QR code allowing visitors to access even more information and background about the challenge of clean water.
In an effort to promote economic relations between Italy and Germany, the Italian-German Chamber of Commerce (AHK Italien) will organize "FReSH: The 4.0 Food Economy", an event dedicated to food innovation that will take place on May 9th within Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit. The objective of the meeting is to give further visibility to companies that have implemented best practices in the food sector. AHK Italien will also manage an exhibition space in partnership with Seeds & Chips, dedicated to German brands looking to champion innovation in fields both within and beyond the global food sector.
Seeds&Chips, The Global Food Innovation Summit, founded by entrepreneur Marco Gualtieri, is the largest Food Innovation event in the world and a reference point for food and ag technology. The Summit is a showcase entirely dedicated to promoting innovative food solutions and talent from around the world, with an exhibition hall for innovators to present their work. Together, actors from all points in the global food chain discuss the themes and projects that are changing the way in which food is produced, transformed, distributed, consumed, and recycled. At the 3rd edition of the Global Food Innovation Summit, President Barack Obama made his first post-presidency appearance as a Keynote speaker, taking his place among 300 speakers and 240 exhibitors from around the world. In four days, the Summit recorded 15,800 visitors and 131 million social media impressions. The fourth edition of The Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit takes place at MiCo, Milano Congressi, from May 7-10, 2018. Among the speakers scheduled to appear are Former US Secretary of State John Kerry and Howard Schultz, Executive Chairman of Starbucks.
The Three Great Separations
The Three Great Separations
We are confronted today with a multidimensional ecological, social, and economic crises that is rooted in our growing sense of disconnectedness from each other and from the earth. In his book, “The Great Turning,” David Korten referred to this crisis as “the great unraveling.” I believe the great unraveling is rooted in “three great separations.”
People in prehistoric civilizations understood the importance of relationships. They had intimate relationships with the earth as well as with the other people with whom they shared the earth. They were hunter gatherers. Indigenous peoples relied on each other also for companionship as well as their survival. Many also considered the heavens and earth as the embodiment of their concept of God. That being said, their relationships with nature and with each other were clearly relationships of physical or material necessity.
The agricultural revolution of some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago brought about a fundamental transformation of human life on earth. The agricultural revolution brought the first great separation. With the dawning of agriculture, the tendency was to see the other things of the earth as resources to be exploited rather than fellow living beings or a sacred trust to be revered and protected. By tilling the land and domesticating animals, humans were able to lessen their dependence on the bounty or scarcity of nature. Perhaps most important, in their separation from other things of nature there was a sense of independence from God’s creation and thus a sense of separateness from God.
The second great separation followed the industrial revolution. The separation of people into farmers and non-farmers actually began with the early enclosure movement during the 1600s. Prior to the enclosures, land was held in common for public use, not owned by individuals. Land was freely available to everyone to use to met their basic needs of survival and sustenance. In a sense, every family was a farm family. They meet their needs for food by cultivating the commons. Wholesale enclosures during the period from 1760 and 1820 meant that people lost their right to use common land to produce food, in village after village all across Europe.
The industrial revolution and rise of capitalism also occurred during this time. Adam Smith wrote his landmark book, The Wealth of Nations, in 1776. Land was privatized so the most efficient use of land could be determined by market competition rather than community consensus. Labor then also had to be “commodified,” or bought and sold, so non-farmers could work for wages and buy food and the other necessities of life they had been getting from the land. With reliance on working for wages, buying, and selling the necessity for personal relationships were diminished.
With the diminished necessity for personal relationships, the social cohesion within families, communities, and society began to diminish as well. The persistence of chronic poverty and malnutrition, even during times of tremendous economic growth and individual wealth, are direct consequences of a growing sense of disconnectedness from each other that was nourished by the industrial era of economic development.
The third great separation was the industrial agricultural revolution. Until well into 1900s, farming remained a means of feeling some sense of connection with the earth. When I was growing up on a small farm in the 1940s and 1950s, rural communities were interwoven networks of people who knew each other mainly out of necessity. Farming was a community affair, by necessity. Nearly everyone in the U.S. lived on a farm, had lived on a farm, or knew someone who lived on a farm. There was still a sense of connectedness to the land, the earth, through food and farming. But “times changed” in rural America. The industrialization of agriculture removed the necessity for community-based farming.
Farmers eventually lost their sense of connectedness to their land, to each other, and to their communities. Consumers no longer know who produces their food, where it was produced, or how it was produced. What happens to food between the earth and the eater has become largely a mystery. Food for family gatherings and religious holidays are of economic importance to the food industry but have little social or spiritual significance beyond following cultural traditions. The dependence of humanity on the earth for food is no less than during the early times of hunting and gathering, but the sense of connectedness between the eater and the earth has been lost.
The plight of rural America is succinctly summarized in a recent letter to the book editor of the New York Times by Wendell Berry—farmer, philosopher, and gifted author: “The business of America has been largely and without apology the plundering of rural America, from which everything of value—minerals, timber, farm animals, farm crops, and “labor”—has been taken at the lowest possible price. As apparently none of the enlightened ones has seen in flying over or bypassing on the interstate highways, its too-large fields are toxic and eroding, its streams and rivers poisoned, its forests mangled, its towns dying or dead along with their locally owned small businesses, its children leaving after high school and not coming back. Too many of the children are not working at anything, too many are transfixed by the various screens, too many are on drugs, too many are dying.”[i]
What’s happening in rural America is a microcosm of what’s happening all across America, in urban as well as rural areas, and all around the world. David Korten cites compelling evidence of economic inequity and decline, natural resource depletion, global climate change, social divisions and wars, and mass extinction of species.[ii] We are confronted with an ecological, social, and spiritual crisis arising from our lost sense on interconnectedness with each other and with the earth—the three great separations.
From the wisdom of Pope Francis: “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.” [iii] He identifies an increasingly myopic preoccupation with economic self-interest as the root cause of this crisis. He writes, “Human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself.” “Everything is interconnected, and that genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.” Reconnecting with each other and with the earth is no longer a matter of choice, it is a matter of absolute necessity.
[i] Wendell Berry, “Southern Despair,” New Your Times Review of Books, Reply to Nathaniel Rich, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/05/11/southern-despair/ .
[ii] David Korten, The Great Turning; From Empire to Earth Community, (Sterling, VA; Kumarian Press, 2006), 251.
[iii] Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si, Care of our Common Home, paras, 139, 66, & 70. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
THE FARMORY Has Announced The Hiring of Claire Thompson As The New Executive Director
Green Bay, Wisconsin
THE FARMORY Has Announced The Hiring of Claire Thompson As The New Executive Director
Former Director, Alex Smith, led efforts for the formation of The Farmory project from 2015 through April of 2018. After a decision to relocate outside the state of Wisconsin with her significant other, recruitment efforts led to Claire Thompson’s selection. Claire has a rich history of involvement in local food initiatives and leadership roles within different local organizations.
Her most recent employment was with UW Extension as the Community Development Educator in Kewaunee County where she worked with non-profit organizations and local entrepreneurs in a variety of capacities. With over fifteen years of experience in program development, capital campaign fundraising, volunteer management, and strategic business planning, Claire’s skillset perfectly lends itself to The Farmory. Claire has a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Claire and her husband are owners of a non-certified organic farm that continually strives to bring soil fertility, plant growth, and livestock care into balance since 2005. They participate in local markets and sell their diversified vegetable products, eggs, livestock, and artisanal pasta products.
“My decision to leave The Farmory was not an easy one,” explained Program Director, Alex Smith. “I will be forever grateful to everyone who helped nurture The Farmory project as well as my personal and professional growth. I am confident in Claire’s talents and qualifications. The project will grow to new heights under her leadership and expertise!”
“I am very honored to work on this project,” said newly hired Executive Director, Claire Thompson. “The most exciting aspect is that it expands access to locally grown food and to anyone who seeks it. Aquaponics is a growing opportunity for farmers and eaters alike, and Green Bay will be at the center of this budding industry.”
Smith’s last day of work at The Farmory will be Friday, April 28th.
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The Farmory is an urban farming project that utilizes innovative aquaponics technology year round. This indoor farm will grow job and entrepreneurial opportunities as well as increase access to locally grown food. The Farmory is driven by dedicated volunteers and supportive Green Bay area residents. It is a project of the Urban Partnership Community Development Corporation in collaboration with NeighborWorks Green Bay. If you are interested in learning more about the developing project or are interested in becoming involved, please call Alex Smith at (920) 593-3708 or email her at alex@nwgreenbay.org. Visit our website at www.farmory.org.
She Saw Her Family Lose Its Farm, So She Became An Attorney To Advocate For Small Farmers
MARCH 14, 2018
She Saw Her Family Lose Its Farm, So She Became An Attorney To Advocate For Small Farmers
Renewal Awards finalist F.A.R.M.S. helps aging farmers and farmers of color keep their small businesses in the family
MARGARET MYERS
Jillian Hishaw is an attorney specializing in agricultural law and the founder of the nonprofit F.A.R.M.S. Photo via video by Meg Sullivan/Clif Bar Family Foundation
Jillian Hishaw has dedicated her life to service. As the founder of Family Agriculture Resource Management Services, or F.A.R.M.S., she advocates for small farmers, especially farmers of color in high poverty rural areas. As an attorney specializing in agricultural law, Hishaw uses her expertise to fight for America’s small farmers so they can keep their land and grow their businesses. The loss of her family’s own small farm inspired her to pursue this work.
We asked Hishaw to tell us about her passion for serving this community of small farmers, and how F.A.R.M.S. is expanding to help communities serve families who are food insecure. The following is an edited and condensed version of that conversation. Learn more about F.A.R.M.S. on Instagram, or on Twitter at @FARMS30000, and follow Hishaw at @jillianhishaw.
Tell us what F.A.R.M.S. is currently working on.
Currently, we are busy working on providing legal and technical services to aging small farmers to make sure the family farm is protected from predatory lenders, nursing homes, and other people and entities who want to take advantage of the elders. On a weekly basis, I get calls from farmers who need encouragement because many farmers and landowners are under intense stress.
Who is part of the F.A.R.M.S. community?
We work not only with small farmers of color in high poverty rural areas in the South and Southeast but as the challenges of small farmers have gotten worst our clientele now is small farmers in general. When I first started this work, I primarily worked with black and indigenous farmers because in the black community, nearly 30,000 acres of land ownership is lost annually. It’s why I named our website www.30000acres.org. As the years have progressed and small farmers are constantly being forced out of business and off their land, we now focus on providing services to small farmers across the country.
How did you start your community work?
I started volunteering in different capacities in the late 1990s—whether it was donating clothes to the domestic violence shelter or volunteering in church or with environmental organizations, I knew my career path would always be dedicated to public service. Since finishing my education 12 years ago, every position I have held or created has been at a public service entity. I have to see positive change in my work on the ground and in the field, even if I hire people to do it. Over the past 12 years, I have established programs ranging from green job training for ex-felons to legal services for small farmers.
For example, we not only provide legal services within F.A.R.M.S. but we also have a hunger relief program where we have donated over 220,000 lbs. of produce to food banks and hunger relief agencies in our seven-state region, which continues to expand each year. These types of results keep me going, even in times when we are functioning on a pro bono basis. Rural communities are in need of F.A.R.M.S. services and as government funding cuts back, programs like ours become more of a necessity.
What inspired you to do this work?
Due to my own family’s experience in losing our farmland as a result of our elders trusting a dishonest professional, I knew I wanted to go to law school and provide honest services to landowners to prevent the land loss my family suffered.
What ways are you helping to make your community thrive?
Working with an attorney to save a farm that had been in a black family since Post-Reconstruction and to visit the farm and see it thriving with produce and trees gives me joy! We prevent eldercare abuse from predatory lenders; we protect family farms to ensure the land stays in the family; we protect natural resources; we feed people in rural communities from our hunger relief efforts. These are just some of the ways F.A.R.M.S. helps people in our communities.
What do you love about your community?
I love helping the aging farmer find solace in knowing that the land will be passed down and ensuring those feelings of security when they are at the latter stages of life in providing proper estate planning services to the farmer.
What’s one thing you want outsiders to know about your community?
They think they are unforgotten and F.A.R.M.S. is one of the few entities that reminds them they are not forgotten. Rural communities need funding and support just like urban causes but the communities we serve are neglected. F.A.R.M.S. along with other rural nonprofits need support because urban and rural development go hand and hand. Once people start to realize that the dynamic between urban and rural communities won't be so divided.
What leaders inspire you?
Shirley Sherrod of the Southwest Georgia Project and Dean Walter Hill, my former dean at Tuskegee University. Their decades of self-sacrifice inspires me to continue the work because they suffered under extreme circumstances to advocate for farmers of color in the South.
EDITOR'S NOTE
Meet the finalists for The Renewal Awards, a project of The Atlantic and Allstate. These individuals are the forces behind the 25 nonprofits competing for $150,000 in grant money. Ten winners will be announced March 27 at The Renewal Summit in New Orleans, on TheAtlantic.com, and here, on The Renewal Project.
#food insecurity #the renewal awards
Margaret Myers
Margaret Myers is the editor of The Renewal Project. @margaretvm
Research Complex To Boost Farm Sector
Research Complex To Boost Farm Sector
01 Apr 2018
Massoud Jarallah Al-Marri, Head of Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
By Sanaullah Ataullah / The Peninsula
DOHA: The Ministry of Municipality and Environment has completed the design of a project to build a huge complex for agricultural research and guidance at Al Mazrouha, Umm Salal which will develop agricultural techniques helpful in increasing country’s local production to meet self-sufficiency goals.
The complex, spreading over an area of 270,000sqm, will have research facilities to increase the agricultural products, develop advanced techniques for aquaponic farming to produce freshwater fish and organic vegetables and new models of protected farms, said Massoud Jarallah Al-Marri, Head of the Agricultural Research Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
He said that the main beneficiary of this project will be small farmers who do not have access to latest technologies and instruments. “The tender for the project will be floated in the beginning of next year to begin the construction of the project,” Al-Marri told The Peninsula on the sidelines of a recent event.
He said that phase one project which will include main building, laboratories, and service facilities is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2021.
The complex will have a number of research facilities to develop new agricultural techniques for local farmers, he said, “Under the project, a separate building will be built for laboratories which will be equipped with research tools of international standards”.
Al-Marri said that a laboratory would be dedicated to conducting research to increase the agricultural products through vertical farming. He said that the complex would conduct advanced research on the development of aquaponic farming techniques that would enable farming of fish and plants together in one integrated system for local farmers.
A model of the research complex and agricultural guidance centre.
Aquaponic farming is a combination of aquaculture for fish farming and hydroponics that is soil-less farming of plants. The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filter the water for the fish.
Aquaponics helps reduce water consumption for fish farming and instead of discharging water, aquaponics uses the plants, naturally occurring bacteria in which they grow in to clean and purify the water, after which it is returned to the fish tank, said Al Marri. He said that the new techniques will be used to farm fresh water fish that are not available in Qatar due to lack of rivers.
“The increasing use of this technique will contribute to produce organics vegetables by using organic fertilizers and producing river fish to reduce the dependency of the country on import,” he added.
“The new complex will have a separate poultry farm section which will develop a model of poultry farm for small breeding farms which would be the prime target of the research centers,” said Al Marri.
He said that the section will offer best species of chicks for breeding, poultry feed and compositions to the targeted farmers and provide necessary guidance to increase their production.
“The research complex and agricultural guidance center will encourage small investors to join the agricultural business by providing them with advanced agricultural techniques that suit Qatari environment,” said Al Marri.
He said that the complex would also have a laboratory to develop the techniques of protected farms and greenhouses for small farmers.
The complex, Al Marri, said would be an integrated facility of Animal Research Center at Al Shahaniya to research develop best species of sheep, goat, cow and camels for breeding.
African Agtech Market Map: 99 Technologies Changing the Future of Agriculture in Africa
African Agtech Market Map: 99 Technologies Changing the Future of Agriculture in Africa
FEBRUARY 14, 2018 LINA BELMAACHI
Editor’s Note: Lina Belmaachi is cofounder of The Seed Project, a non-profit think tank. The team spent time on-the-ground in Africa in order to do a diagnosis and identify pain points across the agricultural value chain before heading to worldwide innovation hubs to meet with start-ups and select the solutions best adapted to African specificities. Their goal is to contribute to the African agricultural progress towards a system with optimized resource allocation through technology. Here Belmaachi organizes 99 African Agrifood technologies.
There are seven billion people on the planet and more than one-quarter of them suffer from malnutrition, mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. By 2050, the global population is expected to reach 9 billion people and the number of under-nourished children to increase by 25 million. We are now facing one of the biggest challenges of this century – how can we feed all these mouths?
Innovative solutions need to be implemented and technology and information sharing can help produce enough food and correctly distribute it around the planet.
The African continent has huge potential with 60% of world’s non-cultivated arable lands but still spends $25 billion annually on food imports. Africa could play a major role and take on future food challenges, yet it needs to leapfrog the innovation gap with other continents to produce enough food for its own population and work toward becoming a food exporter.
Even though African farmers are attached to their traditions and quite reluctant to change, they are not immune to the technology revolution. Just like in the banking industry, where mobile money technologies have become pervasive regardless of the quasi-inexistent banking system, agriculture must follow suit.
Coming back to the basics of agriculture, farmers essentially have four main access challenges:
- Financing & Insurance
- Resources (inputs, equipment, labour)
- Knowledge & know-how (business and agronomic)
- Market (logistics, commercialization, transformation)
A representative and non-exhaustive selection of these companies have been visualized in this African Agtech market map, into nine categories by AgFunder and The Seed Project.
Financial Services
Financial services are not intuitively linked to agriculture, but they have a crucial role to play for African farmers. Smallholder farmers are seen as high-risk profile clients, dependent on climate, and with no collateral. This, combined with the lack of credit and risk-scoring capabilities, turns loan and insurance application processes into real hurdles for farmers. Different types of financial solutions are thus arising, such as:
- Micro-banking, with Oradian (Nigeria)
- Micro-insurance, with Mobbisurance (South Africa)
- Transaction services, with M-Pesa (Kenya)
- Data analytics for risk scoring with Acre Africa (Kenya) and credit scoring with Farm Drive (Kenya)
Ag Biotech Inputs
Farmers are using inputs (seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides) that are environmental detractors and not suited for their lands given their underdeveloped agronomic knowledge. There is room for start-ups to use advances in biotechnology such as plant breeding, gene editing, biologicals or microbiome research in order to propose more sustainable and efficient input solutions.
Wanda Organic is a Kenyan start-up providing organic bio-fertilizers to small and medium-sized farmers in order to improve their soil health and yields. Clients can order products by sending a simple SMS with their phone. Another company, InteliSeed from South Africa, partnered with Syngenta to provide farmers with optimized seeds that can offer them an butter output and quality for their crops. They are focused on vegetables, oil, and legumes and are starting to look at new varieties.
Resources Access
Smallholder farmers are operating on just a few acres of land, yet represent 80% of the food production in Africa. They are dispersed, landlocked and limited in cash, thus making it extremely difficult to access inputs or equipment. Marketplaces and sharing platforms aim at giving farmers the production tools they need.
Esoko is an information and communication service for agricultural markets in Africa that recently launched Tulaa, a marketplace for inputs. It combines mobile technology and last mile agent networks to connect input suppliers, financial service providers, and commodity buyers to smallholder farmers.
Apart from inputs, access to natural resources (i.e. water and energy) is a prerequisite for farming activity. Efficient management solutions are necessary to limit costs and waste. SunCulture, a start-up in Kenya is proposing an innovative solution. Their AgroSolar Irrigation Kit is a solar-powered irrigation system – a solar water pumping technology and a high-efficiency drip irrigation, bundled with a “pay-as-you-grow” financing service launched in 2016.
Farmers’ knowledge
With better agronomic practices and knowledge on value-add operations, farmers could obtain higher yields and better quality products. Yet the current farming system is based on traditional practices relayed from father to son. How can these isolated villagers have access and adopt best farming practices? This effort is commonly done by NGOs but a few other actors are also entering the field. For instance:
- Ojay Greene (Kenya) offers training, advisory services and market access for underserved smallholder farmers;
- ICT4Dev (Côte d’Ivoire) integrates ICT solutions for farmers’ problems through platform design, web management tools, mobile, SMS and voice;
- AgroSpaces (Cameroon) is a networking site connecting agricultural communities to share information and form valuable connections.
Farm Management Software, Sensing & IoT
As the saying goes, “what you measure, you optimize”. Farmers are operating in uncertain environments and are eager to obtain smart recommendations. UjuziKilimo is a Kenyan company that utilizes data science and machine learning to provide actionable agronomic insights to farmers. Data on soil and crops are obtained with sensors and farmers can get real-time information and advice by SMS. Sokopepe is another Kenyan startup offering market information and farm records management services through FARMIS, a farm management and diagnostic tool and SOKO+, a digital commodity trading and information system, linking small-scale farmers to end retailers and bulk purchasers of produce.
Farm Robotics, Mechanization & Equipment
Startups are working on automating many repetitive, tiring tasks in order for farmers to save time and energy. A good example is DroneScan, specially-designed drone attachments that can take inventory in food storage facilities and provide live feedback. The Institue for Grape and Wine Sciences is also working on a robot in South Africa for data gathering purposes on vineyards.
Midstream Technologies
Nowadays, consumers are increasingly looking at the life of products from “farm to fork” — they want to know the story behind the product. This is a great challenge in Africa, where logistics can be very tricky. Some Agtech start-ups are laying the foundation for a leaner supply chain, including quality testing devices, sensors for products’ traceability and safety, and smart logistics. iProcure is the largest agricultural supply chain platform in rural Africa. In addition to complete procurement and last-mile distribution services, the Kenyan company provides business intelligence and data-driven stock management across the supply chains. AfriSoft is a technology and software solutions provider in South Africa that addresses challenges such as warehouse management, quality, traceability and production tracking.
AgriBusiness Marketplaces
In Africa, the food supply chain is highly dependent on middlemen that take advantage of smallholder farmers given their limited market connectivity. Margins are then split between all these intermediaries, to the detriment of farmers. Some companies thus enable farmers to sell their products online, reaching final customers and increasing their revenues. M-Farm is a Kenyan startup providing a platform to connect farmers directly to buyers and inform them of price trends to optimize planting and harvesting timing.
Novel Farming Systems
The decreasing percentage of arable lands along with increasing pressure of climate change calls for more sustainable processes to produce food with fewer resources. The most well-known alternative to current farming systems is indoor farming, by growing produce in high-tech greenhouses and automated vertical farms. This includes aquaponics and hydroponics along with production facilities for new living ingredients such as insects and algae. Fresh Direct Nigeria brings fresh premium organic produce closer to market with their container farm technology. Using hydroponics and vertical farming within a shipping container, the company is able to grow directly in urban areas.
Using fly larvae fed on existing organic waste, AgriProtein from South Africa has developed and tested a new large-scale and sustainable source of natural protein.
Africa has the potential to turn into the breadbasket of the world, but the way is still long and arduous. Bright minds should keep looking for solutions fitted to the needs and adapted to the African context. As pointed out by Sudanese billionaire and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, “This is neither a good time for Afro-optimism nor for Afro-pessimism! Africa needs to move towards Afro-realism.”
Mucci Farms Strawberries Wins President’s Choice Fresh Product of The Year Award!
Mucci Farms Strawberries Wins President’s Choice Fresh Product of The Year Award!
April 11th, 2018 (Kingsville, Ontario) – Mucci Farms announces that they have been awarded by Loblaw Companies Limited for President’s Choice Fresh Product of the Year for PC Ontario Greenhouse Strawberries. “We’ve been growing traditional greenhouse items for over 50 years but strawberries were our first attempt at growing an unconventional greenhouse product,” said Danny Mucci, President of Mucci International Marketing. “Our team and I were completely blown away and speechless when we got the news that we were nominated.”
The criteria for the prestigious award required the product to be launched between Fall 2016 and Summer 2017 and had to be a truly unique stand alone as first to market in Canada. Additionally, the item had to be a commercial success generating additional sales and profit, resulting in having a major impact on the category. The winner was determined by a ballot vote by colleagues of Loblaw Companies Ltd.
Marketed by Mucci Farms under the SmucciesTM Sweet Strawberries brand, they first began trialing the product in 2014 eventually going to market with full-scale production in 2016. The award-winning product is grown in the largest indoor strawberry farm in North America with phase two of a three-phase 36-acre expansion completed in October of 2017, with the final 12-acres to be completed in the Fall of 2018. The final phase will include supplemental HPS grow lights to accommodate year-round growth, and the company has plans for further expansion in the future.
“Mucci Farms is passionate about growing because growing is what they love to do,” remarked Dan Branson, Senior Director; Produce, Floral & Garden at Loblaw Companies Limited in a video aired at the award ceremony. “What’s important to both of us is that we really behave as partners in development. Not only is the greenhouse strawberry an amazing tasting piece of fruit, the greenhouse strawberry is moving to a point of where we are producing it year round so it’s taking a lot of trucks off of the road, it’s giving amazing consistency and more importantly than anything, it tastes like a strawberry is supposed to taste.”
“I would like to thank the entire LBL-PC Team for working closely with us and entrusting us with this ambitious project,” said Joe Spano, Vice President of Mucci International Marketing. “The PC, procurement and merchandising teams showed a great deal of interest in the greenhouse growing process. From R&D to traveling with us and learning about our industry, they were with us every step of the way. This not only strengthened our relationship, it helped us establish a unified vision for the program. We have truly been Partners in Produce.”
In addition to searching for potentially new greenhouse items, Mucci Farms is also highlighting an emphasis on greenhouse education. “There is a story and a strong message to be told and shared about greenhouse-grown produce and as we build on the consumer education component, we believe that the greenhouse story will become the greenhouse revolution,” remarked Emily Murracas, Director of Marketing. “Mucci Farms is committed to being at the forefront of that movement, and building on our success.“
The award was presented at the 2018 Loblaw Brands Innovation Summit held in Toronto, Ontario on Thursday, April 5th at The Carlu. Danny Mucci and Joe Spano were on hand to receive the award. PC Greenhouse Strawberries are available across Ontario in several retail supermarkets owned and operated by Loblaw Companies Ltd.
Palestinians Determined To Reopen West Bank Mushroom Farm
Palestinians Determined To Reopen West Bank Mushroom Farm
Tessa Fox | February 26, 2018
Facebook/Amorofarm
Packaged mushrooms at the Amoro facility in Jericho, West Bank. Photo uploaded Nov. 15, 2015.
Local Palestinian agricultural products are a powerful way to resist economic dependency on Israel, but barriers have plagued the West Bank's first mushroom farm.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is about land and identity, explains Palestinian Fair Trade Association manager Mohammed al-Ruzzi. The Palestinian fair trade union works toward social and economic empowerment for producers and small community cooperatives through fair trade principles.
Agriculture plays an important role in resistance to the Israeli occupation. Growing local produce gives Palestinians options in the market and a choice to buy Palestinian products over Israeli products. “It helps you connect with the land, and stay with the land,” Ruzzi told Al-Monitor.
Amoro, Palestine's first mushroom farm, was established in 2013 by Sameer Khraishi, Mahmoud Kuhail, Wadia Nassar and Tayeb Akel. It grew directly out of these ideas of resistance. CEO Mahmoud Kuhail believes it is the Palestinians' right not to have a “monopolistic product enforced on the shelves.”
Kuhail told Al-Monitor, “It’s our right to have locally grown products be displayed at the point of sale, and as a customer, we have the right to choose between types of products.”
This right is difficult to uphold under occupation. Since its start, Amoro has faced numerous difficulties hindering the enterprise.
To produce their closed-cap white mushrooms at their farm in Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, Amoro needed to import compost infused with mushroom spores from the Netherlands. Even though all the necessary approvals were in place, both from the Palestinian Authority and Israel, the containers of raw materials were held arbitrarily at the Ashdod port, said Kuhail.
Kuhail explained the delays progressively increased. The first container was held for 30 days, the second 42, then 60 and the last 80 days. “Israeli producers [who] import from the same supplier face no problem getting it into their farms. It takes one to two days maximum,” Kuhail said. It's a strategy used by Israel to give its own agricultural businesses a market advantage.
Maintaining consistency in quality, making sure each batch of compost produces the same product, took time to perfect. “You need a year and a half to two years for trial and error,” Kuhail said.
Amoro was only fully operating for a year and a half before it had to close in mid-2016, as all of its revenues were eaten by the import costs. For every day a container was held, Amoro had to pay 880 shekels ($250). “It’s a huge amount of money,” Kuhail said. “When we sold the mushrooms, all the money we had as revenue, we gave it back to people we borrowed money from in order to cover the port expenses.”
Amoro was often out of the market for a month at a time waiting for the compost. “We were not able to schedule our growing cycles,” Kuhail explained.
Ruzzi said that the most important thing for farmers is a sustainable market. “Unfortunately, everything is controlled by the political situation,” he added.
When in production, Amoro distributed mushrooms to most of the main cities in the West Bank. There was also demand in Gaza, though Amoro had to put this expansion on hold as production became more unpredictable.
The farmers realized they needed to stop trying to import compost until they found a solution to the delays. While the business aims to be 100% Palestinian, Kuhail explained they have now registered a company in Israel, under Israeli law, to act as its import/export arm in the West Bank. It was the first step toward reopening in March. They hope the new company will be treated equally with Israeli importers. If not, Kuhail said Amoro could more easily sue the port authorities, as the company would fall under Israeli jurisdiction.
Kuhail said the Amoro extension in Israel is run in partnership with an Arab-Israeli, a Palestinian continuing to reside in Israel. He “is legally an Israeli, but in blood and heart he’s 100% Palestinian.”
On Dec. 17, Amoro launched a crowdfunding campaign to restart production. “We consumed all our options. We got money from our families, friends, our network, and we didn’t have anyone else to borrow money from,” Kuhail said.
While the full funding goal wasn’t reached, Amoro managed to raise just over $17,000. “It’s enough for us to get our first container and [perform] maintenance at the farm to start again,” Kuhail said happily.
Kuhail is thankful so many people want to help Amoro. He thinks the customer support and demand stems from their quality product and prices that can compete with Israeli mushrooms. “We pick the mushrooms from the growing rooms, then the next morning we bring them to the market. Whereas the Israeli products have to go through two or three middlemen to get to the market over here, losing quality in transport.”
Even though the Israeli mushrooms are of lesser quality, they retain their full price in Palestinian stores. Depending on the vendor, a 250-gram mushroom basket costs between 8 and 11 shekels ($2.30 and $3.10). Amoro co-founder Sameer Khraishi told Al-Monitor, “We try to compete with [Israeli] prices at the wholesale level, but the vendors have their own retail prices. Even if we sell at a low price, they will still sell them for 9 shekels ($2.50).”
Khraishi added there is a growing movement to boycott Israeli products to maintain national Palestinian identity. Kuhail said it is the Palestinians’ responsibility to participate in the economic resistance to the occupation. Kuhail explained the ethic was planted in him at a young age, saying, “I don’t remember my mum ever bringing Israeli products back home.”
Palestinian Society for Consumer Protection director Salah Hanieh said Palestine was badly in need of a mushroom farm to provide the market with a local option and empower the local population. “It’s important … as a Palestinian society, we want to promote Palestinian production,” Hanieh told Al-Monitor.
Hanieh echoed the idea that the agricultural sector is an important venue of Palestinian defiance and land defense. “Any sector of agriculture embodies resistance, [through] competing with Israeli products and stopping Israeli settlement [products] from coming to the Palestinian markets,” Hanieh explained.
The Palestinian agricultural market is often flooded with “illegal competition,” Hanieh explained. His organization found there are mushrooms produced in Israeli settlements that are labeled with a Palestinian name for sale in the Palestinian market.
“This is kind of stealing our identity,” said Ruzzi. Hanieh agreed, saying the consumers have the right to know what they are buying.
Amoro’s long-term goal is to build its own compost facility and no longer rely on imports, though it would cost around $1 million, according to Kuhail.
Kuhail hopes Amoro will be up and running again at the start of March, and he is also looking forward to expanding its product line to portobello mushrooms. “It’s definitely an exciting feeling,” he concluded.
Tessa Fox is a freelance journalist, photographer, and filmmaker focusing on war and conflict, indigenous affairs and the environment. Fox has worked for Middle East Eye, Deutsche Welle, The Independent, the Mail & Guardian (South Africa), Knack (Belgium), Australian Broadcasting Corporation, SBS World News, New Matilda, VICE/i-D and Crikey. Her work has been a finalist for the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma Asia's Pacific Prize. As a correspondent, Tessa has reported from Palestine, Turkey, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Russia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Australia and various EU countries.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/02/palestine-mushroom-farm-agriculture-resistance-israel.html#ixzz58HZ91J51
Found in:AGRICULTURE AND FARMING
Facts About Microgreens Seeds
Facts About Microgreens Seeds
April 3, 2018
"The vast majority of garden seeds will not do for the microgreens gardener. But navigating the seed catalogs will not be intimidating if you know exactly what you're looking for. Keep these guidelines in mind, and you'll have no problems finding the seeds you need and bringing your microgreens garden to life."
Organic Certification
For seed vendors located join the United States, organic certification need not necessarily means US Department of Agriculture (USDA) certification. Regional certifying agencies also monitor and attest to organic farming methods, but they're not permitted to use the words "organically grown" on seeds packets. Other terminology, such as "naturally grown," may be used, and that's perfectly acceptable.
Pamper your Seeds
Seeds are highly perishable, and untreated seeds in particle must be pampered. If only a fraction of the seeds you plant won't germinate due to poor storage conditions, you may develop a serious mold problem that can spread throughout your crop. To grow successfully germinates, successfully, your seeds need to maintain viability,(the seeds' ability to germinate) and vigor (a measure of the seeds' strength and health). Vigor declines before viability, so even if a batch of seeds successfully germinates, the seedlings may not grow vigorously.
The best conditions for storing seeds are in airtight containers in a cold place with even temperatures (above freezing) and low humidity - such as a refrigerator. Other good alternatives include a wine cellar, root cellar, or other cold storage. Before refrigerating seeds, first, remove them from packets, envelops, or other packaging and transfer them to glass jars, preferably jars that have gaskets inside the lids. Check to see that the gasket is pliable so that the lid will seal tightly, with age, gaskets can turn brittle and no longer create an airtight seal. Ordinarily, storing seeds in plastic bags isn't ideal because bags are watertight but not airtight. However, a new generation of vacuum-sealed plastic packing (one brand name is cryovac) effectively seals out air and moisture and creates an airtight seal.
The packaging works with vacuum food sealing machine designed for home use, and it could rival glass jars when it comes to effectively storing and protecting seeds. To verify that a vacuum sealed plastic package is airtight, check to see whether you can smell the contents through a sealed bag. If any odor can be detected, air is seeping in.
Watering your Seeds
As your seeds are germinating, it is important to keep a close eye on their progress and to maintain proper moisture. When using the towel method, observe the dampness of the towel and water daily, keeping the towel and the seed below it moist. One benefit of the towel method is that it gives you a window into the germination process. Instead of the seeds being hidden from your view, you can lift a corner of the towel at any time, allowing you to watch the stages of germination. You want your seeds to remain covered until they are fully germinated.
After a few days, you will notice that the towels will have started to lift off the soil, giving you a hint that your greens are get ting ready to need to see the light. As illustrated in the photographs, certain germinating seeds acquire a white fuzz on their stems.
This is not mold and is a natural part of the process as your seedlings set roots. Trays covered with soil will require a bit more attention. Soil will dry out more quickly than towels, so make sure these trays are watered a couple of times a day. With microgreens, your trays will be so densely sown that when they germinate, the covering layer of soil will lift with the seeds. If the soil is not evenly rinsed from the seeds early in this process, they will remain under the soil in darkness. These seedlings will quickly become weedy and pale. When watered at this point, the covering soil can drown and kill much of the tray.
That said, we covered our seeds with soil our entire first season of growing our greens. While it is not difficult to do, losing trays because you are a few hours off can be frustrating. If you choose not to cover your seeds, take caution when watering. A gentle shower will ensure that your germinating seeds aren’t disrupted. Remember that whichever covering method you choose, your seeds will need consistent moisture to germinate.
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"How to make pesto with radish microgreens"
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Each Year, The World Loses Enough Food to Feed Half a Billion People to Fungi, The Most Destructive Pathogens of Plants.
Each Year, The World Loses Enough Food to Feed Half a Billion People to Fungi, The Most Destructive Pathogens of Plants.
Mycologist and TED Fellow Mennat El Ghalid explains how a breakthrough in our understanding of the molecular signals fungi use to attack plants could disrupt this interaction -- and save our crops.
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AgriPark, in Fishers, Indiana, Connects Urban Community To Agriculture
AgriPark, in Fishers, Indiana, Connects Urban Community To AgricultureAgriPark Connects Urban Community To Agriculture
Farm to raise produce for local food pantries
- Erica Quinlan | AgriNews Publications
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- Mar 22, 2018
FISHERS, Ind. — A 30-acre city park in Fishers will serve as a functioning farm in 2018.
The Fishers AgriPark will be the largest park in the country that’s dedicated solely to a working farm.
The park will feature crops, livestock, aquaponics, an outdoor classroom, farmers market and eating area, as well as beehives. Volunteers will help to plant and harvest produce.
It also will fill a need in the community by donating a third of the produce raised to food pantries.
Jonathan Lawler, executive director of Brandywine Creek Farms, will operate the park’s farm.
“A third of the produce will go to Hamilton County Food Pantry, as well as food deserts in Indianapolis,” he said. “We’re hoping to produce half a million pounds on the property. It has the potential to produce more.
“We’re estimating close to 50,000 visitors to this park in the first year. This is a huge educational opportunity. It’s free to get in. There are low-cost classes you can take, as well.”
Lawler is on the lookout for sponsors to help the farm thrive.
“The more sponsors who step up, the easier our job will be,” he said.
Mayor Scott Fadness said that the park will help enhance quality of life and reduce hunger in the city.
“It also will provide opportunities for volunteers to get their hands dirty and help grow food that will be donated to local food pantries,” he said. “It’s an asset unlike anything we have.”
“Many Hoosiers are several generations removed from farming and give little thought to where their food comes from,” Lawler said. “This will be a very approachable place to reconnect with the land and to get involved in efforts to end hunger in our communities.”
The park will be located at 113th Street and Florida Road. It will be open dawn to dusk during the growing season.
Learn more at: https://in-fishers2.civicplus.com/1000/Fishers-AgriPark.
Erica Quinlan can be reached at 800-426-9438, ext. 193, or equinlan@agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Quinlan
“Beyond Organic” Food Labels Seek to Supplant the USDA Standard
What does Regenerative Organic Certification mean for producers and consumers?Courtesy of The Rodale Institute
“Beyond Organic” Food Labels Seek to Supplant the USDA Standard
BY KATIE O'REILLY | MAR 23, 2018
The word “sustainable” doesn’t pack much punch any longer. Whether through overuse or greenwashing, it seems to have joined the same ranks as “eco” and “natural,” terms that essentially mean everything and nothing at once. Employed as it so often is—to blithely extoll corporate greening efforts and lifestyle products—some feel the word runs the risk of obscuring more than it reveals. “We should not as a society want to sustain; we should strive to improve,” says Jeff Moyer, executive director of the Rodale Institute, a nonprofit that conducts and funds organic farming research. “Ask growers in the developing world—they’re not hoping to sustain their subsistence farms, but to improve their soil and yields.”
It was an effort to move beyond sustainability that inspired the Rodale Institute to partner with two like-minded companies—Patagonia and Dr. Bronner’s—to create a Regenerative Organic Alliance and introduce a new food product label designed to encourage and reward continuous improvement in agricultural practices: the Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC), which officially launched earlier this month at the Natural Products Expo West trade show in Anaheim, California.
ROC products will have to be made with ingredients from farms that use certified regenerative farming systems that aim to build healthy soil, boost biodiversity, and draw carbon from the atmosphere via methods like cover cropping and minimum tillage. The new label has farmers move up through a tiered system designed to incentivize constant improvement in practices. It’s not intended to undermine USDA Organic certification, but rather to serve as an “add-on.”Agriculture products will only be eligible if they already have USDA certification or an international equivalent. After all, the players behind ROC are a large part of why the U.S. has its existing organic label.
J.I. Rodale founded his institute in 1947, and in so doing helped to popularize a holistic, whole-systems approach to farming in the United States. Rodale, his son Robert, and the rest of the institute eventually lobbied with farmers nationwide to get the federal government on board with organics. Their efforts ultimately helped bring about the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which authorized a USDA National Organic Program and set standards for the production, handling, and certification of organically grown agricultural products. “The organic industry has grown dramatically since the introduction of the USDA seal, but one of the things we lost in that adoption was the concept of continuous improvement,” Moyer says. “Whereas holistic organic principles are about continually improving the health of the soil and fair treatment of the people and animals who create the food, the federal organics program simply created a baseline that said, ‘Once you cross this line, you’re in the club.’ So it’s challenging to get new components incorporated within that standard—it’s not built for continuous improvement.”
“Whereas holistic organic principles are about continually improving the health of the soil and fair treatment of the people and animals who create the food, the federal organics program simply created a baseline that said, ‘Once you cross this line, you’re in the club.’ So it’s challenging to get new components incorporated within that standard—it’s not built for continuous improvement.”
You won’t find products bearing the new ROC label on shelves until 2019 or 2020 (the alliance first needs to run a pilot program and determine how it’ll handle inspection, certification, and auditing). The alliance—rather than the USDA—will oversee certification. On top of using certified holistic farming systems, ROC-minted farms will have to meet strict animal and human welfare standards; ROC will recognize existing standards including “Animal Welfare Approved,” “Certified Humane,” and “Fairtrade International.” The purported objective is to foster a standard across the global supply chain that supports greater food security while mitigating climate change.
Coincidentally, the ROC announcement came days before the USDA officially withdrew the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Rule, killing many protections for animals raised on organic farms. And a month before, a group of concerned “dirt first” organic farmers, dismayed by last November’s controversial federal ruling that food grown without soil via hydroponic, aeroponic, and aquaponic methods could be eligible for organic certification, soft-launched another new label: the Real Organic Project (ROP).
Similar to the ROC, Real Organic Project was conceived with an eye toward greater integrity and transparency in labeling. Vermont farmer and ROP founder Dave Chapman describes it as a label that represents “real organic—with animal welfare rules and the prohibition of CAFOs and hydroponics in place.” He adds, “This is not exactly radical stuff, just the basics that seem to separate the sheep from the wolves, because right now, a lot of wolves are able to misrepresent their products and profit off the organic label.”
Like Chapman, many growers and consumers are concerned that the word “organic” is becoming diluted. Some point to the big agri-business farms that they say have successfully co-opted the word as evidence of the label’s erosion. Moyer says this may be why, over the past several years, some have started using the word “regenerative”—to the point he fears it, too, risks the same semantic fate as “sustainable” and “organic.”
“It’s becoming a marketing word,” says Moyer, “and people want to make money of it, so we wanted to put a stake in the ground around the concept and definitively link the two words—organic and regenerative—in a way that really helps to improve the health of the soil and better manage animals in our food systems, and incorporate social justice. We wanted to move that energy in a positive direction and improve the system.”
Birgit Cameron, senior director of Patagonia Provisions, the arm of the outdoor clothing company that’s devoted to climate-friendly foodstuffs, describes the ROC label as the new “north star” for the organic community to work toward. “We’re not trying to degrade USDA Organic, but rather to build upon it and create one standard the encompasses the trinity of what we think is the right path forward—the building of organic matter and taking care of soil as a live ecosystem, and social and animal welfare—and create a gold stamp that really means something, and that helps consumers cut through the confusion,” she says. “With the state of our environment, this is the moment to run down this path as fast as we can. Patagonia wanted to not only take this journey, but to invite others to join us in this movement.”
Tickets to said journey, however, don’t necessarily come cheap. Some small- and medium-scale farmers worry that the marketplace’s glut of new certifications will make it even harder to compete with Big Ag. “New sets of uniform national organic standards will simply create additional options for industrializing organic food production,” says John Ikerd, professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri and the author of the 2008 book Small Farms are Real Farms: Sustaining People Through Agriculture. “Once these large agri-food corporations gain positions of influence they’ll attempt to eliminate competition by creating complex regulatory requirements that smaller producers cannot meet--or can’t meet as efficiently. This is nothing new.”
One organic farmer, inspector, and auditor who prefers to remain anonymous put its more plainly: “How elitist can we get with farming? [These new labels] present a real threat to a lot of us because they totally favor large industrial farms. This is adding clutter and confusion to an industry already saturated with labels, many of them ultimately meaningless, that sow consumer confusion and make it harder on the non-corporate organic farmer: there’s ‘Bee-Friendly’ and ‘Non-GMO’ and ‘Paleo-Friendly’ and ‘Food-Justice-Certified’—the list goes on and on. Certified Organic was supposed to account for all this stuff! So, on smaller farms people are really frustrated because there are serious costs associated with all of these—not just in application and inspection fees but also in record-keeping and the time that takes. Large agri-businesses can employ people who take care of all this as their full-time job, but for everyone else, it just takes the farmer out of the field and might even dissuade young farmers from pursuing organic.”
“How elitist can we get with farming? [These new labels] present a real threat to a lot of us because they totally favor large industrial farms. This is adding clutter and confusion to an industry already saturated with labels, many of them ultimately meaningless, that sow consumer confusion and make it harder on the non-corporate organic farmer.”
This farmer also pointed out that while “we pretty much all believe in everything the ROC label stands for on a personal level,” its multifaceted ideals will likely prove difficult for smaller farmers to put into practice. “Not only is it going to make the organic landscape more corporate than it already is, but some of this stuff isn’t going to line up the way the Regenerative Alliance wants it to,” this farmer told Sierra. “For example, to be Animal Welfare-Approved, you have to be willing to treat your animals if they’re sick. But in the organic world, a lot of people aren’t necessarily treating sick animals because the second you use antibiotics, you’re removed from the organics program. ROC people are going to have to marry a lot of different philosophies around slaughtering and other issues.”
While Ikerd describes ROC and ROP labels as “a step in the right direction,” he, too, fears they could result in a more stiflingly bureaucratic process. “I would prefer organic ‘add-on’ or ‘real organic’ programs that are defined, organized, monitored, and enforced at the local or bio-regional level, by co-operative organizations,” he says. “Because when you introduce additional large-scale rules and regulations, you benefit industrial agriculture more than the small local guys—the ones who tend to run operations much closer to the notion authentic notion of organic.”
Rodale’s Moyer insists that the ROC label is scale-neutral, and designed to recognize the fact that small- and medium-sized farms are the “backbone” of organic agriculture. “ROC was developed to avoid duplication of audits and certifications and accepts existing high-bar certifications to fulfill requirements around both the animal welfare, and fairness for farmers and farmworkers. For soil health, the ROC accepts existing certifications as a baseline step, and farms can tailor additional regenerative requirements to their specific growing regions,” he says. “One reason we incorporated farmer worker fairness and fair trade requirements was to ensure that small farmers have living wages, long-term contracts, and safe and fair working conditions.”
A spokesperson for Patagonia adds that the companies that came together to create the standard were in fact primarily concerned about Big Ag companies taking over the food system. “The most exciting thing about ROC is that it would force the worst actors to compete on a level playing field by internalizing costs, forcing agribusiness to fundamentally change its practices.”
There’s also the matter of sufficiently explaining what “regenerative” means to ordinary consumers. Patagonia’s Cameron believes this will come down to the alliance ensuring all participating brands are on the same page in terms of the ROC’s language and raison d’etre. “If the messaging is consistent, then we can all employ our own brands’ personality to educate our customers with our own personality.”
It’s worth noting that some brands already moving to embrace regenerative ag are owned by massive food corporations. This spring, Annie’s Homegrown (a General Mills brand) is partnering with a holistic farm in Montana to make limited-edition versions of its Organic Mac & Cheese and Organic Bunny Grahams (pictured, right) using ingredients grown using regenerative farming practices. In an unorthodox marketing choice, they’ll be packaged in boxes awash in photos of soil. Brands including Annie’s Homegrown and Ben & Jerry’s (owned by European food conglomerate Unilever) are reportedly developing another global verification standard for food grown in a regenerative manner. No word yet as to whether Ben & Jerry’s will find clever ways to incorporate “soil” or “carbon sequestration” into flavor names.
The question of whether ROC and other new designations will indeed resonate with consumers or instead prove to be another asset to industrial agriculture remains to be seen. But Moyer and company seem right about at least one thing—dirt is indeed trending.
Cultiva Farms Completes Next Phase of $10M Jennings, Florida Expansion
Cultiva Farms USA has announced the completion of its new cold storage facility, part of a $10 million project to build a leafy salad crop farm on a 460-acre ranch at Timber Lake.Cultiva Farms USA is a partnership between an Italian family company, Cultiva, and the largest American producer of fresh-cut vegetables and fruit, Taylor Farms. The goal of the partnership is to bring specialized Italian growing techniques to the U.S. market to encourage significant production of salad crops in the eastern United States
Cultiva Farms Completes Next Phase of $10M Jennings, Florida Expansion
March 25, 2018
JENNINGS — Cultiva Farms USA has announced the completion of its new cold storage facility, part of a $10 million project to build a leafy salad crop farm on a 460-acre ranch at Timber Lake.
Cultiva Farms USA is a partnership between an Italian family company, Cultiva, and the largest American producer of fresh-cut vegetables and fruit, Taylor Farms. The goal of the partnership is to bring specialized Italian growing techniques to the U.S. market to encourage significant production of salad crops in the eastern United States, close to big metropolitan areas where most of the consumption takes place.
The Hamilton County Development Authority awarded a two-part grant to support the company’s growth, based on its commitment to employ 34 people and the completion of its cold storage facility. Both milestones have now been met. The new cold storage facility allows the product to be stored, cooled and shipped in Hamilton County, rather than being shipped to another location.
“We see this project as an exciting opportunity not only for our company but for agriculture and Hamilton County overall,” Federico Boscolo, President of Cultiva Farms USA, said in a release. “Bringing new agricultural techniques to the east coast of the United States has the potential to dramatically increase production while creating local job opportunities in Jennings. We are thrilled with our progress and thankful for the community’s continued support of our business.”
Cultiva Farms is the first company producing baby leaf in high tunnels (not hydroponic or vertical farming) and, at the moment, it is also the largest one. The farm includes 800 tunnels (hoop houses), providing 125 acres of covered area to produce conventional spinach and arugula year-round and provide a buffer for adverse climate conditions.
In addition, later this month, Cultiva plans to have in production an additional 80 greenhouses to test organic productions; the aim is to have approximately 600 more tunnels which are 100 percent organic.
For Cultiva, it would create a true production and logistics hub in the center of the American Southeast. In Florida, Cultiva can produce non-stop from October to June, when the already too high temperatures would not allow any other type of production.
“Cultiva Farms USA is an incredible asset to our rich agricultural economy in Hamilton County,” Susan Ramsey, Executive Director of HCDA, said in the release. “Witnessing Cultiva’s growth over the last year has proven that they will be a long-standing corporate partner of our community and we are pleased to be a part of their investment and support their growth.”
TagscCultiva Farms Usa Commerce Economics Agriculture Cold Storage Growth
US (NY): Cornell Student To Develop Weed-Free Growth Media
US (NY): Cornell Student To Develop Weed-Free Growth Media
Seven New York state businesses have been awarded funding to participate in the Cornell Center for Materials Research JumpStart Program, through which they will collaborate with Cornell faculty members to develop and improve their products.
The program is supported by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR), with the ultimate goals of revenue growth and job creation. JumpStart projects receive up to $5,000 in matching funds for project costs that include faculty and research staff time, facilities, services, supplies, and materials.
One of this semester’s projects has Íko Systems (Ithaca) and Re-Nuble (Brooklyn), in collaboration with Neil Mattson, professor and greenhouse extension specialist in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science, develop weed-free growth media that have been recycled and infused with Re-Nuble organic nutrients formulated specifically for use in the Íko grow system, a climate-controlled herb garden. Iko Systems was started by a team of engineers, designers, and botanists at Cornell.
Source: Cornell University
Publication date: 3/28/2018
Chennai Family Creates ‘Oxygen Chamber’ on Terrace, Harvests 300 Bags of Veggies!
Chennai Family Creates ‘Oxygen Chamber’ on Terrace, Harvests 300 Bags of Veggies!
A benchmark for terrace farming in Chennai, this initiative believes in growing what you eat.
by Rayomand Engineer | March 12, 2018
Organic and terrace farming is making waves in India because people are gradually understanding the advantages of growing and consuming their own food.
Through this article, you will get to know more about two friends, Balasubramaniam and Natarajan, and their 15-year-old Chennai-based terrace garden—Indra Terrace Garden—which has become a benchmark for efficient and effective terrace gardening in Chennai.
All the vegetables are grown naturally, at Indra Terrace Gardens. Image Courtesy: Indra Terrace Garden.
Both the friends have an avid interest in gardening and farming, and were attracted to the concept of growing and nurturing plants.
Many years ago, the duo decided to grow their own food, as they didn’t find the quality of the vegetables available in the market satisfactory. They wanted to begin terrace gardening, to eat better quality food and to spread awareness regarding the terrace garden concept.
Thus, the seed for the Indra Terrace Garden idea was sown in their minds. Slowly but surely, the two friends went about realising their dream.
When they started around a decade ago, they grew lots of flowers and small essential vegetables like chillies and leafy greens. However, the majority of the output was inedible—as they were flowers. The two friends decided to branch out into other varieties of fruits and vegetables.
Starting with flowers, Indra Terrace Garden soon started growing vegetables. Image Courtesy: Indra Terrace Garden
They then turned to growing tomatoes, which gave them a good output. They realised that if they could grow tomatoes, they could grow other vegetables as well.
That is when the research started. In the absence of the internet, information was assimilated from books and certain agricultural magazines in Tamil Nadu. The two friends devoured all the information they could, about the best practices of terrace gardening.
Taking care of a terrace garden requires a considerable amount of effort. The plants need to be watered, manured, and a million other tiny details need to be looked into. Balasubramaniam explains how terrace gardening is a procedure, one not to be taken lightly.
The friends also have a shop, where they sell all kinds of material pertaining to terrace gardening. There is cow-dung (of different varieties), various mixes, grow-bags, biofertilizers, neem oil, neem cake, cow-dung cake and other miscellaneous items that are very useful for both amateurs and seasoned terrace gardeners.
Everything is taken care of naturally, in the Indra Terrace Garden, even the control of pests. The flowers in the garden attract butterflies and other pollinating agents, and special herbs grown prevent harmful insects or bacteria from attacking the plants.
At the Indra Terrace Garden, growing any vegetable requires considerable care and effort. Image Courtesy: Indra Terrace Garden
The families of the duo also pitch in when it comes to taking care of the garden. Natrajan is also trying to inculcate the spirit of cultivation, in his children as well. In his opinion, it is critical for the younger generation to drift towards farming.
Balasubramaniam sees a lot of potential in terrace gardening, especially in Chennai. He pertinently points out that his street has 15 houses. Each house has a built-up area of 600-1000 square feet, so if each house practices terrace gardening, you have around 2500 square feet of terrace gardens in each locality.
Rounding off, the co-founder of Indra Terrace Gardens points out that the government made rainwater harvesting and waste-separation compulsory. Both these steps have had favourable measures. If the government made it mandatory for each household to carry out terrace cultivation, it would really pay off for the residents themselves. Balasubramaniam also points out that an abundance of greenery brings the urban temperature down by 1 or 2 degrees, and also reduces pollution.
The two friends want to propagate and popularise the terrace garden function in Tamil Nadu. According to them, it is a sustainable method of living, when you grow what you eat.
The founders of the Indra Terrace Garden believe rooftop farming to be a sustainable and viable method. Image Courtesy: Indra Terrace Garden
Natarajan, speaking of the virtues of terrace gardening, also mentions that the produce you grow on your own is devoid of any pesticides and unnecessary contaminants.
Gardening is not an easy activity. You need to have immense patience and should be prepared to handle any emergency. Natarajan however, urges people not to get discouraged by failure. Chennai has a challenging climate, but Natarajan is optimistic, saying that every kind of plant can be grown here. The plants may be a little smaller than usual, but most importantly, they will be completely natural.
You may also like: 5 Secrets To Creating The Most Amazing Terrace Garden – From The Father Of Terrace Gardening Himself!
So, if you want to eat healthy and avoid the pesticide-filled vegetables and fruits available in markets, set up a terrace garden, and reap the benefits!
The Organic Way
The Organic Way
High demand means more organic crop production is needed to keep pace.
March 23, 2018
In a study by the Organic Produce Network and Nielsen, it was shown that sales of organic fresh produce items reached almost $5 billion in 2017, an 8% increase from the previous year (1). In fact, a bill was recently passed to increase the funding of organic farming research to meet this growing demand.
By the year 2023, the annual funding is supposed to increase to $50 million. Yet as organic remains the fastest growing sector in grocery, particularly fresh foods, it will require creativity and more private partnerships to meet demand with reliability.
General Mills just announced it is creating South Dakota’s largest organic crop farm and will convert 34,000 growing acres to organic production by 2020. The company will grow organic wheat for its popular Annie’s Macaroni & Cheese line, reports the StarTribune (2). But it will take more than that.
Recently Annie’s also announced a new project where they are partnering with farmers to launch limited edition versions of Annie’s Mac & Cheese and Honey Bunny Grahams, sold exclusively at Sprouts. Carla Vernon, president, Annie’s operating unit at General Mills states, “the products represent a big innovation in the food industry. On each box, we celebrate the specific farm, farmer, and regenerative farming practices that went into that very box.”
“Convenience stores, college campuses and airports are all increasing their selection of organic items,” says Lewis Goldstein, VP of brand marketing at Organic Valley, La Farge, WI. “Restaurants and other foodservice outlets are also offering more organic items. Consumers want to eat healthier food when they’re outside the home, too.”
Goldstein says meat and dairy are growing tremendously in the organic industry.
“Consumers recognize that when cows eat well, people do, too…turns out butter isn’t the devil. We’re seeing increased market demand in butter, cream, whole milk and whole milk yogurt,” he says. In turn, increasing numbers of farmers are converting to organic.
Conventional vs. Organic
So what separates conventional farming from the organic variety?
Ron Rosmann, owner and operator of Rosmann Family Farms in Harlan, IA, explains that organic farms typically have a much smaller acreage than conventional. His farm is relatively smaller (700 acres) while conventional farms are thousands of acres. Rosmann says it is an advantage for them using less land while still making a living.
Rosmann Farms stopped its use of pesticides in 1983 and believes a huge advantage of organic farming is eliminating harsh toxic chemicals on crops. This was even before an organic label or market existed, but the family believes this method better serves the environment, their livestock, family, and community. Rosmann says that a benefit of organic farming is being “able to work with nature and allow nature to use the eco-services that it makes available to protect your crops and nurture soil quality and productivity.”
Crop rotation plays an important role in organic farming. On a particular piece of land different crops are cultivated systematically for optimal benefits. Soil nutrients and health are sustained, pest populations are controlled and weeds are suppressed. This system allows for soil health to be maintained naturally rather than using chemicals. Crop rotations cycle through cash crops (vegetables) and cover crops (grasses or cereals).
Farmers using this method need a vast knowledge of different crops and their contributions to the soil. For instance, “nitrogen-fixing legumes such as soybeans and alfalfa in crop rotations fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil through root nodules. This nitrogen is then available for subsequent crops” (3). Having this knowledge and practice is a useful way for farmers to prevent certain issues without the use of chemicals.
Of course, there are pros and cons to both conventional farms and organic farms from a business perspective. Farmers may choose to stick to conventional practices because the cost of food production is low, more job opportunities are produced, and the yield is greater. There are also differing opinions on genetically modified crops and nutrients. Some say that altering crops can cause a loss of nutrients in the agricultural community while others say this could be from many other factors. However, in organic certified farming, there can be no use of GMOs in any stage of farming.
A New Wave
Hydroponic farming isn’t anything new—it’s been around for quite some time but recently spiked in popularity. Plants are grown using water systems and are fed minerals, instead of soil. Those in favor of this practice argue there are many benefits unique to hydroponics not seen in traditional farming. The plants grown are high quality and do not consume the same resources as farming on land. Indoor and vertical farming requires less space than traditional field crops and can bring plants to areas they may not normally be. This innovative technique can be beneficial for these reasons but is facing criticism in the industry. Some question this method because it is so drastically different than traditional farming.
Farming without the use of soil has recently become more controversial especially in terms of labeling. Rosmann, who won a Farmer of the Year Award doesn’t believe that hydroponic should be considered organic because of the lack of soil use. “I am not opposed to them having their own unique label in the marketplace,” he says, “but it should not be labeled as certified organic.”
A divide has become evident within the industry regarding hydroponics. In November, organic farmers protested in Florida asking the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to uphold a ban that would exclude hydroponic farming from qualifying for organic certification. Despite the protest, NOSB voted against the ban.
Traditional organic farmers believe caring for soil is a huge part of the organic process, and that crops grown without roots should not be considered organic. On the other hand, hydroponic farmers feel they abide by organic regulations since they grow their plants without chemicals or pesticides. In addition, they believe there are benefits to hydroponics like the ability to grow crops year-round with less water usage than traditional farming (4).
Another trend on the rise is indoor vertical farming in which plants are stacked on vertical shelving on trays to conserve space. Rather than using traditional soil and sunlight to grow the plants, they rely on LED lights and minerals instead.
An article in The Atlantic focused on vertical farming as a positive source of food and possible protection from natural disasters (5). For instance, Hurricane Harvey destroyed many lands and crops so perhaps this type of farming is one solution for dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters. Those in favor of hydroponics say the food is actually fresher since the produce can go directly from “farm” to table. It eliminates the need to transport and possibly damage produce, and are said to last longer. This could be especially popular for younger generations of produce growers as they are moving steadily away from rural areas and more towards urban settings (5). The debate continues over whether these newer practices can be labeled as organic or not.
Biodynamic Farming
Similar to organic farming is the method of biodynamic farming. Biodynamic also does not use pesticides or chemicals on crops. Herbs and minerals are combined with animal waste to create a compost and field spray for the crops. The more controversial side of biodynamic farming and the difference between it and organic is the calendar used for farming. A lunar calendar is used to study the cosmos before planting and harvesting crops. Biodynamic is big on conservation and using as many resources as possible from inside the farm. The biodynamic standard is used more extensively in Europe but growing in popularity state-wide. Although there are some similarities to organic, the practices are quite different, with biodynamic placing greater emphasis on regenerative agriculture and soil health.
Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture is a method of farming that is said to have many benefits like restoring soil, trapping greenhouse gases and improving water cycles. Excess carbon dioxide is pulled from the atmosphere to store in plants and soil where it can be harnessed and used for crops. This approach addresses many issues and how to reduce negative effects. Cover cropping and crop rotation are used to cover exposed ground between planting, composting naturally supplies nutrients to soil, perennial plants and diverse crops are used to provide harvests for several growing seasons from a single planting, livestock is rotated and managed for soil health and zero or low-tillage is used to protect soil and disturbance (6). Many of these methods are used in organic and other farming practices, showing to be effective.
Transition to Organic
The transition from conventional farming to organic can seem daunting for farmers. However, the challenges are not stopping farms from transitioning over as the demand grows. Although organic farms can triple their profit as opposed to conventional, the costs associated with transitioning could be a roadblock for some (7). Another challenge farmers face is lack of knowledge about the organic industry.
There is a three-year transition period until a farm can be officially considered organic. Physical, chemical and biological properties of soil can take over a year to fully take effect.
According to Rodale Institute, “These changes enhance nutrient cycling, enrich soil life and restore soil organic matter and water holding capacity” (7). During this three-year transition products can be labeled as transitional or conventional. Another shift farmers have to make is the way they view weeds. Although a challenge, weeds can actually have beneficial qualities: “They add organic matter to the soil when they are turned under, they keep the ground covered and they contribute to the richness of the root zone where an abundance of beneficial microbial activity takes place” (7).
How is this transition period regulated? An inspector employed by a certifier schedules visits to the farm to make sure all the regulations are intact. A report will be written up and then submitted to the certifier. Even after a farm is certified, it will still be visited and inspected throughout the year. Since 2002 all certifiers have shared regulations under the USDA (7).
Sustainability
There are very mixed opinions in the mainstream on whether organic farming is sustainable when comparing it with conventional farming practices. Along with land coverage, there is concern over how billions of people will be fed organically in a growing population.
Goldstein believes sustainability is integral to organic farming, and that it all begins with the soil. “A handful of organic soil contains more living organisms than there are people on this planet.” When this soil isn’t treated with chemicals, it becomes a nutrient-dense base for plants to thrive into robust root systems that require less water. This growth continues and feeds livestock like dairy cows.
“Good stuff in, good stuff out,” says Goldstein, “but sustainability also means a fair living for family farmers so they can produce healthy food and pass on their farms to future generations.”
Goldstein adds that Organic Valley’s philosophy is that agriculture should benefit everyone—farmers and their financial health, consumers, animals, crops and the environment. “We also feel that cooperation is the best way to do this, by working together for the common good of all.”
He sums up the ideology of organic farming as the belief this way of farming relies on a holistic system built literally from the ground up. “Healthy soil is the basic building block of organic as we practice it.” WF
References
- Organic Produce Network, “Exclusive: Nielsen and OPN Announce Organic Fresh Produce Retail Sales Reach Nearly $5 Billion in 2017,” http://www.organicproducenetwork.com/article/384/exclusive-nielsen-and-opn-announce-organic-fresh-produce-retail-sales-reach-nearly-5-billion-in-2017
- Steve Karnowski, “General Mills deal to create South Dakota’s largest organic farm,” http://www.startribune.com/general-mills-deal-to-create-south-dakota-s-largest-organic-farm/476026653/
- Reza Shamim, “Crop Rotation – A Vital Component Of Organic Farming,” https://permaculturenews.org/2016/06/15/crop-rotation-a-vital-component-of-organic-farming/
- WholeFoods Magazine, “Hydroponic Methods Create Divide In Organic Farming Industry,” https://wholefoodsmagazine.com/news/breaking-news/hydroponic-methods-create-divide-organic-farming-industry/
- Meagan Flynn, “The Promise of Indoor Hurricane-Proof ‘Vert ical’ Farms, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/vertical-farming-houston/552665/
- The Carbon Underground, Regenerative Agriculture Initiative, CSU, “What is Regenerative Agriculture?” https://www.regenerationinternational.org/2017/02/24/what-is-regenerative-agriculture/
- Rodale Institute, “Transition to Organic,” https://rodaleinstitute.org/transition-to-organic/
The Farmory Launches Second Workshop Series!
The Farmory Launches Second Workshop Series!
Green Bay, Wis. - THE FARMORY has announced the first four workshops of their 2018 series! The Farmory has invited community experts to lead workshops on various topics that provide residents an opportunity to learn new skills that will better their health and create a more self-reliant community! All workshops will take place in NeighborWorks Green Bay’s Community Room (437 S. Jackson St, Green Bay, WI 54301) and are free. Interested persons should RSVP to alex@nwgreenbay.org or (920) 593-3708. Workshop topics are listed below.
The goal of The Farmory’s workshops are to highlight local resources and experts and invite community residents to gain basic knowledge on how to live healthier, more sustainably, and how to do it themselves! Participants will learn about the difference between locally raised and commercially produced meat, the basics of backyard chickens, container gardening for families, and how to brew kombucha tea to reap the health benefits of fermented foods!
“These workshops are perfect for those who are starting to catch on that our current food system is not working for them and want to start exploring how to grow or create their own products,” said Alex Smith, Farmory Program Director. “Many people in our community feel that it’s time to start taking an active role in living healthier lives and these workshops provide the perfect first steps!”
Workshop topics:
- Thursday, April 12th @ 6pm: “Locally Raise Meat: The Why, How & Nutrition Facts”
- Presented by: Carrie Taicher, Registered Dietician at Aurora BayCare & Rick Adamski, SLO Foods Co-Op Farmer & Owner of Full Circle Farm
- Saturday, April 28th @ 10am: “Backyard Chickens”
- Presented by: Andrea Sorensen
- Thursday, May 17th @ 6pm: “Container Gardening (& other fun gardening techniques for families)”
- Presented by: Vijai Pandian, UW Extension
- Saturday, June 16th @ 10am: “Kombucha Tea”
- Presented by: Alana & Matt, Owners of The Wild Gut
- Individuals and families can register by contacting alex@nwgreenbay.org or (920) 593-3708.
# # #
The Farmory is an urban farming project that utilizes innovative aquaponics technology year round. This indoor farm will grow job and entrepreneurial opportunities as well as increase access to locally grown food. The Farmory is driven by dedicated volunteers and supportive Green Bay area residents. It is a project of the Urban Partnership Community Development Corporation in collaboration with NeighborWorks Green Bay. If you are interested in learning more about the developing project or are interested in becoming involved, please call Alex Smith at (920) 593-3708 or email her at alex@nwgreenbay.org. Visit our website at www.farmory.org.
Cal State University Long Beach, Club Builds A Soilless Aquaponics System
“Generating three centimeters of topsoil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue, all of the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years,” said a senior United Nations official, according to a Huffington Post article.
Cal State University Long Beach, Club Builds A Soilless Aquaponics System
Engineers for a Sustainable World advances with a new project to save water.
Jessica Jacobs, Staff Writer
March 21, 2018
Environmental Scientists are beginning to realize that 200,000 years of human existence is taking a toll on Earth’s outermost layer of soil.
“Generating three centimeters of topsoil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue, all of the world’s top soil could be gone within 60 years,” said a senior United Nations official, according to a Huffington Post article.
This reality prompted Cal State Long Beach’s Engineers for a Sustainable World to innovate a water-based system in October that uses aquaponics, a non-soil agricultural system run by fish — fish poop to be more precise.
H2Grow Project was launched to reduce the amount of water usage and soil loss. It has become apparent that the top layer of soil is damaged, which is where plants grow their roots and minerals thrive. Without topsoil, erosion and disasters like mudslides occur.
The system requires fish, bacteria and plants, and uses fish poop as a source of nutrition for plants to grow without soil. Fish excretions create bacteria that transform the ammonia in the water into nitrate for plants to absorb. Nitrates serve as nutrients for plants and are transferred through small pumps from the fish tank to the plants in the grow bed. This allows plants to grow without soil and uses only one-tenth of the water used to grow plants in the ground.
An aquaponics model was built because it does not require costly chemicals and pesticides to function, unlike an alternative hydroponics system. An aquaponics model eliminates the artificial chemical fertilizers that disrupt the pH scale by using fish waste as a natural fertilizer. It also uses objects between 12 to 18 millimeters, such as plastic buttons, to act as a medium that does not pollute the water or require deep cleaning.
Originally, the aquaponics team only planned to present their project for the Green Generation Mixer at Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden. However, word spread of the project and the engineering group found new a motivation to finish the model — funding.
The National Chapter of ESW provided a $500 grant to fund the electronic system and educational exhibit and the Science and Learning Center also donated extra fish tanks and other necessities, according to Catherine Pham, the lead researcher on the aquaponics project. In exchange, the team will display their project once it is completed.
Pham said that the grant-funded electronic resources used in the project are moisture sensors, temperature sensors and light spectrum sensors. These sensors are used for automation and sustainability.
“We would like to bring more attention to sustainable alternatives that can help alleviate our dependence on imported food,” Pham said. “Thus reducing the carbon footprint to hopefully inspire individuals that they can take action to live a more sustainable lifestyle.”
Although the project will progress, it will lose its research space in the Associated Engineering Student Body office at the end of the semester. The engineering group plans to relocate its workplace to either Engineering 3 or Engineering 111. According to Anesia Cantry, a senior majoring in civil engineering, many engineering organizations are losing their spaces because the school needs room for faculty offices.
“I feel like the world’s innovation is run by deadlines,” Pham said. “Nothing would get done if there were no deadlines, so this project is going to be done in March.”
Anyone interested in learning more about Engineers for a Sustainable World can contact Catherine Pham at ccatherinepham@gmail.com.
Vincent Callebaut’s Arboricole Tower Brings Vertical Agriculture To The City
Vincent Callebaut Architectures, known for green projects that combine smart building with advanced renewable energy solutions, has officially unveiled Arboricole – a new “biophilic” building that brings agriculture to the urban landscape.
Vincent Callebaut’s Arboricole Tower Brings Vertical Agriculture To The City
Vincent Callebaut Architectures, known for green projects that combine smart building with advanced renewable energy solutions, has officially unveiled Arboricole – a new “biophilic” building that brings agriculture to the urban landscape. Residents of the building can grow food on their own terraces thanks to permaculture, with the building’s curved, sinuous design acting to reduce turbulence and maximize comfort in these elevated gardens.
- Arboricole aims to answer a vital question: how can we adapt our European historic cities to climate change and the ensuing phenomena of strong floods, heavy rains, and current heat waves? To help combat these events, the building is covered with endemic plants from the Loire region that act as a “sponge,” limiting its carbon footprint, collecting rainwater, and optimizing the residents’ quality of life.
Related: Vincent Callebaut’s twisting carbon-absorbing skyscraper nears completion in Taipei
White tuffeau stone covers the building’s wave-shaped facade. The architects drew inspiration from the agriculture of the Angevin groves, whose undulating plateaus create a visually engaging waterfall effect. Designed for the intersection of Boulevard Ayrault and Quai Gambetta in Angers, France, the building gradually rises to 114 feet (35 meters) and maximizes the amount of sunshine each terrace receives during the day.
Related: This plant-covered Singapore skyscraper is the tropical building of the future
Micro-perforated satin aluminum plates serve as false acoustic ceilings for the balconies, absorbing the noise pollution emitted by car traffic and showcasing the plant life climbing Arboricole’s vertical grove. And, not to be outdone, the plants themselves – 20,000 perennials, shrubs, and trees – could absorb up to 50 tons of CO2 in Angers’s atmosphere each year.
"Wheat Grows Twice As Fast Under LEDs"
"Wheat Grows Twice As Fast Under LEDs"
A team of scientists has cut the growing time of wheat by 50 percent by using LED lighting. It’s the latest breakthrough in the LED revolution sweeping the horticultural industry. Researchers from Australia and the UK grew wheat from seed to maturity in just eight weeks instead of the standard 16 weeks growing time for the cereal grown in spring.
by Ray Molony, Lux Magazine
The ‘speed-breeding’ regime developed by teams at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, in conjunction with the universities of Queensland and Sydney, uses a glasshouse with LEDs ‘tuned’ to aid photosynthesis in wheat and illuminated for up to 22 hours a day.
'I'd like to think that in 10 years from now you could walk into a field and point to plants whose attributes and traits were developed using this technology’, says Dr Brande Wulff of the John Innes Centre, pictured, of the LED lighting regime that has dramatically boosted wheat growing times. Pic: John Innes Centre 2017
The development means that, for the first time, it is possible to grow as many as six generations of wheat every year, a threefold increase on the shuttle-breeding techniques currently used by breeders and researchers. The success of the project is being compared to the post-World War Two ‘shuttle-breeding’ innovations in cereal production.
A control experiment using high-pressure sodium lights at the University of Queensland, Australia. The scientists say the sodium vapor lamps are ineffective because they generate much heat and emit poor quality light compared to LEDs. Pic: University of Queensland
‘Globally, we face a huge challenge in breeding higher yielding and more resilient crops,’ the leader of the team, Dr Brande Wulff of the John Innes Centre, told Lux. ‘Being able to cycle through more generations in less time, will allow us to more rapidly create and test genetic combinations and find the best combinations for different environments.’
Despite a rapidly growing world population and the impact of climate change, the improvement rates of several staple crops have stalled in recent years.
Speed breeding, says Dr. Wulff, offers a potential new solution to a global challenge for the 21st century.
‘People said you may be able to cycle plants fast, but they will look tiny and insignificant, and only set a few seeds. In fact, the new technology creates plants that look better and are healthier than those using standard conditions. One colleague could not believe it when he first saw the results.
‘I’d like to think that in 10 years from now you could walk into a field and point to plants whose attributes and traits were developed using this technology.’
The international team also says it has proof that the speed-breeding technique can be used for a range of important crops. They have achieved up to six generations per year for bread wheat, durum wheat, barley, pea, and chickpea; and four generations of canola, a form of rapeseed. This is a significant increase compared with widely used commercial breeding techniques. No supplementary carbon dioxide was added in any of the experiments.
Speed breeding, when employed alongside conventional field-based techniques, can be an important tool to enable advances in understanding the genetics of crops, say the scientists.
'Speed breeding as a platform can be combined with lots of other technologies such as gene editing to get to the end result faster,’ explains Dr Lee Hickey from the University of Queensland.
The study shows that traits such as plant-pathogen interactions, plant shape and structure, and flowering time can be studied in detail and repeated using the technology.
The speed breeding technology has been welcomed by wheat breeders who have become early adopters.
The John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, is an international center for plant science, research, genetics, and microbiology. Pic: Google Maps 2016
Ruth Bryant, a wheat disease expert at UK seed supplier RAGT said: ‘Breeders are always looking for ways to speed up the process of getting a variety to market so we’re really interested in the concept of speed breeding.’ The company is working closely with Dr Wulff’s group at the John Innes Centre to be the first to develop the method in a commercial setting.
Dr Allan Rattey, a wheat crop breeder with Australian company Dow AgroSciences, has used the technology to breed wheat with tolerance to pre-harvest sprouting, a major problem in Australia.
‘Environmental control for effective screening and the long time taken to cycle through several cycles of recurrent selection were major bottlenecks. The speed breeding and targeted selection platform have driven major gains for both of these areas of concerns.’
- Read the full scientific paper here
- Speed breeding with LEDs is one of the topics to be covered at two special conferences on the lighting revolution. The first takes place in Utrecht, the Netherlands on 14 and 15 May 2018. See the programme here. The second takes place on 9 and 10 October in Portland, Oregon, USA. See the programme here.
Horticultural Lighting Conference
Eager to learn more about LEDs and lighting? On May 14 -15 the Horticultural Lighting Conference will take place at the Conference Centre at Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, the Netherlands. The aim of the conference is to bring the grower and manufacturer sectors together, and it will feature a fast-paced, informative format designed to share the latest insights, best practices and ideas in this emerging market. Industry’s leading experts show how to harness the potential of horticultural lighting and Sreya Ghosh of the John Innes will talk about speed breeding.
Click here to register.
For more information
Horticultural Lightning Conference
horticulturelightingconference.com
Publication date: 3/14/2018