Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Manila - Neophyte Solon Seeks To Institutionalize Integrated Urban Agriculture, Vertical Farming
Manila - Neophyte Solon Seeks To Institutionalize Integrated Urban Agriculture, Vertical Farming
Published May 8, 2018
By Charissa Luci-Atienza
A neophyte lawmaker has cited the need to institutionalize integrated urban agriculture and vertical farming in the country to ensure food security, and address hunger and poverty.
Rice farming / Facebook / Manila Bulletin File Photo
1-Ang Edukasyon partylist Rep. Salvador Belaro Jr. made the proposal following the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) self-rated poverty survey results showing that the number of Filipinos who consider themselves poor fell to a record low of 42 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
“Urban dwellers can grow substitutes to rice using less land and less space than rice farms. Corn and root crops can be cultivated in urban farms. Gardens of public schools can grow these crops and meet the carbohydrate needs of their urban poor students,” he said.
He said integrated urban agriculture and vertical farming do not require lots of land compared to rice farming.
“Integrated urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing of agricultural products from animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry and horticulture in or around a metropolitan village, town and city. In vertical farming food from plants cultivated using indoor agriculture methods of growing produce in vertically stacked layers using geoponics, hydroponics, and aeroponics,” he explained.
Belaro filed HB 7526 proposing the institutionalization of integrated urban agriculture and vertical farming in the country to ensure food security, to promote livelihood and to regenerate ecosystem functions in metropolitan areas.
Under House Bill 7526 or the proposed Integrated Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming Act, schools and local governments shall be the key implementors of urban agriculture and vertical farming.
“LGUs can put open spaces and idle lands to good use with vertical farming and urban agriculture, while campus gardens can do more than just have ornamentals and herbs,” Belaro said.
The assistant majority leader said the LGUs can also encourage or give incentives to homeowners associations, neighborhood associations, and community and/or people’s organizations to participate in urban farming activities within their areas.
“Idle and/or abandoned government lots and buildings owned by either national and local governments or available land resources in state universities and colleges can be conducive for growing crops, raising livestock and producing food using said methods, provided that these are compliant and subject to safety standards such that of DOST and other pertinent agencies,” he said.
Belaro proposed that for universities, colleges and training centers, both public and private, integrated urban agriculture and vertical farming can be required as an advanced elective course for students pursuing Agriculture, Practical Arts, Home Economics, and other agriculture-related courses.
Scientists Want to Replace Pesticides With Bacteria
April 16, 2018
Scientists Want to Replace Pesticides With Bacteria
Indigo’s microbes could change Big Agriculture forever.
By Elizabeth G Dunn
Healthy microbiomes are increasingly recognized as critical to our overall health.
SOURCE: INDIGO AG
Fresh snow coats the sidewalks outside Indigo Ag Inc.’s Boston offices, but inside the temperature is calibrated to mimic spring in the Midwest. Hundreds of almost identical soy seedlings sit beneath high-intensity arc lamps, basking in the artificially sunny 60F weather.
The plants aren’t destined to stay identical for long. “We haven’t imposed the stress yet,” says Geoffrey von Maltzahn, the company’s lanky 37-year-old co-founder. The MIT-trained microbiologist gestures toward photos showing what happens when you apply Indigo’s signature product—a coating of carefully chosen microbes—to some seeds but not others before planting, then dial back the water supply: One shows a tall, flourishing stalk; the other, what looks like a tangle of shriveled leaves.
In humans, a healthy microbiome—the universe of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that lives inside all of us—is increasingly recognized as critical to overall health. The same is true of the plant world, and Indigo is among the dozen or so agricultural technology startups trying to take advantage of the growing scientific consensus. Their work is enabled by advances in machine learning and a steep reduction in the cost of genetic sequencing, used by companies to determine which microbes are present. Approaches vary: AgBiome LLC, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is studying how microbes can help control sweet potato weevils in Africa, while Ginkgo Bioworks Inc. announced a $100 million joint venture with Bayer AG to explore how microbes can encourage plants to produce their own nitrogen.
The grow room at Indigo Ag. SOURCE: INDIGO AG
Indigo is the best-funded of the bunch, having raised more than $400 million. To develop its microbial cocktails, Indigo agronomists comb through normal fields in dry conditions to see which plants seem healthier than average. They take samples of the thriving plants and “fingerprint” their microbiomes using genetic sequencing; once they’ve done this with thousands of samples, they use statistical methods to pick out which microbes occur most often in the healthiest plants. These proceed to testing, then large-scale field trials.
The company’s first commercial products are focused on improving drought tolerance, one of the most difficult traits to address through genetic modification. “It’s like a symphony,” founder von Maltzahn says of a plant’s reaction to water stress, “and GMOs are like slamming down on one note on one instrument.” Drought conditions are likely to become a greater threat to agriculture because of global warming. Indigo is also investing heavily in research and development efforts to see how microbes influence factors such as nitrogen use and pest resistance, aiming to reduce or even eliminate the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers as well as genetically modified seeds. With the general public rejecting chemical treatments and GMOs in favor of “natural” foods, Indigo is counting on a potentially multibillion-dollar market. So far, its microbe coatings have boosted cotton yields by an average of 14 percent in full-scale commercial trials in Texas and wheat yields by as much as 15 percent in Kansas.
Indigo’s microbe coatings have boosted cotton yields by an average of 14 percent in commercial trials in Texas. SOURCE: INDIGO AG
Indigo Chief Executive Officer David Perry doesn’t want to just market a suite of seed treatments, however. He wants to reshape the structure of the agriculture industry completely, competing not only with chemical companies such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical but also with agricultural distributors like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. Perry, a biochemist who grew up on a small farm in rural Arkansas, founded two pharma-related companies, a drugmaker he eventually sold for multiple billions of dollars and an online marketplace for research supplies that went public in 1999. After joining Indigo in 2015, Perry quickly zeroed in on a fundamental business challenge: Most farmers have no choice but to sell their harvest at commodity prices. Without the opportunity to earn more for using environmentally sustainable methods, they have little incentive to alter their ways.
For farmers to adopt Indigo technology, they’d need a buyer willing to pay a premium for non-GMO, pesticide-free products. So, Perry reasoned, Indigo would facilitate the sale. Today the company contracts upfront with hundreds of farmers to buy their entire harvest of, say, Indigo Wheat, at a hefty premium. “Now you’re growing a value-added product, and that starts to go directly to farm profitability,” he says. Indigo then sells the wheat to end users such as breweries, flour mills, and food companies, which have become more interested in transparency and control when it comes to the origin of their grains. Perry says he’s betting on a long-term shift away from commodity agriculture and toward specialty markets, as the coffee and cocoa industries are seeing.
While the science behind microbiome treatments is promising, Indigo has a long road ahead. Its success depends on proving that microbes can meaningfully influence more than just drought tolerance while at the same time scaling up to the kind of sprawling, complex operation that can buy and sell millions of bushels of grain from tens of thousands of farms.
Michael Dean, chief investment officer for the venture capital investment platform AgFunder Inc., sees Indigo’s technologies as potentially disruptive but suggests that one of the biggest challenges the company will face is persuading farmers to turn their back on comfortable relationships with Big Ag. “Farmers have tended to buy seed from the guy their dad bought from, and sold it to the same grain elevator,” Dean says. “This is going to make waves, and not everyone will be happy about it.”
BOTTOM LINE - Leveraging the plant microbiome to improve crop yields is more and more promising, but any upstarts will have a hard time getting between farmers and Monsanto.
This Washington Farmer Wants You To Know Why Your Organic Red Peppers Are So Expensive
This Washington Farmer Wants You To Know Why Your Organic Red Peppers Are So Expensive
Flavor isn't the expensive part. It's the aesthetics that cost you.
May 8th, 2018
by Naomi Tomky
Kole Tonnemaker laughs when I ask him why organic red bell peppers fetch such a premium price. An organic farmer in Royal City, Washington, he raises more than 300 varieties of peppers, along with tree fruit, melons, hay, and a wide variety of other fruits and vegetables (as well as quarter horses). But he’s not surprised I’ve singled this item out. Many customers base their sense of pepper prices on the conventional green pepper, which grocery stores across the country currently sell for $1.31 a pound on average. I’m not the first person to ask Tonnemaker why his organic red peppers cost almost twice as much.
The farm Tonnemaker runs with his wife Sonia was originally a tree fruit orchard, one that had been handed down through the family “for more generations than I know about,” he says. The pair first grew peppers to sell in 1992, after a second straight year of losing their tree fruit to a deep freeze. Disheartened, they realized they needed to diversify, and also to find something that they could plant after the frost and sell that year. Hoping for a bit more control—things out of his control are Tonnemaker’s least favorite part of farming—they settled on peppers. What they didn’t know then was that producing the perfect organic red bell pepper would be an exercise in the pursuit of perfection. And at quite the pretty price.
Producing the perfect organic red bell pepper is an exercise in the pursuit of perfection.
Currently, Tonnemaker sells bell peppers for $2.50 a pound at local farmers’ markets. On the farm, he sells the peppers for just $2 a pound, and sells huge mixed bins to local grocery stores for $1.25 a pound. But his biggest customer is his brother, who buys the peppers for $1 a pound and sells them to restaurants and at other farmers’ markets for $3 a pound. Tonnemaker’s 1.25 acres of bell peppers turn out about 16,000 pounds, total, and in the end, they average $1.27 a pound for the entire lot.
Here’s the first thing to know about pepper economics: Color matters, and red is much more time-intensive than green. That’s because peppers change color as they ripen throughout the summer. “Almost all of your red varieties start out green, then, as they mature, turn red,” Tonnemaker says. Most peppers start out green before reaching the hue—yellow, orange, purple, blue, red—they’ll eventually reach after many months of growing.
All that waiting takes time and money, especially considering that there’s already a strong market for plain old green peppers. “If you have a good, long growing season, if you keep picking the green bell peppers off as they get to size, then the plant will continue to flower and continue to fruit,” he says. Picking peppers early, then, is also a chance to increase yield. A plant that produces 10 green peppers if picked regularly might yield only three or four red ones if fruits are allowed to mature fully.
But even on the shortest growth cycle, pepper plants take a lot of nurturing. Long before they hit grocery stores, menus, or markets, they begin life indoors. “The biggest thing is to get them growing well in the greenhouse,” says Tonnemaker, adding that warmth is a huge factor. The soil should be 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but his central Washington farm doesn’t get anything like that. So, their first challenge is getting enough seeds to germinate.
Peppers spend their first eight weeks in the greenhouse
In a good year, the Tonnemakers get 160 days of growing season on their north-facing slope farm—a bit short, considering that peppers spend their first eight weeks in the greenhouse. Melons need only three weeks in the greenhouse, while tomatoes might only need five. Each pepper plant already costs about 30 or 40 cents by the time it moves from greenhouse to ground.
Tonnemaker estimates that each year, he spends about $1,875 on fertilizer, prepping the land and applying plastic mulch, then another $2,850 on mechanical tilling and hand-weeding the one-and-a-quarter acres of pepper plants they grow. (One-third of their pepper land is left to fallow or cover-cropped each year.) They also spend about $2,800 on land payments, water assessment, property taxes, and equipment payments, including depreciation.
The plants are usually transferred to the fields in early May, but if spring stays cool, they might not really grow until as late as the end of June. “Peppers seem to tolerate [cool temperatures] pretty well, but they don’t grow,” Tonnemaker says. “But everything else does, like the weeds.”
Peppers are what Tonnemaker calls a “noncompetitive plant,” meaning that in normal years he might have to weed by hand three or four times before the peppers really take off and fend for themselves among the weeds—compared to just once with a tomato. “If we start having any sort of a rain, then we get a flush of weed growth and we’ve got to be right there with [the weeding].”
Farmers lose at least 50 to 60 percent of the first August red bell peppers to sunburn.
The Tonnemakers plant in plastic mulch, so there’s just a little opening around the pepper plant. Hand-weeding is essential for making sure nothing comes up around that plant. While they mechanically cultivate between the rows of peppers, which takes care of 90 to 95 percent of the weeds, the small space around the plant remains key for weeding. Some years that’s easier than others. In a cold, wet spring, the weeds go crazy. During a dry, warmer spring, the pepper plant becomes competitive more quickly. Still, until it gets really warm, almost everything else grows better than peppers.
“Thinking about all that makes one want to quit farming.”
But with warmth comes sunshine, which poses a new danger: sunburn. Conventional growers simply pile on fertilizer, which encourages leaf growth and protects the plants. But organic plants often don’t have the same vigor. Tonnemaker estimates he loses at least 50 to 60 percent of the first August red bell peppers to sunburn. The plants do better later in the year, with the best crop coming in early September, if they can survive that long..
Picking generally begins in mid-August. Once the harvest starts, pickers walk the entire field each week, maybe more often, selecting just the biggest and best-colored peppers. The harvesting costs of bell peppers work out to about 35 cents a pound. The season lasts until around the end of September or early October, and those last peppers aren’t dregs, says Tonnemaker: “That’s when the sun isn’t as intense, but the ground is still warm and the days are still warm.” For his farm, the premium harvest time for red bell peppers is in those final days before the killing frost—which could be a short window with little notice before closing.
Since they’ve outsourced the marketing to Tonnemaker’s brother’s company and eliminated the need for boxing (they sell by the bin to groceries and at markets), picking cost has gone down to just 35 cents a pound, even though they’ve starting having to pay pickers more. “With the escalating minimum wage in Washington, we cannot afford to hire inexperienced students on summer break as in years past,” he says. Instead he focuses on bringing in the most experienced, productive pickers—mostly family with a little help on weekends. Recently, they added a raised bed mulch layer, lifting the plants about 9 inches, which reduced labor costs by lessening how much workers need to stoop when they plant, weed, and pick, and making the work easier on family members who’ve been doing it for more than three decades. However, it increased other costs with the necessary equipment and modifications to old tools.
But even more than the long growing time, the short harvest season, the constant weeding, and the sunburn, Tonnemaker gets worked up when he talks about the price of seeds for his organic red bell peppers. The heirloom seeds he prefers are only about 5 cents each, but high-coloring, high-yielding hybrids can cost as much as 20 cents per seed. Looking back over the costs he’s provided me, Tonnemaker later emails that “thinking about all that makes one want to quit farming.”
Our drive to have access to the perfect size and shape and color just adds a huge amount of expense for the grower.
For most of the several hundred varieties of peppers they grown on the farm, looks don’t necessarily matter much. “You want it to be a good size, and you want it to look appealing, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be something exact,” Tonnemaker says. Some heirloom peppers are just really small. “They have beautiful color and they taste fine, but they’re just not these great big, beautiful, candy-apple red peppers.”
But red bell peppers are another story: the size, shape, and color must be exact. Growing to meet the public’s high standards of cosmetic appeal piles on the expense, driving up the price for hybrid seeds designed to meet them. On the plus side, it reduces waste, but Tonnemaker mourns the varieties he’s watched disappear over the last 20 years. “If we want to keep growing them, we’re out of luck. They’ve been replaced by the newer and redder.”
And that, concludes Tonnemaker, is the real issue: Our drive to have access to the perfect size and shape and color just adds a huge amount of expense for the grower. Prices in the world of red bell peppers aren’t driven by flavor, but by cosmetic appeal. They cost so much not because that’s what it takes to produce peppers that are good enough to eat, but because that’s the price of producing peppers that look good enough to buy.
America Is Losing Its Best Farmland
hotoS: Mason Trinca / Special To The Chronicle
The United States is losing its best farmland to development, even as the country’s population booms, according to a new report from the nonprofit conservation organization American Farmland Trust.
It’s a familiar sight for anyone who grew up in many Bay Area suburbs: The rolling pastureland or local fruit farms that once were on the outskirts of town have been replaced by a housing development or strip mall.
According to the American Farmland Trust, the United States lost almost 31 million acres, or 3.2 percent of its total farmland, from 1992 to 2012. California, which is responsible for one-eighth of the country’s farm production, lost an estimated 1.3 million acres of agricultural land to development during the same time period as both the state and the U.S. population increased by 22 percent.
The disappearance of agricultural land has become a global concern because the United States contains more than 10 percent of the land on Earth that is suitable for farming, the report states.
“We’re looking at a future where our population is going to continue to expand, and we’re going to have more and more demands for food, fiber and energy,” said Ann Sorensen, research director at American Farmland Trust. “Then you throw that curve ball of climate change in the mix” — longer droughts and more severe weather and erosion — “and that’s why we are so concerned now.”
In the report, agricultural land is defined as nonfederal cropland, pastureland, rangeland and woodland used to support agriculture. To get the most complete image of how land is used, researchers analyzed a range of data sets, including from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Inventory and Census of Agriculture, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey, which uses satellite imagery.
The report also found that 11 million of the acres lost to development — almost the same land mass as the Central Valley — were considered prime farmland, or land with the best soil, water access and microclimates for intensive crop production.
In California, the researchers said, almost all of the 1.3 million acres of farmland that were developed went to either urbanization or commercial, industrial and high-density residential areas. That’s different from low-density residential development, where there might be one house in the middle of several acres of land that aren’t used for farming. Later this year, the organization will release another report that will focus on land use on a state and county level.
“We’ve lost far too many farms and ranches in the Bay Area and across the country,” said Matt Vander Sluis, deputy director of the Greenbelt Alliance in San Francisco, which advocates for protecting the Bay Area’s natural and agricultural lands. “Sprawl development continues to threaten our local food economy and the natural value our farms and ranches provide.”
The Greenbelt Alliance estimates that 217,000 acres of agricultural land in the greater Bay Area have been lost to development in the past three decades. The Marin Agricultural Land Trust is one local organization that tries to counter that development by creating easements that have preserved more than 51,000 acres of county land for agricultural use.
As land prices go up, especially in California, some farmers have turned to innovative practices, like vertical farming, or taken advantage of new technologies to maximize yields on what land they have.
But as the population of U.S. farmers ages — in California, the average age is 60 years old, according to the USDA — there’s the additional worry that more land will be lost if farms aren’t passed on to the next generation.
“We need to think about the future, not haphazardly developing anymore,” Sorensen said. “We need to try to do a much better job in planning, and giving communities the resources they need to plan.”
Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit Comes to Brooklyn
Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit Comes to Brooklyn
On June 20-21, Brooklyn will host the inaugural Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit, presenting new opportunities for investment and collaboration in the fast-growing fields of vertical and indoor farming.
Created with an Advisory Board of industry leaders, the program will explore the commercial strategies, business models and partnerships needed to scale this emerging industry, and showcase the latest innovations in automation, lighting, environmental control, and plant science.
The summit will bring together a unique mix of operators, food producers, technology developers, plant scientists, retailers, financiers and city planners to share best practice in building sustainable, profitable and healthy food systems.
There are lots of opportunities to get involved in the debate. If you have a great story to tell, a game-changing solution to showcase, or would like to share your expertise on one of our panels, please call us on +44 1273 789989 or email Senior Conference Producer, Abigail Ryder for more information.
Indoor AgTech
Jennie Moss
Founder & MD, Rethink Events
jennie.moss@rethinkevents.com
The Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit will be held June 20-21 in the contemporary venue of New Lab in Brooklyn, New York. The event runs immediately after the Future Food-Tech Summit on June 19-20 at the same venue, offering delegates the opportunity to attend both summits with a joint pass.
Hosted by:
Organizers of:
Copyright © 2018 Rethink Events, All rights reserved.
Wisconsin, Industrial Hemp - Legislatively Speaking
Wisconsin, Industrial Hemp - Legislatively Speaking
APRIL 28, 2018
By Senator, Lena C. Taylor
A Rural and Urban Crop
Lena C. Taylor
Last fall, Governor Walker signed SB 119 into law after it passed unanimously in the assembly and senate. The bill allows for the growing of industrial hemp, with proper licensing, in the state of Wisconsin after it had been outlawed for the last 60 years. This represents an exciting development for our state and one that Milwaukee communities, in particular, must capitalize on.
Hemp could be a catalyst in further expanding our state’s already impressive urban agriculture output. Milwaukee has the highest number of community gardens, urban farms, and farmers’ markets per person in the country. However, the implementation of hemp production can further improve this vibrant scene, bringing along exciting economic opportunities as well as agricultural and environmental benefits. If you’re not already involved in the urban agriculture scene, now is a great time to get started.
Why now? Well for starters, the legalization of hemp provides licensed farmers with a diverse and useful crop with a high market value. Every part of the plant can be used for some type of product, whether it be for food, fuel, fiber or lotion. It is also an incredibly efficient crop, generating 250 percent more fiber than cotton and six times more fiber than flax with the same land area.
Beyond its market value, it can be used as a cover crop to improve the health of the soil and thus the output of other crops. Additionally, hemp does not require significant water usage, helping to keep input costs relatively low for farmers. Both of these benefits are particularly important for urban farming, as their small size relies on productivity through crop rotation and minimizing water input. By planting hemp, urban farmers can generate more profit while simultaneously improving the quality of their already stellar produce.
Just because you do not have prior experience working on a farm does not mean you should shy away from engaging in urban farming and hemp production. There are already a lot of agriculture centers in Milwaukee where experienced urban farmers can show you the basics, and develop your farming skills. If you have the time and dedication, urban farming can be a viable and profitable career. It can also be a side-time hobby filled with economic and social benefits. Either way, it is a growing industry with intriguing opportunities and a passionate Milwaukee community ready to show you the way.
Urban agriculture is helping bring communities closer, increase access to food, and provide compelling business opportunities. With the legalization of hemp, these positive developments are just getting started. The time is now to make a big leap in improving Milwaukee, and urban farming is a great place for you to start.
For more information about an Industrial Hemp License:https://datcp.wi.gov/Page/Programs_Services/IndustrialHemp.aspx
Climate-Smart Villages Launch In Myanmar
Climate-Smart Villages Launch In Myanmar
from CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
Published on 26 Apr 2018 —View Original
by Wilson John Barbon (IIRR) and Eisen Bernardo (CCAFS Southeast Asia)
The establishment of Climate-Smart and Nutrition-Smart Villages in Myanmar is a major step in addressing food security and nutrition challenges.
In Myanmar, the adverse impacts of climate change are observed especially in the agriculture sector, due to increasing incidence of drought, more intense rains resulting in flooding, stronger cyclones, and salinization of farms. As an agricultural country with many smallholder farmers, the country’s food security, nutrition and livelihoods are greatly affected by the threats of climate change.
The scaling out of climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices (CSA T&Ps) using community-based adaptation (CBA) strategies is a potential solution to food security and nutrition challenges in Myanmar. To realize this goal, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Southeast Asia (CCAFS SEA), has worked for the establishment of Climate-Smart and Nutrition-Smart Villages (CSVs) to serve as platforms for scaling out CSA T&Ps through CBA in the country.
The CCAFS-funded short program supporting strategic field-level activities has led to more resources and support from key stakeholders. Particularly, the International Development Research Center (IDRC) provided funding for a three-year project that will fully implement the CSV program in Myanmar.
The new project, Scaling Out Community-Based Adaptation via Climate Smart Villages: Platforms to Address Food Insecurity in Myanmar, will look into how a network of CSVs implementing CBA processes can effectively influence potential next users to replicate such processes. Building on the current knowledge base on undertaking gender-sensitive, nutrition-friendly CBA, and local-level scaling-out of CSA, the project will be implemented through participatory action research in four selected villages.
CSV launching and inception workshop
In April 2018 in Yangon, IIRR launched the four CSVs in Myanmar, namely: Ma Sein village in Bogale (delta), Htee Pu village in Nyaung-Oo (dry zone), Kyaung Taung village in Nyaung Shwe (uplands), and Sakthal village in Hakha (hilly). The CSVs will serve as learning platforms for scaling-out CSA through CBA at the township level.
As part of the event, IIRR conducted the project’s inception workshop, gathering all implementing partners and other agencies providing technical assistance. During the workshop, the partners agreed on the expectations for their roles in the project, acquired a common understanding of the approaches and themes of the research, and drafted an initial budget and coordination mechanisms.
For this year, the focus will be on building the baselines for the research, including the conduct and finalization of participatory vulnerability assessment reports, household surveys, and gender studies. The project will be producing primers in local languages which will be used in the CSV-level education activities for target farmers and households.
Opening-wedge activities
In 2016, IIRR organized a roundtable discussion to explore the opportunities for CSA in Myanmar. Following the roundtable discussion, with support from CCAFS, IIRR carried out an in-depth scoping study to look into climate vulnerabilities in agriculture in the various agro-ecological zones of Myanmar.
In 2017, CCAFS provided a small grant to implement preliminary activities to set up two CSVs in the central dry zone and delta areas. These included participatory vulnerability assessments, testing of identified CSA options, and building partnerships with local NGOs. In Htee Pu village, IIRR and its partner the Community Development Association implemented participatory varietal selection of pigeon pea, ground nuts and green gram, and distribution of mango seedlings to demonstrate small-scale fruit tree orchards. In Ma Sein village, IIRR, together with Radanar Ayar Association, conducted testing of household-level container gardening and backyard pig raising, and set up a school garden to demonstrate vegetable production and small-scale fish culture for educating children and parents about the value of diversification.
IIRR believes that capacities to experiment and test CSA options should be nurtured by engaging farmers in observation trials and participatory varietal selection processes. Such activities help encourage farmer-to-farmer processes which often outlast the technologies. Over time, incremental adaptation is observed.
Considered “opening wedge” activities, these initial efforts aimed to build trust and cooperation between the IIRR and its partners and the smallholder farmers. These activities are meant to excite farmers about the various options that they can explore, test, and develop to address issues related to climate change. The next phase will focus on deepening the implementation of options and documenting the results of these with regards to reducing the risks to farmers brought by climate change.
In the near future, IIRR will partner with Yezin Agriculture University and local research stations to develop a portfolio of CSA options relevant to different agro-ecologies and sociocultural settings. Equity, gender, and nutrition considerations will be featured in the design of local strategies. In homesteads, schools, and every CSV, small farms will serve as complementary platforms for promoting CSA in this effort to strengthen local adaptive capacities.
Toward Sustainable Relations Between Agriculture And The City
Toward Sustainable Relations Between Agriculture And The City
Linked by Michael Levenston
Presents multilevel approaches of sustainable relations between agriculture and the city
Written by scientists in agronomy, geography and urban planning
Includes methodological frameworks and case studies in Europe and the Mediterranean
Editors: Soulard, Christophe-Toussaint, Perrin, Coline, Valette, Elodie (Eds.)
Springer 2018
This book gives an overview of frameworks, methods, and case studies useful for the analysis of the relations between agriculture and the city, in Europe and the Mediterranean. Its originality lies in the analysis of urban food systems sustainability from an actors’ perspective. All the chapters consider the key role of actors in the definition of innovations and pathways, which enhance sustainability, seen as an ongoing process. Part 1 presents systemic approaches of agricultural-urban interactions at the city-region scale in France, Egypt, Italy and Morocco.
Part 2 deals with methods and tools for urban planning and local development, utilized to design and assess sustainable food systems. The Part 3 inventories the recent changes in urban agriculture and the new forms of governance which are emerging in European cities (Athens, Berlin, Lisbon, Montpellier, Paris and Zurich). These results are useful for students, academics and activists involved in local policies and projects.
Link here.
Plantagon Co-Founder Hans Hassle Awarded The Khalifa International Award for Agricultural Innovation
Mr. Hans Hassle, co-founder and Secretary-General of Plantagon International, was awarded the prestigious Khalifa International Award for Agricultural Innovation during the recently held Sixth International Date Palm Conference (SIDPC), held under the patronage of the H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE, during 19 – 21 March 2018 in Abu Dhabi – UAE.
Plantagon Co-Founder Hans Hassle Awarded The Khalifa International Award for Agricultural Innovation
Apr 13, 2018
ABU DHABI, UAE (April 13, 2018) –– Mr. Hans Hassle, co-founder and Secretary-General of Plantagon International, was awarded the prestigious Khalifa International Award for Agricultural Innovation during the recently held Sixth International Date Palm Conference (SIDPC), held under the patronage of the H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE, during 19 – 21 March 2018 in Abu Dhabi – UAE.
The award was presented in an award distribution ceremony, during the opening of the 10th Session of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation (KIADPAI) in Abu Dhabi on March 19. Mr. Hassle was honored for his interest and dedication to innovation in the agricultural sector, alongside international dignitaries Dr. Graziano Da Silva, FAO DG, Dr. Gilbert Houngbo, DG of IFAD, Dr. M. Abu Saab, DG of ICARDA and Dr. Ibrahim Dukheri, AOAD President.
Mr. Hassle expressed his gratitude to the organizers for the award and also to the UAE officials for ratifying his continued contribution in the field of Urban Agriculture. Mr. Hassle also highlighted the existing opportunities for Swedish Cleantech solutions to make their mark at the Dubai Expo 2020 platform – as a continuing effort for enhancing Swedish exports to the MENA region.
“During my three days in Abu Dhabi, a number of high-level meetings were held with ministers, research organizations and government agencies, and I am very pleased that we through Plantagon can support in the development of sustainable urban food production systems in UAE,” said Mr. Hassle.
Press Contact: Carin Balfe Arbman, Plantagon International, info@plantagon.com
Links: www.plantagon.com www.kiaai.ae/en
Pressroom: www.mynewsdesk.com/plantagon-international/
Plantagon International is a world-leading pioneer within the field food security and CSR – combining urban agriculture, innovative technical solutions and architecture – to meet the demand for efficient food production within cities; adding a more democratic and inclusive governance model.
www.plantagon.com www.plantagon.org
More African Farms Turning to Hydroponics
More African Farms Turning to Hydroponics
As climate change begins to pose new challenges for conventional outdoor food production methods, hydroponic farming is fast gaining popularity in South Africa. Considering the current drought in the Western Cape and other parts of South Africa, you may say it is a forced shift, but it does bode well for the environment and our scarcest resource on planet earth – water.
For anyone who cares about our resources, it’s not difficult to obtain research about the “carbon footprint” of food transportation and the many other ways in which we harm our environment through producing our food. It is clear that we cannot continue on the way we have always produced food.
NFT Hydro, as the manufacturers and suppliers of Hydroponic NFT Systems and equipment, has become a key part of this shift change in South Africa & Africa. We have seen a significant up-take in growing hydroponically from our South African urban farmers, rooftops growers in our cities and commercial farmers searching for alternative methods of farming to meet the demand for higher yield and the consumers’ concern for the environment.
These urban growers and emerging farmers in South Africa are able contribute to food security through the KHULA farmers App (meaning GROW) which allow farmers to list their produce and track real time inventory levels from emerging farmers as well as basic production forecasting. The App also includes a crowd-sourcing marketplace where farmers can satisfy market demand and incoming orders.
That being said, some of our African neighbours have been even quicker on the uptake of Hydroponics than South Africans, the vast majority of whom, not surprisingly, are women.
NFT Hydro export on a regular basis into Africa as well as the rest of the world, attesting to the quality of our products proudly manufactured here in South Africa.
For more information:
Lynn Gunning
NFT Hydro
Tel: +27 (0)83 737 8602
Lynn@nfthydro.co.za
www.nfthydro.co.za
InspiraFarms Adds €2.5m to Series A for Cold Storage and Processing Tech in East Africa and Central America
InspiraFarms Adds €2.5m to Series A for Cold Storage and Processing Tech in East Africa and Central America
InspiraFarms has added €2.5 million ($3.1m) to its Series A round of investment from existing investors, bringing the company’s total Series A funding €4.15 ($5.1m).
The first close on €1.65 million ($1.78 million) was announced in 2017. The UK-headquartered B-Corp continues to expand its supply of cold storage and food processing technology to small and growing agribusinesses throughout East Africa, Central America and beyond.
InspiraFarms is geared to help farmers in some of the world’s more demanding locations move up the global food supply chain by providing them with cold-chain processing facilities. These facilities will enable them to reduce post-harvest crop deterioration and also satisfy the food safety and quality requirements of their final customers.
Post-harvest losses due to environmental exposure and pests are extremely high in many places, with McKinsey estimating that 30% of agricultural production in Africa and Asia is lost in post-harvest processes. That figure is much higher in some places. The lack of cold storage in remote locations also places a limit on product management, seriously reducing shelf-life potential and therefore a farmer’s potential income from sales.
The lack of cold storage in remote locations also places a limit on product management, seriously reducing shelf-life potential and therefore a farmer’s potential income from sales.
The similar lack of on-farm processing facilities also lowers the capability of producers to maximize the value of their output. This is a huge frustration for farmers, especially in areas where they can usually access an abundance of labor, given the right equipment and working environment.
InspiraFarms hopes to address these challenges and increase annual farm income in these regions by 40% with its cold storage and food processing technology.
Described as a ‘game changer’ by InspiraFarms technical director Dr Michele Bruni, the technology on offer consists of modular cold storage and food processing units, which run on off-grid renewable energy.
“Thanks to partnerships with groups focused on the advancement of sustainable businesses, building the circular economy, and creating employment opportunities, we’re now able to help more rural communities overcome the challenges of distance to markets and access to energy,” said Bruni.
The company, which has its production base in Italy, operates through regional offices and sales agents in Guatemala, Kenya, and South Africa. That’s in addition to its HQ in Sevenoaks, England.
While the current offer is new and a major advance for InspiraFarms, the business already has units working successfully in Africa and Central America.
In 2014, for example, InspiraFarms delivered an off-grid food processing unit to producers in Guatemala. InspiraFarms hoped this would enable small-scale farmers in the country to gain a more significant stake in the export supply chain, an initiative which has helped many producers to start moving forward. Some, in fact, are now producing and selling twice what they were able to do three years ago and no longer have to endure a high-level of post-harvest losses.
The following year, 2015, InspiraFarms partnered in placing its first solar-powered cold storage plant in Rwanda, providing the country’s social enterprise mushroom producer Kigali Farms with a low-carbon method to reduce post-harvest losses. Here again, this has helped the business concerned to enhance the quality of its output, particularly as regards the all-important global trade requirement for extended product shelf-life. Compliance with GAP and HACCP certifications allows farmers to sell produce at a higher value.
InspiraFarms will use this round of funding to substantially expand its global reach, potentially selling five new units a month, alongside an interest-free loan offer to its customers.
A group of “like-minded investors” according to InspiraFarms managing director, Tim Chambers joined the round including Factor(e) Ventures, a venture impact development firm investing in and partnering with high impact technology ventures across energy access, agriculture, waste and resource management, and sustainable mobility. Also joining was Energy Access Ventures(EAV), which is backed by French multinational Schneider Electric, European Investment Bank, and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), and invests in energy-related businesses in Africa.
PYMWYMIC (Put Your Money Where Your Meaning Is Community), an investor community of families, individuals and foundations who support for-profit companies creating global impact, Montpelier Foundation, which focuses on education, agriculture and energy, and the Doen Foundation, which invests in green activities, socially inclusive projects and creative initiatives, also invested.
Schneider Electric’s sustainability senior vice president, Gilles Vermot Desroches, said InspiraFarms was providing reliable and innovative energy solutions to agribusinesses in off-grid and unreliable grid areas.
“We believe this investment will strongly contribute to foster productivity gains in agriculture value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. “It will also deliver economic and social benefits, namely for low-income women.
“We, therefore, look forward to working with InspiraFarms through our Access to Energy Program, and the technical assistance agreement with EAV fund, to boost the go-to-market strategy of the company and its impact outreach.”
A PYMWYMIC investor spokesman added: “We decided to invest mainly because through its products, InspiraFarms empowers smallholder farmers in the long run by giving them the tools to access high-value markets. This economic empowerment has the potential to improve the quality of life of thousands of people in different countries across the world.”
Factor[e] Ventures’ Seth Silverman was equally enthusiastic, adding: “This offers a fully integrated and financeable platform for small-scale farmers that dramatically reduces post-harvest loss. Because of their technology innovation and deep understanding of their customers, InspiraFarms has developed facilities that serve as the linchpin for supporting distributed, small-scale producers up-and-down the value chain”.
Scientists Discover Hormone That Helps Plants Sense Drought
Wonderful weed: Scientists at the Riken Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, have detected a hormone that senses drought in thale cress. | GETTY IMAGES
Scientists Discover Hormone That Helps Plants Sense Drought
BY ROWAN HOOPER
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
- APR 26, 2018
Plants deserve more credit. They can’t move to find food or water or to escape a predator. But that doesn’t mean they are helpless — far from it. They don’t have eyes, ears, a nose or mouth, but they can sense the world remarkably well — in some cases better than we can.
For example, as you might expect, plants are highly sensitive to light. Humans have three different kinds of light-receptors in their eyes to sense light; plants have 15. Plants can monitor light levels very precisely, from the ultraviolet to the infrared.
Plants’ powers of communication are also extraordinary. A plant being eaten by a predator such as a caterpillar will release ethylene, and this warns other plants that there is a threat nearby. If you look at a tree infested by herbivores and nearby trees that are untouched, you’ll find that the uneaten trees have produced protective chemicals that render them unpalatable to predators.
Ethylene is also produced as fruit ripens, and the gas is sensed by other plants and promotes ripening in them, too. It means fruits ripen at the same time, which attracts the animals needed to eat them and disperse the seeds.
If you cut a tomato plant, proteins are produced in response in many distant parts of the plant. There is also evidence of electrical processing of information in the roots of plants that is analogous to what we see in the animal brain.
Now, from the Riken Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, comes the discovery of a hormone that helps plants sense drought. It’s a reminder that plants are far more sophisticated than we often give them credit for.
“People think that plants are static because they do not move,” says Fuminori Takahashi, of CSRS. “However, in plants there is close and active communication between tissues separated by large distances.” The root can tell the shoot what is going on in the soil, and the information allows the plants to adapt when environmental conditions turn stressful. Plant scientists suspected this communication was going on but, until Takahashi’s discovery, they didn’t know how.
A lack of water is one of the most important factors that limits plant growth. The hormone identified by Takahashi and colleagues helps plants retain water when none is available in the soil.
The hormone moves through the plant circulatory system in an analogous way to how animal hormones move through the body. For example, if you have low blood pressure, your body produces the hormone vasopressin. The hormone circulates through the body in the blood and causes your arteries to constrict, which increases your blood pressure back to normal levels. Takahashi’s study shows, for the first time, that plants have a similar mobile hormone that can travel through the plant’s body.
“The hormone modulates root-to-shoot communications in response to drought stress conditions,” says Takahashi, “and transmits information about the lack of water in soil from root to leaves, to prevent water loss.”
Now they have identified the hormone, the team plans to modify it.
“We are working on modified peptides that are more effective for stress resistance than the natural ones,” Takahashi says. The team is also working on ways to mix hormones into fertilizer to enhance drought and salt resistance of crops in the field.
Scientists have shown in the past that communication goes on between plants. If plants are subjected to drought conditions, those that are in contact via the root system close the stomata, the holes on the leaves that let the plants breathe but which also allow water vapor to escape. The plants are basically shutting up shop in preparation for drought. Perhaps the signal is a hormone such as the one discovered by Takahashi — but this remains to be discovered.
The Tsukuba scientists use a plant called Arabidopsis, which is more commonly known as thale cress. It’s a weed; you might see it growing in a crack in the road and think nothing of it. But it was the first plant to have its complete genome sequenced and is grown in labs all over the world. That such a humble and boring-looking plant can yield such deep discoveries is a reminder of how much we still have to learn about the living world.
Rowan Hooper is managing editor of New Scientist magazine. He tweets at @rowhoop and his new book, “Superhuman: Life at the Extremes of Mental and Physical Ability,” is out in May.
NATIONAL / SCIENCE & HEALTH | NATURAL SELECTIONS ARTICLE HISTORY
Urban Agriculture Program Helps UW-Madison Students Take Farming To The City
Urban Agriculture Program Helps UW-Madison Students Take Farming To The City
By Allison Garfield | April 12, 2018
Urban agriculture is a very specific term defining a very broad field: agriculture, from gardening to raising livestock, in a city or suburb surrounding an urban space. It is a practice that has spread over time — but it all started in Madison.
In the late 1900s, the city’s planning department was reoriented toward food production, according to Lindsey Day Farnsworth, a postdoctoral researcher of urban agriculture at UW-Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. This shifted how people thought about the role of community gardens and urban farming.
Experts note the distinction between urban farming — which is typically associated with metropolitan food production that is intended to generate a profit — from community or school gardens, which are urban agriculture in the sense that food is being grown in the city. However, the purpose of the latter is not to make money.
Both of these practices are increasing in Madison. Today, more people than ever are growing food in cities, according to the Smithsonian. Cities are where most people live now and Madison is not excluded from this.
“Madison is distinct from a lot of places that we’ve seen an emphasis on urban agriculture in the last decade or two,” Farnsworth said. “There’s a long-standing history of interest in community food projects and food production in general, which is unique.”
UW-Madison recognized the growing participation in urban agriculture, and, as a result, created curriculum explicitly for the field. The course is being developed by various professors but is spearheaded by The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, a program on campus dedicated to cohesive agriculture.
The CIAS research center within the university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences was built in 1989 to create sustainable agricultural research programs that respond to farmer and citizen needs, according to the center’s website. It added that, consequently, human relationships are at the core of the facility.
F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture is a student organization within CIAS that owns a student farm in Eagle Heights and a rooftop garden at the Pyle Center. Rena Yehuda Newman, the outreach director for the organization, said students should care about urban agriculture and agriculture as a whole because UW-Madison is a land-grant institution, meaning the university received permission from the state to establish the school on federally controlled land.
“One of the founding principles of UW is to create new agricultural knowledge and help distribute that out to the rest of the state, which is really a fantastic and forward-thinking philosophy about agriculture,” Yehuda Newman said. “It’s part of what it means to be a Badger.”
CIAS’s goal is to learn how particular integrated farming systems can contribute to environmental, economic, social and intergenerational sustainability. Today, that means urban agriculture, according to Yehuda Newman.
“Urban agriculture is one way of addressing equity and distribution problems,” said Newman. “If it’s too difficult to access fresh produce that’s being imported into the city, allowing people the sovereignty to grow their own food in their own environment is a really strong way to allow that autonomy and agency.”
Steve Ventura, the chair of the Agroecology Program at UW-Madison and an environmental studies professor, leads curriculum development, along with several other professors from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, CIAS and various community partners. They received a grant from the USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant Program to create a school for urban agriculture. The school will have three different modes of delivery: a farm and industry short course, a food systems certificate for undergraduates and hands-on experience with Community Groundworks and The Center for Resilient Cities.
Ventura hopes the school for urban agriculture will be a self-sustaining program before the grant runs out in three years. Though the curriculum is not definite yet, students have expressed interest in the program, he said.
Michelle Miller, associate director of programs for CIAS, said it is immensely important to consider how cities interact with the suburban areas surrounding them when examining urban agriculture. It is important to recognize risks shared between the people who eat the food and the people who grow the food, Miller said, because disparities can arise, like agricultural workers who aren’t paid and don’t have healthcare.
“[This] is a kind of urban agriculture — it doesn’t necessarily mean you are growing something in an urban space but you are conscious of the fact that you are embedded in a rural area and that you have a responsibility to the farmers near your city,” Miller said.
Farnsworth also acknowledged the necessity for urban agriculture curriculum in Madison specifically.
“Madison is distinct from a lot of places that we’ve seen an emphasis on urban agriculture in the last decade or two,” she said. “There’s a long-standing history of interest in community food projects and food production in general, which is unique.”
Madison is relatively small — most directions you go, you hit farmland quickly, Farnsworth said. As a result, Madison has had a robust farmer’s market for over three decades, creating a positive food culture within the city.
A lot of cities that aren’t supportive of urban agriculture believe the best use of land is economic development, Farnsworth said. Because urban farming isn’t extremely lucrative, other city governments need alternative benefits — cost savings at the household level due to backyard gardens and farm-to-school projects encouraging kids to try new foods — to justify using urban land for food production.
Another reason Madison is distinct from other cities is the strong relationship between homegrown foods and citizens that is forged from Madison’s history of farming, according to Olivia Parry, the senior planner at the Dane County Planning & Development Department.
Today, people are more interested in health and what goes into their food than ever before, said Parry, who studied local foods in graduate school.
“Kids [understand] that buying local is helpful to their family’s livelihood and their communities,” Parry said. “There’s this kind of this food patriotism, I think, with buying local.”
Farnsworth spoke along similar lines, saying, “Once that connection [to food] is established, we start make those connections between food and place and nutrition and what we’re putting into our bodies in a lot of other contexts. That starts to become quite transformative, both at the personal level and in terms of the food system.”
The planning department’s proactive measures in the ’90s are echoed today. The Madison Food Policy Council recently developed a working group devoted to urban agriculture. Farnsworth thinks this is part of the reason urban farming in particular has increased in profile recently.
Members of the councils are working with a group of UW-Madison interns to develop a food waste and recovery guide for organizations, businesses and individuals who may have surplus edible products and are looking for an outlet so that it does not go to waste, according to George Reistad, the food policy coordinator for the Mayor’s Office.
Reistad said food has the power to shape the landscape of a neighborhood and a city, as seen in Madison’s Wil-Mar neighborhood, which is comprised of a multitude of restaurants that grow their own produce, the Willy Street Co-Op and locally owned coffee shops and bakeries. However, he said there is an imbalance of these assets between different communities.
“I think there are always disparities between people and need and resources to alleviate that need, food being no exception,” Reistad wrote. “I’ll say this – there are a lot of passionate people who are very giving of their time and money to provide additional services and resources in relation to food and other social determinants of health.”
Singapore Stakes Claim On First Organic Standard For Produce Grown by Urban And Indoor Farming
Singapore Stakes Claim On First Organic Standard For Produce Grown by Urban And Indoor Farming
12-Apr-2018 By Lester Wan
Singapore has launched its first organic standard, and officials believe it to possibly be the world’s first organic standard for produce grown in urban and indoor conditions.
New Haven Farms Announces Jacqueline Maisonpierre As New Executive Director
New Haven Farms Announces Jacqueline Maisonpierre As New Executive Director
New Haven farms today announced Jacqueline Maisonpierre as the new Executive Director at New Haven Farms. Prior to her selection, Maisonpierre spent five years serving as New Haven Farms’ Farm Director, working directly with the New Haven community helping expand the farm’s capacity. Her experience allows her to bring a wealth of on-the-ground and programmatic knowledge to directing New Haven Farms’ mission of promoting health and community development through urban agriculture. Jacqueline officially began operating in the role of Executive Director as of March 26th, 2018.
“Jacqueline brings the energy, passion, knowledge, and skill set that New Haven Farms’ needs as we move forward with bold new ideas for our vision and our ability to positively impact the health and food security of the New Haven community,” said Doss Venema, Chair of the Board of New Haven Farms. “We are excited to work with her.”
As Executive Director Jacqueline will have administrative, strategic, and operational responsibility for New Haven Farms’ staff, programs, growth, and mission fulfillment. She will work to develop new partnerships throughout the city and region as to build the capacity of the organization.
As Farm Director, Jacqueline and her farm team stewarded New Haven Farms’ sites across the city and expanded to new sites, culminating in producing more than 18,000 pounds of produce on less than three-quarters of an acre of urban space in 2017. Jacqueline also led New Haven Farms’ signature Farm-Based Wellness Program, teaching classes in Spanish and English to develop gardening and mindfulness skills, plus nutrition and cooking skills for low-income New Haven residents experiencing food insecurity and chronic diet-related illness. The deep personal ties Jacqueline has formed with participants in New Haven Farms’ programs will continue to serve and inspire as she moves into her new role.
“I am thrilled to step into the role of Executive Director with New Haven Farms. I am deeply grateful for the relationships I have built in the Fair Haven and New Haven community, I look forward to continuing my work in this new position. After five years working as the Farm Director, establishing systems in our plots as to create a vibrant and productive urban farm, I feel well positioned to bring New Haven Farms into its next chapter. I feel privileged to see the tremendous impact New Haven Farms has on individuals, families, and urban spaces in our community. The opportunity to expand and strengthen the work of New Haven Farms as to work towards a New Haven in which all residents have access to healthy food and are empowered with the tools to live a healthier lifestyle is a great joy.”
Jacqueline received her Bachelor of Science from UVM’s Rubenstein School for the Environment and Natural Resources and is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport. She has a background in ecology, agriculture, and environmental education and has served in positions that combine agricultural production, food, community organizing, education, nutrition, mindfulness and public health. This includes positions on farms in Maine and CT, working as an environmental educator in the San Juan Islands of Washington State, and at a conservation organization in central Namibia.
Can Blockchain And Indoor Farming Help Feed Nine Billion
There are better ways to manage wheat and other crops. Photo: Pavo
Can Blockchain And Indoor Farming Help Feed Nine Billion?
By 2050, the world’s population may exceed nine billion people, 70% of which will be urban. Food production has to increase and blockchain may help
By ERHAN CAKMAK APRIL 25, 2018
- By 2050, the UN says the world’s population will exceed nine billion, some 20% more than today. Most of this population increase will occur in rapidly-urbanizing developing countries.
The World Health Organization estimates that 70% of the world’s population will be urban by 2050, compared with roughly half today. To feed this larger and more urban population, food production must increase by 70%.
Annual cereal production will need to rise 50% to support population growth, despite the fact that yield growth has been steadily declining.
Blockchain-enabled applications will play an important role in addressing this challenge. Food supply chains are inefficient and suffer from quality control problems, especially in developing nations. One of the clearest real-world applications of blockchain technology is to add greater visibility and efficiency across supply chains.
Although agriculture is a $5.5 trillion global business, employing more than one billion people, it remains highly inefficient. For many smallholder farmers in developing countries, affordable access to capital remains a huge challenge.
Blockchain solutions can solve these financing difficulties. As it stands, farmers often wait weeks or months for payment after delivery and this forces them to deal through larger players with greater bargaining power. This directly translates to lower income for farmers, as they do not receive their fair share despite being the most important part of the chain.
As the world urbanizes and becomes more conscious of the carbon footprint of transporting goods over long distances, indoor farming is playing an increasing role. Blockchain solutions and smart contracts allow for careful management of water and energy. Automated data collection and analysis creates the ability to better manage crop inputs, like water and energy, and the corresponding automation of indoor farming operations.
For example, a farmer using indoor hydroponics and a closed loop system may be able to reduce water usage by up to 90%. Increasingly, global food demands will be met by crops grown indoors, in environments more efficient and more controlled than the outdoors. By moving plants indoors, traditional dependence on the weather can be eliminated. With sensor arrays, plants can “communicate” precisely what they need 24/7.
Blockchain solutions and the “Internet of Things” (IoT) will save time and money for farmers and increase yields. Despite a common belief that farmers are slow to adapt, they have always been eager adopters of technologies that make sense and deliver genuine value. Data democratization of the food chain will increase efficiencies, reduce waste and increasingly transfer remuneration to the stakeholders delivering the greatest value.
Blockchain solutions allow to build a new model of trust in agricultural supply chains. Under the old Information Technology paradigm, agricultural, environmental and regulatory data is stored on centralized computer servers and managed by administrators trusted to maintain data integrity, security and access authorization.
This centralized data administration is a source of risk – data on crop safety and quality data. Data can be lost due to failed or absent back-ups. Centralized administrators may act on their own agendas, with their own interests in mind, impacting decisions related to data access and security.
Applying blockchain technology to crop data ensures that information about our food and its sources is incorruptible. Blockchain and IoT technology simplifies data management throughout the complex system of farmers, brokers, distributors, processors, retailers, regulators and consumers. Information on the food we eat becomes simplified and transparent. Consumers can enjoy greater trust in the food they put on their table and regulatory agencies gain greater confidence in the data reported to them.
Blockchain redefines trust across the agriculture spectrum with arm’s length cryptographic security, eliminating any potential pursuits of self-interest on the part of data administrators or other actors.
Blockchain enables real-time payments concurrent with delivery and better visibility to buyers, leveling the playing field for farmers. Farmers get paid sooner and increased competition for their crops raises the prices they receive while simultaneously helping consumers to pay lower prices for food through a much more transparent, secure and environmentally sustainable supply chain.
Erhan Cakmak is CEO of Pavo, that is working to provide IoT blockchain solutions for the global agriculture ecosystem.
Please contact us with feedback, news or stories: thechain@atimes.com
Urban Agriculture Program Helps UW-Madison Students Take Farming To The City
Urban Agriculture Program Helps UW-Madison Students Take Farming To The City
By Allison Garfield | April 12, 2018
Urban agriculture is a very specific term defining a very broad field: agriculture, from gardening to raising livestock, in a city or suburb surrounding an urban space. It is a practice that has spread over time — but it all started in Madison.
In the late 1900s, the city’s planning department was reoriented toward food production, according to Lindsey Day Farnsworth, a postdoctoral researcher of urban agriculture at UW-Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. This shifted how people thought about the role of community gardens and urban farming.
Experts note the distinction between urban farming — which is typically associated with metropolitan food production that is intended to generate a profit — from community or school gardens, which are urban agriculture in the sense that food is being grown in the city. However, the purpose of the latter is not to make money.
Both of these practices are increasing in Madison. Today, more people than ever are growing food in cities, according to the Smithsonian. Cities are where most people live now and Madison is not excluded from this.
“Madison is distinct from a lot of places that we’ve seen an emphasis on urban agriculture in the last decade or two,” Farnsworth said. “There’s a long-standing history of interest in community food projects and food production in general, which is unique.”
UW-Madison recognized the growing participation in urban agriculture, and, as a result, created curriculum explicitly for the field. The course is being developed by various professors but is spearheaded by The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, a program on campus dedicated to cohesive agriculture.
The CIAS research center within the university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences was built in 1989 to create sustainable agricultural research programs that respond to farmer and citizen needs, according to the center’s website. It added that, consequently, human relationships are at the core of the facility.
F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture is a student organization within CIAS that owns a student farm in Eagle Heights and a rooftop garden at the Pyle Center. Rena Yehuda Newman, the outreach director for the organization, said students should care about urban agriculture and agriculture as a whole because UW-Madison is a land-grant institution, meaning the university received permission from the state to establish the school on federally controlled land.
“One of the founding principles of UW is to create new agricultural knowledge and help distribute that out to the rest of the state, which is really a fantastic and forward thinking philosophy about agriculture,” Yehuda Newman said. “It’s part of what it means to be a Badger.”
CIAS’s goal is to learn how particular integrated farming systems can contribute to environmental, economic, social and intergenerational sustainability. Today, that means urban agriculture, according to Yehuda Newman.
“Urban agriculture is one way of addressing equity and distribution problems,” said Newman. “If it’s too difficult to access fresh produce that’s being imported into the city, allowing people the sovereignty to grow their own food in their own environment is a really strong way to allow that autonomy and agency.”
Steve Ventura, the chair of the Agroecology Program at UW-Madison and an environmental studies professor, leads curriculum development, along with several other professors from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, CIAS and various community partners. They received a grant from the USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant Program to create a school for urban agriculture. The school will have three different modes of delivery: a farm and industry short course, a food systems certificate for undergraduates and hands-on experience with Community Groundworks and The Center for Resilient Cities.
Ventura hopes the school for urban agriculture will be a self-sustaining program before the grant runs out in three years. Though the curriculum is not definite yet, students have expressed interest in the program, he said.
Michelle Miller, associate director of programs for CIAS, said it is immensely important to consider how cities interact with the suburban areas surrounding them when examining urban agriculture. It is important to recognize risks shared between the people who eat the food and the people who grow the food, Miller said, because disparities can arise, like agricultural workers who aren’t paid and don’t have healthcare.
“[This] is a kind of urban agriculture — it doesn’t necessarily mean you are growing something in an urban space but you are conscious of the fact that you are embedded in a rural area and that you have a responsibility to the farmers near your city,” Miller said.
Farnsworth also acknowledged the necessity for urban agriculture curriculum in Madison specifically.
“Madison is distinct from a lot of places that we’ve seen an emphasis on urban agriculture in the last decade or two,” she said. “There’s a long-standing history of interest in community food projects and food production in general, which is unique.”
Madison is relatively small — most directions you go, you hit farmland quickly, Farnsworth said. As a result, Madison has had a robust farmer’s market for over three decades, creating a positive food culture within the city.
A lot of cities that aren’t supportive of urban agriculture believe the best use of land is economic development, Farnsworth said. Because urban farming isn’t extremely lucrative, other city governments need alternative benefits — cost savings at the household level due to backyard gardens and farm-to-school projects encouraging kids to try new foods — to justify using urban land for food production.
Another reason Madison is distinct from other cities is the strong relationship between homegrown foods and citizens that is forged from Madison’s history of farming, according to Olivia Parry, the senior planner at the Dane County Planning & Development Department.
Today, people are more interested in health and what goes into their food than ever before, said Parry, who studied local foods in graduate school.
“Kids [understand] that buying local is helpful to their family’s livelihood and their communities,” Parry said. “There’s this kind of this food patriotism, I think, with buying local.”
Farnsworth spoke along similar lines, saying, “Once that connection [to food] is established, we start make those connections between food and place and nutrition and what we’re putting into our bodies in a lot of other contexts. That starts to become quite transformative, both at the personal level and in terms of the food system.”
The planning department’s proactive measures in the ’90s are echoed today. The Madison Food Policy Council recently developed a working group devoted to urban agriculture. Farnsworth thinks this is part of the reason urban farming in particular has increased in profile recently.
Members of the councils are working with a group of UW-Madison interns to develop a food waste and recovery guide for organizations, businesses and individuals who may have surplus edible products and are looking for an outlet so that it does not go to waste, according to George Reistad, the food policy coordinator for the Mayor’s Office.
Reistad said food has the power to shape the landscape of a neighborhood and a city, as seen in Madison’s Wil-Mar neighborhood, which is comprised of a multitude of restaurants that grow their own produce, the Willy Street Co-Op and locally owned coffee shops and bakeries. However, he said there is an imbalance of these assets between different communities.
“I think there are always disparities between people and need and resources to alleviate that need, food being no exception,” Reistad wrote. “I’ll say this – there are a lot of passionate people who are very giving of their time and money to provide additional services and resources in relation to food and other social determinants of health.”
GFIA Europe 2018 - Early Bird Ticket Prices End Monday
Early Bird Ticket Prices End Monday
SAVE €200 ON CONFERENCE TICKETS BEFORE 30 APRIL
Discover more than ever at GFIA Europe 2018. From exhibitions and innovation presentations to discussion forums and technical tours, we have challenged ourselves to offer something of interest to visitors right along the value chain.
BOOK TODAY TO NETWORK WITH OTHER DELEGATES FROM:
- Agrifirm
- Bayer AG
- Copa-Cogeca
- European Commission
- European Council of Young Farmers
- FAO
- KPMG
- LTO Nederland
- McCain Foods
- Ministry of Agriculture, Netherlands
- Netherlands-African Business Council
- Oxfam Novib
- PepsiCo International
- Royal Cosun
- Wageningen UR
- Yara
YOUR TICKET INCLUDES AN ACCESS-ALL-AREAS PASS
Including entry into the Opening Ceremony, Main Conference, International Exhibition, Innovations Theatre, Proagrica Future Farming Theatre, daily delegate lunch, priority access to technical tours, and partner workshops from Bayer AG and Invest in Holland.
PLUS your GFIA badge will get you free entry into VIV Europe and European Halal Expo – both taking place at Jaarbeurs the same week.
USEFUL INFORMATION:
Find out more at www.gfiaeurope.com
Rules For Food Safety
Rules For Food Safety
April 13, 2018
Food safety usually intimidates the beginning grower. Cost. Regulations. Liability!. There is a lot to think about. Using Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) helps mitigate the risks associated with operating a food production facility. All farms, indoors or outdoors, are required to have a HAACP plan as part of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2012 (FSMA). Although it seems complicated, it is mostly common sense.
Here it is, broken down, using the seven guiding principles
Hazard Analysis
With growing, a common hazard is your system water mixing with the finished product. Or it might be something as obvious as foreign objects (like hair or jewelry) getting into your finished product. In other words, where can things go wrong with your process?
Identified Critical Control Points (CCPs) in food preparation
A Critical Control Point (CCP) is a procedure at which control can be applied and a food safety hazard can be prevented or reduced to acceptable levels. For instance, at our farm, the packing process and harvesting process are completely separate (location, equipment, staff) thus reducing the possibility of cross-contamination.
Establish Critical Control Limits for Preventive Measures
These are usually set by a governing body. FSMA says agricultural water used during the growing process is acceptable if less than 126 CFU/100 mL. A preventative measure might be adding a UV filter to your plumbing, which kills most, if not all, the harmful bacteria
Establish Procedures to Monitor CCPs
In the case of hydroponic ag water, test regularly (Say once a quarter) to make sure the e.coli is less than 126. A less expensive option might be to monitor you coliform levels, and then test for specific pathogens when the coliform level rises beyond your four-month rolling average.
Establish the Corrective Action to be Taken When Monitoring Shows That a Critical Limit Has Been Exceeded:
Sticking with the theme of "bad" Ag water, this could be as simple as dosing your water system with 5 ppm of Sanidate, and then re-testing.
Establish Effective Record Keeping System That Document the HACCP system: -
There is a log for everything on the farm.
Establish Procedures To Verify That the HACCP system is Working:
Self auditing on a monthly basis is typically the best approach, but timing is flexible.
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy these post:
"Amazing microgreens to try now"
"Facts about microgreens seeds"
Tags:
food safety hydroponic specialists nickgreens nickgreens grow team urban farming
Microgreens In The Marketplace
Microgreens In The Marketplace
April 17, 2018
You always have to do research on local Microgreens. Don't ever forget that. Researching on what microgreens are available in the local marketplace can determine where you fit in. You need to develop an idea on what a local market is like, to determine who is buying and who is selling.
One easy way to discover who is growing what, or to see if their is microgreens growers in the area, is to use the internet. What a glorious tool to have! Begin making notes and see if they're sold anywhere. More specifically, farmers markets or grocery stores. If a grower is selling at a farmer's market, it gives you a bit of an opportunity to ask questions about the operation. Grocery stores give you insight on varieties, packaging, branding, and price. Important questions to ask yourself: Do they look fresh? Does the display look appealing? First impressions matter in this business.
As you explore the field, you'll come up with what works best for you, such as varieties in your growing climate and a system that works for you. Nonetheless, you will need a plan for your audience, what kind of microgreens you'll sell, and hopefully, this gives you an idea on your first steps. It may demonstrate that there is little to nothing being sold at the wholesale level, or the farm market level, or both.
It may also demonstrate that consumer demand is low on a specific type of microgreen. This can ultimately lead to you growing and sparking interest if you can get a hold of that certain type of microgreen. If you plan on selling to restaurants, you have to take them around to see how the establishment responds. If you're already selling at a farmer's market, it may be smart to set up a poll or listen to feedback on the likes and dislikes about a microgreen product you may be wanting grow more. This preliminary sales and testing process will get you more ready for larger scale customers.
Finally, researching should never end. Research is an essential tool for any project in this field. You should always be on the lookout for what is happening in the market, what new uses are trending for microgreens, branding, buyers and especially sellers. What has changed since the initial evaluation of buyers, growers and grow techniques? As a business, you have to stay on top of every aspect of your market. It will save you time and money in the future.
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy these post:
Tags:microgreens growing microgreens urban farming grown with love