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15 Organizations Creating Edible Landscapes
Contributing Author: Steve Edgerton
The turfgrass found in lawns, parks, and schoolyards represents the single largest irrigated crop in the United States. Across the country, turf guzzles up 34 billion liters (nine billion gallons) of water per day, demanding 31 million kilograms (70 million pounds) of pesticides and 757 million liters (200 gallons) of gasoline annually.
Edible landscaping represents a different take on how to design and interact with yards and urban green spaces. With an emphasis on native perennials and food-producing plants, edible landscapes can be a great way to create green space and provide healthy, fresh food.
Replacing just a fraction of traditional lawn with edible landscapes designed around locally appropriate plants would have numerous benefits. Edible landscapes often require little or no additional irrigation or fertilizer, can increase food production potential in cities and can be a boon to pollinators and ecological diversity. To celebrate and explore these benefits, Food Tank is featuring 15 organizations from around the world working to create edible landscapes.
1. Backyard Abundance
Backyard Abundance is a non-profit based in Johnson County, Iowa, focusing on both the design and educational aspect of edible landscaping. Founded in 2006, Backyard Abundance prioritizes the importance of residents taking a role in the transformations of landscapes as a way to find harmony with the natural world, connect with the elements of food production, and to feel empowered by the fact that individual decisions and actions can positively influence seemingly overwhelming environmental problems.
2. Ecologia Design
Michael Judd founded Ecologia Design following years of experience implementing whole systems design and functional landscapes in Mexico and Nicaragua, in addition to studying modern landscape design principles at the New York Botanical Garden. Ecologia represents a melding of aesthetics and functionality, designing beautiful landscapes with an emphasis on food production and working in line with local cultures and ecologies.
3. Edible Estates
Edible Estates is an initiative that began in Salinas, Kansas in 2006. Its goal is to create “prototype” gardens in cities around the world, with 16 already complete. Designed with its specific bioregion in mind, each garden takes into account local geography, culture, history, and the current needs of the communities. The emphasis is on productive, edible landscapes, and each design involves partnerships with local art institutions and horticultural or community gardening groups. Edible Estates strives to inspire others to look at underutilized or misappropriated green spaces in a new light, highlighting new contexts for food production and connections to the natural environment.
4. Edible Landscapes London
Edible Landscapes London is a nonprofit that specializes in food forests; a production system that combines fruiting shrubs, trees, and herbs, with each plant playing a complementary role that contributes to the health of the whole system and maximizes productivity. They developed the first ever accredited forest gardening course in the UK, and are a leading figure in creating edible, biodiverse landscapes in London.
5. Edible Landscape Project
Born from a community event in 2012, the Edible Landscape Project (ELP) sought to transform the Great Western Greenway in County Mayo, Ireland, into an edible landscape. The ELP is now a globally recognized social enterprise, focusing on forest gardening to contribute to ecosystem health and food security throughout Ireland. They are also active in mental health advocacy, and the positive role that growing food and connecting with nature can play in cultivating healthier mental landscapes.
6. Foodswell
Foodswell is a non-profit taking on the issue of food insecurity in Australia. Their research projects often emphasize the design and community development components of food access in remote and indigenous settlements throughout the country. Foodswell implements edible landscape designs along with other novel food growing strategies that are most appropriate for the specific community, with greater access to affordable, healthy food being their guiding directive.
7. Home Harvest LLC.
HomeHarvest creates edible landscapes in the Boston area. Ben Barkan founded Home Harvest, taking his experience on 35 organic farms around the world and applying it to the urban environment, where he aspires to create regenerative ecosystems and connect people more directly to their food. HomeHarvest also has a nonprofit branch, focusing primarily on planting fruit trees as a food source for communities in need, while also teaching residents how to maintain and utilize them.
8. Incredible Edible Network
Started by a group of citizens in the small town of Todmorden in Northern England, the Incredible Edible Network set out to inspire positive community change through food, by redesigning green space into edible landscapes, building community gardens, providing training, and supporting local commerce to strengthen local food systems and community resiliency. Their small start caught on in a big way, and the network now encompasses over 100 UK towns, along with towns in Canada and New Zealand.
9. Maya Mountain Research Farm
Taking its name from the Belize Mountains that it calls home, the Maya Mountain Research Farm is a non-governmental organization and working demonstration farm. The farm primarily focuses on cultivating a productive and biodiverse tropical food forest, replicating the ecological services of native forests to sequester carbon, conserve habitat, and fight against erosion, all while boosting local food security by incorporating more edible plants into the landscape.
10. Pha Tad Ke Botanical Garden
Pha Tad Ke Botanical Garden is a regional research center in Luang Prabang, Laos. The garden brings a snapshot of the region’s impressive biodiversity into the heart of the country’s largest and most popular city. They leverage this visibility by creating educational programs and acting as a tourist destination to promote the incorporation of edible and local plants into urban environments and to build awareness around local environmental preservation initiatives.
11. Philadelphia Orchard Project
Working in low-income neighborhoods often characterized as food deserts, the Philadelphia Orchard Projectplants orchards filled with a variety of edible plants in vacant lots, community gardens, and school parks. They work in conjunction with organizations in the community to design and implement the orchards, and train residents to care for the plants, offering accessible and affordable options for fresh produce where there often are none.
12. Sadhana Forest
Sadhana Forest is a nonprofit operating in Haiti, India, and Kenya. Their projects involve the reforestation of severely eroded landscapes with food-bearing trees, building local food security while simultaneously remediating valuable land. Founded in 2003, Sadhana Forest has already planted hundreds of thousands of food-producing trees, with many more to come.
13. Sustainable Landscaping Initiative Vancouver
Sustainable Landscaping Initiative Vancouver is a nonprofit based in Vancouver, Canada. Their mandate is to drive an industry-wide greening in the world of landscaping. This would include a shift towards native plants, edible gardens, eliminating toxic chemicals, increasing water efficiencies, zero-emissions machinery, and whole systems design inspired by local ecosystems. They provide a variety of resources to assist landscaping organizations in a green transition and to become eligible for several eco-landscaping accreditation programs.
14. Trees That Feed Foundation
Created by Mike and Mary Mclaughlin and Paul Virtue in 2008, the Trees That Feed Foundation (TTFF) promotes the integration of tree crops into the landscapes of developing countries. The benefits of food-producing trees are many, and include reducing community dependence on fertilizer, water, and other inputs for food crops, while also sequestering carbon and strengthening local ecosystems. TTFF successfully runs projects in 11 countries throughout the Caribbean and Africa. Their programs include supplying local organizations with trees and providing training in tree care to ensure the long-term sustainability and benefits of their projects.
15. Wayward
Wayward is a landscape, art and architecture firm from London, England. Many of their projects take a creative approach to implemented food growing into underutilized urban landscapes. Often repurposing salvaged plants and local building materials, their installations offer mind-bending and inspiring takes on incorporating edible spaces into contemporary art and architecture installations.
Poisoning Our Kids
One of the primary responsibilities of parents is to protect their kids. But how do you protect your child from pesticide exposure, when nearly 77 percent of all foods contain pesticide residues?
In his new book, “Poisoning Our Children: The Parents’ Guide to the Myths of Safe Pesticides,” André Leu challenges the chemical agriculture industry’s assertion that “when used as directed,” pesticides, herbicides and insecticides are “safe.”
Leu, who is international director of Regeneration International, outlines research that not only contradicts industry claims of safety but also reveals how exposure to toxic chemicals is even more dangerous for kids than it is for adults.
In a 2014 interview with Dr. Mercola, Leu says:
“Children, when we talk about the unborn, the newborn and grown children up to puberty, they do not have the detoxification enzymes in their livers that we have as adults. Particularly for young children, that means they have no way of detoxifying even the smallest amount of a pesticide or a chemical.”
According to Leu, scientists report that when children are exposed to even small amounts of pesticides—either in the womb, through breastfeeding or as a toddler eating food—their nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems can be negatively affected.
CropKing Hires Nick Greens As New Horticulturist And Consultant
Nick Greens Has Been In The Growing Industry Since 2002.
July 27, 2018
Press Release edited by Samantha Cottrill
LODI, Ohio — CropKing has announced the addition of Nick Greens to the CropKing team, in the role of horticulturist/consultant.
Nick Greens started his growing career in 2002 as an apprentice grower for a hydroponics shop. Nick worked through several harvests in San Diego before venturing out on his own.
In 2007, Nick moved to Humboldt County, California to work as an assistant grower for a collective of greenhouses, where he began experimenting with a vortex brewer to develop several recipes for compost teas.
In 2010, Nick moved back to Chicago to start growing produce for Blue Star Produce, where he perfected his compost tea recipes and became a pioneer in organic microgreens and leafy greens production, working for and advising many Chicago indoor farms, including Garfield Produce, Bright Farms, Windy City Greens, Plant Chicago and Nick Greens Grow Team.
Nick created the microgreens program at FarmedHere in 2014, building its first NFT systems, creating crop and lighting recipes, and helping improve monthly sales by nearly 20 percent. In 2016, Nick created a similar microgreens program for Falling Waters Farms in Indianapolis, increasing its sales by nearly 50 percent.
Nick is passionate about educating a new generation of controlled environment farmers and has created many internship opportunities for at-risk youth in urban Chicago. In 2016, Nick helped design and build the Food Science Lab at Schurz High School in Chicago, based on a STEM curriculum, that trains future farmers and supplies healthy food for the school cafeteria. Nick has personally mentored dozens of interns, and many remain working in the industry today.
“The addition of Nick to our team significantly strengthens our resources that are available to our customers. From a consulting and horticultural standpoint, Nick has a unique background that allows us to continue to diversify our services beyond the traditional hydroponic lettuce and tomato growing," Paul Brentlinger, president of CropKing, said. "From an education and training standpoint, Nick is able to educate in a creative and effective way, both in-person at our facility in Lodi and through our online presence."
From Fish To Farm To Table: Busy Chef Has A Bold New Project
From Fish To Farm To Table: Busy Chef Has A Bold New Project
Chef Cara Stadler's new aquaponic greenhouse is shooting up fast and may be growing vegetables for her three restaurants by this fall.
BY MEREDITH GOAD STAFF WRITER
Chef and restaurant owner Cara Stadler is hoping to open an aquaponic greenhouse in a 55-by-60-foot, two-story building that will also house a new café and a commercial kitchen in the fall. Photo by Meredith Goad
It’s not as if Cara Stadler has nothing to do. The 30-year-old chef already has three restaurants, the newest of which – Lio – opened in Portland just last month.
Now, drivers passing by Tao Yuan in Brunswick are watching the busy chef’s next project come to life before their eyes. Five years in the making, it’s an aquaponic greenhouse in a 55-by-60-foot, two-story building that will also house a new café and a commercial kitchen to supply Stadler’s restaurants. Both Stadler and Kate Holcomb, the 31-year-old project director, say they hope the facility will open this fall.
Chef Cara Stadler left, and Project Director Kate Holcomb pose inside the aquaponic greenhouse being built in Brunswick. Staff photo by Joel Page
When it does, it will be just one of a handful of restaurants around the country that have such a facility. Stadler believes her restaurant-based project will be the first of its kind in Maine.
Aquaponics is a marriage of aquaculture and hydroponics, which is the cultivation of plants in water. Aquaponic greenhouses raise fish – in this case rainbow trout – that produce waste that fertilizes plants growing in water. The plants, in turn, filter the water for the fish. It’s a closed-loop system that sustainable agriculture groups are eager to develop.
Most aquaponics projects are either school-based, such as in Maine those at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham and the University of New England in Biddeford, or independent businesses that sell to restaurants and retailers, such as Springworks Farm in Lisbon.
Brian Filipowich, chair of the Aquaponics Association in Annandale, Virginia, said he knows only of a “small handful” of restaurants that are trying aquaponics; he thinks that more restaurants are experimenting with hydroponics. It’s hard to be sure because no good statistics exist on the number of large-scale, commercial aquaponics systems in the United States, say for wholesale or run by restaurants, he said, adding that the Farm Bill just passed by the Senate directs the USDA to start collecting more data on the subject.
Stadler believes her aquaponics facility will bring her food and transportation costs down and will shrink her carbon footprint. She intends to grow, in part, hard-to-source Asian greens and herbs. Eventually she’d like to share what she learns with other restaurateurs.
“This is all very new territory to most of the world,” Stadler said, “and people are still figuring out the systems and what works best, what gives the highest productivity.”
Stadler and Holcomb see the aquaponics greenhouse, which will be called Canopy Farms, as a community project that could become a model for others. It’s a big experiment to discover which equipment will work best and which plants will thrive in Maine, especially over the winter. They want to create something new, helpful, affordable and scalable that would work not just in a rural setting but urban areas too. Something people will actually invest in. Something other restaurants could use to feed their customers.
“This is one of the ways we can help and contribute back to what I find sometimes can be a depressing world,” Stadler said. “Ideally, we can create a system that is positive for us, positive for the future. You realize that, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much you care. If you can’t make systems financially viable, the world won’t care. So we wanted to create a green system that is financially viable.”
Filipowich says if someone like Stadler can overcome the hurdles inherent in such a project – startup and training costs, sourcing fish and maintaining fish health, and energy costs – Canopy Farms could end up making a real contribution.
“If they could get to a point where it could be replicated on a larger scale, it could be extremely useful,” he said.
What about winter?
The cost of heating a greenhouse in winter is a huge obstacle to aquaponics in colder parts of the country, like Maine, Holcomb said.
Kate Holcomb, project director, and Cara Stadler plan to use solar panels, radiant floor heating and an “energy curtain” to offset some of the effects of the long, cold Maine winter on a year-round greenhouse operation. If they can raise the money, they also hope to recapture heat from the commercial kitchen and use it to heat the greenhouse. Staff photo by Joel Page
“Sustainable agriculture doesn’t, I think, have to look one specific way,” Holcomb said. “As more and more people live in cities, as the population continues to grow, there have to be ways for people to grow food in a sustainable manner where the people are. People love local produce, and Maine has an incredible sustainable agriculture scene, but we have a long dark winter.”
The Brunswick project will fight the cold with strategies such as solar panels, radiant heat flooring and an “energy curtain” that can be used as a shade in summer or an energy-efficient curtain in winter. The biggest weapon, if they can raise enough money for it through an upcoming $25,000 Kickstarter campaign, may be the plan to recapture the heat from the commercial kitchen and café and use it to heat the greenhouse.
Stadler says the kitchen at Tao Yuan often gets so hot, the staff props open the outside door even in the middle of winter. Why waste all that energy? It’s like tossing money into the snow.
The entire building, Stadler says, is built to be “smart” about the way it uses energy. If it works, the payoffs will be big.
“Your food costs go down, and you’re getting a product that will last you twice as long because it’s picked and in your fridge,” Stadler said. “There’s no transportation. There’s no sitting in a farmers market stand for three hours before you pick it up. There’s no driving it down for two hours just to get it to the farmers market.”
Stadler and Holcomb hope to hire student interns to help run the place. They’re working on an arrangement with Harpswell Coastal Academy, and may also invite students involved with aquaponics at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.
“Once you get (the system) cycling, then the idea is that it is an ecosystem,” said Holcomb, who also works as a server at Tao Yuan, and is getting a master’s in business administration from the University of Southern Maine. “It needs to be maintained, and it needs to be closely watched because if something goes wrong, it can go wrong quickly and on a really big scale. If something is off, you could kill all your fish in a day.”
From the outside, the greenhouse – the structure, along with the energy curtain and grow lights, came from a Portland company called ArchSolar – looks almost complete. But the inside is still pretty much a shell, awaiting the arrival of the solar panels and greenhouse glass from China, while the scream of buzz saws and other equipment from construction workers on the job dampens the noise of traffic streaming by.
The next big steps will be making the fish tanks water-tight, building the grow beds, and adding plumbing, Holcomb said. The greenhouse is expected to cost about $200,000, and the café and commercial kitchen about $1 million, according to Stadler. April Robinson, the pastry chef at Tao Yuan, will own and operate the café, which will serve breakfast and lunch, a menu of pastries and modern American food.
The greenhouse will house two 4-foot-deep fish tanks, each 5-by-15 feet, plus a dozen or more 4-by-16-foot grow beds of different types. The system will use 5,000 gallons of water.
As for the fish, the plan is to use rainbow trout from a private fish hatchery. Tilapia works better, Stadler says, “but no one wants to eat tilapia. It makes me sad, but it’s a reality of our society that everyone associates tilapia with childhood fish sticks.”
“The fish is really a secondary,” she continued. “It’s a byproduct of the system. It will be a rare moment when you see trout on the menu, but you’ll see produce all the time.”
The plan is to start with plants that grow easily in an aquaponic greenhouse, and are in high demand at her restaurants – leafy greens, pea shoots and microgreens. Next, they’ll experiment with Asian herbs and vegetables. Stadler and Holcomb call this “the fun stuff.”
“I really want to try growing rice paddy herb because it grows in rice paddies, and being an aquaponic system it makes sense that that would thrive in the water,” Stadler said. “And I love rice paddy herb.”
The chef is excited to try growing wasabi and would love to have a reliable source of winged beans. “We’ve ordered them, but half of them are moldy before we even get to touch them,” she said.
Then there’s celtuce, which has a thick, asparagus-like stem topped with light green leaves.
“It’s very edible, but the outside is super, super bitter, so you need to peel off the exterior,” Stadler said. “If you don’t peel it, if you leave any of the skin on it, it will blow your palate with bitterness.”
Peel it down to the core, though, and “it’s sweet and delicious.”
ONE OF JUST A FEW
Stadler and her mother, Cecile, who is also her business partner, started talking about having their own farm to supply their restaurants years ago. It’s a model used by several other restaurants in Maine, including Miyake and Vignola Cinque Terre in Portland and Primo in Rockland. They wondered what they could do that would also be “helpful for Maine.”
Stadler mentioned the idea to Holcomb, who is her oldest friend; they went to preschool together. Holcomb had gone into agriculture and was bouncing around from farm to farm on the East Coast when Stadler was opening Tao Yuan and Bao Bao.
When the Stadlers began to focus on aquaponics, Holcomb recalled, “Cara called me and said ‘Hey, do you want to move to Maine and help me make this happen?’
It was 2013, and Holcomb was working in New York. She quickly packed up her things and moved to Maine.
“I had been organic farming in soil on a traditional farm, so for me, aquaponics was a totally new way of growing things,” Holcomb said. To get herself up to speed, Holcomb visited the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, which had an aquaponics demonstration project (it closed in 2015, unable to keep a greenhouse warm enough for winter production, according to its website), and she attended a workshop at the University of New England, where another aquaponics project is about to expand, according to Jeri Fox, an associate professor of aquaculture. Holcomb also reached out to Carey Phillips, a Bowdoin College emeritus professor of biology with an aquaponics project in South Carolina. Holcomb and Phillips collaborated on the Canopy Farms system, “but it’s much more his design,” she said.
Around the country, a few other restaurateurs have embraced the idea and are tailoring their systems to their own restaurants. In Minneapolis, Gandhi Mahal has a system that produces, according to the restaurant’s website, Malabar spinach, cilantro, hot peppers, salad greens, ginger, turmeric and curry leaf. Minneapolis winters are as tough as Maine’s, but the restaurant got around that by putting its aquaponics system in its basement. They call their cuisine “basement to table.” Page Restaurant in Sag Harbor, New York, grows produce in four aquaponic systems, including in the basement and on the walls.
BAO BAO, BUGS AND BUZZ
Stadler has always been the ambitious sort, according to her mother, the kind of person who had a 10-year plan by the time she was 16. She’s also an experimenter, most recently hosting a pop-up edible insect dinner at Bao Bao Dumpling House. Stadler said she wanted to do it because “Bugs are the future, and very much our past and present, depending on the culture.”
Food & Wine magazine named Stadler one of the country’s 10 Best New Chefs in 2015, an honor that goes to chefs age 30 or younger who are “likely to make a significant impact on the industry for years to come.” In 2016, Condé Nast Traveler listed Stadler as one of its 10 Young Chefs to Watch, a group of chefs age 30 and under who are “making outsized impressions around the world.” She’s been a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award four times, and a finalist once
Stadler says she and her mother “did really well” in the first few years of Tao Yuan, and they could have just sat back and enjoyed the ride. But they wanted to find ways to build the company, provide good jobs for employees who want to grow with the company, and give something back to the community that contributed to their success. The aquaponic greenhouse is part of that plan.
Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
UAE To Make Farming Happen In Desert Soil
Sherouk Zakaria /Dubai
July 14, 2018
(KT file)
The project will go into three phases where a plan will be put out in cooperation with local authorities.
As part of its efforts to attain food security, the UAE is seeking new technologies that can withstand its fierce climate, water scarcity and soil salinity, and produce local crops with least amount of water.
With the UAE currently importing 80 per cent of its food supplies, the country aims to produce 60 per cent more food to feed a global population of nine billion people within the next 33 years.
The country has been establishing international partnerships to help produce crops and last week, Mawarid Holding signed an agreement with Chinese Chongqing Earthskin Eco-technology to implement desert soilisation technologies in different parts of Al Ain desert.
Under the agreement, both parties will test different technologies in one or more sites from the existing desert lands to plant 10 square kilometres of grass, trees or vegetables in the first year of cooperation.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, Dr Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said the project aims to try new technologies that would fit the UAE's climate while reducing the water consumption. The ministry's target is to diversify food and increase local food production.
"We will try different types of water including groundwater, diluted water and treated water. We will compare our results before taking the next decision in the next phase," he said.
The project will go into three phases where a plan will be put out in cooperation with local authorities. As a beginning, 10 square kilometres will be allotted for farming in the next two-three years and will be expanded later on a commercial scale once the project is successful.
On a private project, another team of Chinese scientists have already started harvesting rice in diluted sea-water in aims to cover around 10 percent of the UAE with paddy fields - although details as to how this will be achieved have yet to be disclosed.
An agreement was also signed to promote seawater rice across the Arab world to reduce the risk of food shortage in the future.
Al Zeyoudi said the ministry encourages different types of planting technologies, with vertical farming becoming the most common in reducing water as much as possible.
"Greenhouses are becoming costly, which is why people generally avoid it," he said, noting that big farms in Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates are committing to using net farming to reduce temperature and water consumption.
"Diversity in technologies helps, so if a problem ever occurred, it won't destroy all of the crops. It will give the chance to plant the other supplies with different technologies," said Al Zeyoudi.
CQ Earthskin may set up an application research centre of desert soilisation technologies in Abu Dhabi to analyse the process of the desert soilisation or carry out other research on the application of desert soilisation technologies.
AI is the future
Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of State for Food Security, told Khaleej Times that leadership has mandated the ministry to expedite Agricultural Technology [AgTech] enabled transformation in the UAE, and produce more with less.
"Artificial intelligence (AI), data storage and sensors in closed farms are few examples of how technology can be incorporated into controlled environment agriculture (CEA)," she said.
The CEA will help reduce water consumption by over 90 per cent. She added that the sector is now seeing more IT practitioners involved in agriculture than there are farmers, which makes this industry more attractive to younger generations.
In case of emergencies, the UAE is currently safe in terms of food supplies for six month, but ministers say they are working harder to guarantee longer periods of food security.
By 2030, global food demand is predicted to increase by 50 per cent, putting pressure on governments to find a solution that provides food security. Meanwhile, the number of malnourished people in the world has grown from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016.
This will be tackled in the National Strategy for Future Food Security, which is set to be announced in September 2018.
Almheiri noted the active involvement of the government, private sector and global companies, in AgTech inventions in the industry to tackle many of the issues faced today, with many pioneers showing interest in relocating to the UAE.
Advanced technologies, she said, will allow the country to manage and produce high-quality goods locally and with higher efficiency. "This brings us another step forward in improving this sector: We can have fresh, better-tasting and healthier food, with no pesticides or bacteria, ensuring a secure future for the food industry in the UAE."
She noted that the ministry will launch a summer initiative called 'Agcelerators' to help establish an ecosystem that accelerates the process of shaping the future of agriculture regionally and globally. The initiative will be for entrepreneurs, technology enthusiasts, financiers and investors, to resolve challenges through pragmatic interventions.
First vertical farming venture successful
Last March, the first vertical indoor farm in the GCC region - Badia Farm - was launched in Al Quoz using the latest hydroponics and vertical farming technologies.
The farm now produces nutritious and pesticide-free leafy greens without the need for sunlight, soil or chemicals. It provides an extensive range of micro-greens including arugula, kale, radish, red cabbage, basils, and mustard to several restaurants and hotels in the UAE.
Omar Al Jundi, founder and CEO at Badia Farms, said vertical farming solves the challenges of water, climate and soil. "We are growing plants in a natural environment that controls temperature and humidity, without using pesticides."
He added that such type of farming allows the re-use of water up to 9-10 times, using 90 per cent less water than open field farming.
The farm is operated by LEDs to replace the sunlight in a closed environment. With introducing new technologies in agriculture, farms will not only plant food in sustainable way, but is also producing new flavors to the market throughout the year. "Modern farming is the solution for this region, and we expect much more to emerge in the coming years."
They key, he said, is educating people about the technology.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com
Innovative, Sustainable Aquaponics Production In Berlin
Innovative, Sustainable Aquaponics Production In Berlin
By Lloyd Phillips
June 26, 2018
With arable land under increasing pressure, there is a strong push to use urban space in new ways to help meet the demand for food and fibre. Lloyd Phillips visited one such initiative in Germany’s capital, and came away impressed with its innovation, flexibility and success.
ECF’s 1 800m² closed environment and climate-controlled fish and fresh produce farming facility in Berlin was built in 2015 at a cost equivalent to R20,4 million today. Photo: Courtesy of EFC FarmSystems
Tucked away in a revamped industrial area of south-central Berlin is an innovative farming operation that seeks to be a leading example of intensive and sustainable urban food production in Germany and across the world.
These are the premises of ECF (Eco-Friendly Farming) Farmsystems, the brainchild of entrepreneurs Nicolas Leschke and Christian Echternacht, who are using technology to maximize production of quality foods in a limited space and with relatively few resources.
Marie Schönau, the management assistant with ECF, says that Nicolas and Christian were driven to develop their urban agricultural system through a desire to use fresh food ingredients that did not have to be transported long distances.
“The aquaponics concept appealed to them the most,” explains Marie.
“But they knew they’d have to design and incorporate technology-based systems to maximize the efficient use of space and resources for the fish and fresh produce they wanted to grow, consume and market.”
In 2012, the two started to implement their vision using a cargo container to house fish tanks with a glass greenhouse constructed on the container’s roof for growing tomatoes and lettuce.
Funding for this early venture came from friends and family, who were lightheartedly made ‘godparents’ of the first fishes grown at the facility, and even received certificates to this effect.
When the first small-scale fish and fresh produce harvest was achieved in 2013, Nicolas and Christian hosted a fish braai at the facility where donors and interested people from across Berlin could sample the food.
Many visitors wanted to buy fish and fresh produce from Nicolas and Christian, but demand greatly exceeded the facility’s production capacity. The pair realized that they needed to expand their business model, and ECF Farmsystems was born.
Two-loop system
Nicolas and Christian soon discovered that aquaponics concepts that worked on a small-scale would not necessarily be effective at a much larger scale.
So they conducted extensive research to determine which approach would be efficient, effective, sustainable and profitable.
Based on this research, they developed a two-loop water circulation system that enabled them to adjust the quality of the water moving between the fish and fresh produce production systems and vice versa.
The idea, says Marie, was not to create yet another research aquaponics farm of the type already common in Germany and elsewhere at the time, but to develop a full-blown business that produced fish and fresh produce for profit.
Another important focus was to develop a supply chain to distribute the larger-scale facility’s products to consumers.
Finally, Nicolas and Christian wanted their concept to be attractive to investors and like-minded entrepreneurs around the world.
Funding for a full-scale facility
Their idea of an adjustable two-loop system was so innovative that they were able to secure a grant from Germany’s Climate-KIC Green Garage, an EU-funded incubator for green start-ups.
The remainder of the funding was sourced from a major private investor and the Innovation Bank of Berlin.
The pair then designed and built a 1 800m² closed environment and climate-controlled facility in 2015 at a cost of €1,4 million (about R20,4 million at the current exchange rate).
Of this, 1 000m² is a greenhouse for fresh produce production, 400m² is for fish production and the balance is used as processing, packaging, input storage, and office space.
The urban farm employs 10 full- and two part-time staff, most of whom have a tertiary qualification in horticulture or aquaculture.
Marie, who joined ECF at its inception in 2015, says that while Nicolas and Christian originally had a clear vision of what products their facility would produce and market, they soon discovered that not all were feasible due to the size of their operation. Their intended market also had specific demands for what it wanted from ECF.
The company currently raises freshwater Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).
“We chose the Nile tilapia because there’s already widespread knowledge and expertise on growing these fish in an aquaponics system, and the species is well-suited for recirculating aquaculture systems,” explains Marie.
“It’s a hardy fish, so it fits in well with our goal to avoid using antibiotics and other medication in their production.”
ECF imports the live fry, each weighing just 0,2g, from Til-Aqua hatchery in the Netherlands. The hatchery uses YY-technology to naturally change the sex of all its hatchlings to males, which grow faster than females.
This is achieved by manipulating water temperatures in the first few days of the hatchlings’ life. ECF then grows the tilapia in large tanks over the next seven months.
When the fish reach an average live weight of 600g, they are removed, gutted, cleaned and packaged for delivery to retail outlets in Berlin. Being situated close to central Berlin, ECF had a direct sales model for its products, allowing consumers to visit the premises where the food is grown and to buy it from there.
Reality check: lessons from the market
To support production and supply planning, ECF also used a subscription system where clients could order fish and fresh produce ahead of time and collect the products weekly.
“We soon discovered that the subscription direct-marketing model together with our diverse range of fresh produce became very complicated to manage and implement,” recalls Marie.
Other subscription models tend to source a variety of fresh produce from multiple growers instead of a single facility trying to produce everything itself intensively in an urban environment.
“We just couldn’t meet the demand for such variety,” says Marie.
A change to a weekly outdoor market at ECF’s premises was also short-lived. While it attracted consumers during the warmer months, numbers dwindled during Berlin’s frigid winter.
“We learnt many valuable lessons during our early stages and eventually decided to
become more specialised,” says Marie.
“We stopped using the direct-marketing model and instead established supply agreements with retailers in Berlin. We now produce mainly tilapia and fresh basil for our retail clients.”
For its freshwater needs, ECF harvests as much rainwater and snowmelt as its on-premises water storage capacity allows, but this is insufficient for all of the farm’s needs during the Northern Hemisphere’s drier summer months.
Thus, while the aquaponics facility is extremely efficient at recycling its water, it still needs to supplement this from the municipal freshwater supply.
Independent, but linked, water systems
Marie explains that unlike conventional aquaponics systems in which fish and food plants are produced in a common water circulatory system, ECF operates two water systems: one for the fish, and the other for the plants.
They are linked, however, with ECF’s monitoring technology.
The ideal water pH for plant production is a slightly acidic 5, while for fish production it is a neutral 7. The system adjusts the pH of nutrient-rich water traveling from the fish production circuit to the plant production circuit.
While the water in the fish circuit is laden with nutrients such as nitrates that are diverted to the plants, any nutrient shortfall can be supplemented by the monitoring technology as the water passes from the fish to the plant circuit.
To ensure that only best-quality water flows from the plant production section to the fish section, the water is collected from water vapor that condenses on the greenhouse glass in the plant section.
Being pure condensate, it is free of any contaminants that might harm the fish.
A further benefit of the double system is that either side can be shut down independently for maintenance.
According to ECF, its farming system produces food using up to 90% less water than that required by conventional agriculture.
The system also traps and uses carbon dioxide in its plant production processes and converts this greenhouse gas into oxygen for use in the fish production system.
The company also reports that it can produce 1kg live weight of fish from 1,2kg to 1,4kg of feed. By contrast, at least 8kg of feed is required to produce 1kg live weight of beef.
Spreading the message of sustainability
“Through the combination of responsible use of water, fertilizer and carbon dioxide, we’ve boosted the sustainability of our products and secured a much better bargaining position with retailers of our products than our competitors,” says Marie.
ECF’s designs and technologies have become so popular that the company now not only grows, processes, packages and markets its own fish and fresh produce in Berlin, but designs and constructs similar facilities for entrepreneurs elsewhere in Germany and in countries such as Switzerland and Belgium.
The lessons learned by the team are also shared with clients of ECF’s design and construction section to give them a strong start.
Contact ECF Farmsystems at +49 307 551 4840 or info@ecf-farmystems.com. Visit ecf-farmsystems.com.
Lloyd Phillips visited ECF Farmsystems as part of a tour to the 2018 International Green Week in Berlin, Germany, sponsored by the German Federal Foreign Office.
New LED Lighting Technology Brings The Power Of The Sun To Hydroponics
A high-tech lighting system that mimics the huge variety of sunlight — manufactured by Edmonton company G2V and developed in a University of Alberta lab by research scientist Michael Taschuk — is now being tested in four cannabis grow operations across Canada.
The G2V lighting system wasn’t developed to grow plants. Instead, it was built to test solar cells at the U of A’s National Institute of Nanotechnology. The goal with solar cells is to get even slight increases in efficiency. This makes it necessary to have extremely precise diagnostic tools for taking measurements, including lamps that mimic the sunlight as it’s experienced on the Earth’s surface in all its variety, hot and cold, bright and dim, and everything in between.
— David Staples
Hawaii Becomes First State in the U.S. To Ban Chlorpyrifos
Hawai'i Becomes First State in the U.S. To Ban Chlorpyrifos
JUNE 14, 2018
Hawaii Becomes First State in the U.S. to Ban Chlorpyrifos
The toxic pesticide has been linked to asthma and developmental delays in children
HONOLULU, HAWAIʻI — Yesterday, Hawai'i made history as Governor Ige signed SB 3095 into law and Hawai'i became the first state in the U.S. to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin that causes significant damage to brain development in children. The pesticide's detrimental health effects led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Obama administration to propose banning all of its agricultural uses, but the Pruitt-led EPA under the current administration reversed this pledge.
In addition to banning chlorpyrifos, the bill creates 100 foot no-spray buffer zones around schools and requires large-scale pesticide users to disclose the Restricted Use Pesticides (RUPs) they are spraying. Center for Food Safety (CFS) provided significant legal and policy assistance to this effort, including helping draft the legislation, lobby for its passage, and encourage public participation in the legislative process. CFS also published the first-ever analysis of pesticide use data and its relationship to field trials of genetically engineered crops in Hawai'i.
Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety, which has consistently championed for regulation of pesticide use in the State of Hawai'i and nationally, emphasized that the passage of this bill is a stepping stone towards even stronger legislation:
"Hawai'i is prioritizing the health of its children and the environment over industry preferences. Hawai'i is taking action that Pruitt's EPA refused to take by banning chlorpyrifos," said Kimbrell. "Hawai'i is courageously taking the first step towards pesticide policies that will provide for more protection for children as well as more transparency. We believe that other states will follow Hawai'i's lead."
Ashley Lukens, director of Hawaiʻi Center for Food Safety, applauded the community for their unwavering tenacity in this nearly decade-long battle for better public health protections. "The families of Hawaiʻi have fought year after year, against millions of dollars of industry spending, all for these basic protections from dangerous pesticides. During these dark Trumpian times, we need stories like this to remind ourselves that when we persevere, we win. As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "The arch of history is long but it bends towards justice."
SB 3095 represents a turning point for Hawaii and marks a new chapter for its residents, who have repeatedly demanded protection against pesticide harms. The world's largest agrichemical companies, such as Monsanto, Dow, and Syngenta, experiment and develop their genetically engineered crops in Hawaii.
Because the majority of these crops are engineered to resist herbicides, testing and development of these crops result in the repeated spraying of dangerous chemicals. Many of their operations are adjacent to schools and residential areas, putting children and public health at risk. Voluntarily reported pesticide use data shows that these companies apply thousands of gallons and pounds of RUPs in Hawaii each year.
In 2013 and 2014, the counties of Kauaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island passed ordinances to regulate the pesticide practices of the GE seed industry. Despite the broad popular support, the industry responded by suing each of the counties, arguing that the county lacked the authority to regulate pesticides. CFS attorneys defended the Counties in Federal Court. Unfortunately, the ordinances were overturned, forcing community members to pivot their efforts to the state.
Since 2015 a coalition of community members led, in part, by CFS, introduced legislation each year asking for a statewide framework for no-spray buffer zones and disclosure. Thousands of people testified each session in support of the bill's passage. Much of the testimony can be found on the HCFS Facebook page.
The bill, which goes into effect in July 2018, will ban chlorpyrifos by January 2019. Any user that wishes to continue using chlorpyrifos may do so only by applying for an exemption with the State. No exemption will be granted after 2022. The mandatory reporting and no-spray zone provisions are effectively immediately with no exemptions.
Another Reason For Indoor Farming
Iraq has banned its farmers from planting summer crops this year as the country grapples with a crippling water shortage that shows few signs of abating.
Iraq Bans Farming Summer Crops As Water Crisis Grows Dire
by Philip Issa | AP July 5, 2018
MISHKHAB, Iraq — Iraq has banned its farmers from planting summer crops this year as the country grapples with a crippling water shortage that shows few signs of abating.
Citing high temperatures and insufficient rains, Dhafer Abdalla, an adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources, told The Associated Press that the country has only enough water to irrigate half its farmland this summer.
But farmers fault the government for failing to modernize how it manages water and irrigation, and they blame neighboring Turkey for stopping up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers behind dams it wants to keep building.
The volume of water flowing in these two vital rivers — which together give Iraq its ancient name, Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers — fell by over 60 percent in two decades, according to a 2012 report by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
“What’s happened this year is a combination of low rainfall, low groundwater, and the new dam that Turkey has built,” said Paul Schlunke, a senior emergency response coordinator for the FAO in Erbil. “It means there’s no water for the south (Iraq).”
The orders against sowing rice, corn, and other crops this summer came as a shock to the towns and villages in the once fertile plains south of Baghdad, where the local economy depends on farming. Nationwide, one in five Iraqis works in agriculture.
In Iraq’s rice belt, the farmland is cracked and dry.
“I feel as though my very existence has been shaken,” said farmer Akeel Kamil as he surveyed his barren fields near the town of Mishkhab.
His 100 dunams — about 25 acres — last year produced 150 tons of Anbar rice, a strain particular to Iraq that is prized for its gentle, floral aroma. This year, the pumps that would be flooding his fields with water are silent, and the irrigation canal that runs by his property is nearly empty.
Flood irrigation has been used in the area for millennia, though FAO has warned of massive water wastage. It and other organizations are calling on the Iraqi government to revamp its approach to agriculture and promote more efficient methods including drip and spray irrigation. Iraq’s Natural Resources Ministry protests it does not have the budget to do that.
Farmers staged demonstrations against the moratorium. In one instance, they forced the closure of a levee along a branch of the Euphrates River to let the water levels rise for irrigation.
They demand the government secure more water from Turkey, fill the country’s reservoirs, and drill into the nation’s aquifers.
“When we protested, no one listened to us. Then we closed the levee, and the police came and the politicians started calling us vandals. Is this how a government behaves with its people?” said Mahdi al-Mhasen, a 48-year-old farmhand in Mishkhab.
The rumblings here will be heard in Baghdad. South Iraq is the popular base of the Shiite blocs that have led Iraqi governments since Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003. The rice belt hugs Najaf, Shiite Islam’s holiest city, where theologians and politicians have powerful influence.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, castigated lawmakers, telling the government it must help farmers and modernize irrigation and agriculture.
In response to the pressure, the government said it reversed its ban on rice farming. But Agriculture Ministry spokesman Hameed al-Naief told the AP that only 5,000 dunams (1,236 acres) of irrigated land could be allocated to the crop this summer, less than 3 percent of the area permitted last year.
The impact of waning water resources is clear around Mishkhab. Local divers and river patrols say their branch of the Euphrates is far shallower than it was this time last year. Green scum collects under bridges where the water has stagnated and fishing boats are stranded on the river bed.
Earlier this summer, video on social media showed the water levels of the Tigris River so low that Iraqis in Baghdad were crossing it on foot.
About 70 percent of Iraq’s water supplies flow in from upstream countries. Turkey is siphoning off an ever-growing share of the Tigris and Euphrates to feed its growing population in a warming climate. And it is building new dams that will further squeeze water availability in Iraq.
Syria is expected to start drawing more water off the Euphrates once it emerges from the yearslong civil war.
Turkey started filling its giant Ilisu Dam upstream in June, then paused the operation until July after pleas from Baghdad. Iraq’s Water Resources Ministry says it has enough water behind the Mosul Dam to guarantee adequate flow for a year, but experts say the Ilisu could take up to three years to fill, depending on rains.
The last moratorium on farming rice came in 2009, but that year farmers were permitted to grow other crops to shore up their income. This year, there is no such reprieve. Though it is OPEC’s third-largest oil producer, Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia, does not distribute revenues to the general population.
Farmers in Mishkhab say they have little to fall back on with the loss of the summer season’s income. Families that depend on credit to cover their expenses during the growing season are afraid their lenders — shop owners, mechanics, even friends — won’t lend to them this year because they know the rice harvest has been cancelled.
“What will happen to our lands?” asked Kamil, the 42-year-old farmer. “Should we leave them? Should we move to the cities?”
Indoor Urban Agriculture Is Growing Up Thanks To These Cities
At this point, the benefits of indoor urban farming are common knowledge: fresher food, fewer transportation emissions, and less spoilage thanks to shorter transit distances.
NYC’s Gotham Greens highlighted those and other benefits this week with the announcement that it had closed a $29 million Series C equity funding round led by Silverman Group and Creadiv. This latest round brings the company’s total funding to $45 million, and will help them “finance the expansion trajectory,” which covers 500,000 square feet currently under development in five different states.
Gotham is one of several major success stories for NYC-based urban indoor farming companies, many of which we’ve covered extensively at The Spoon. But the Big Apple’s not the only city making indoor urban farming widely available and, in the process, changing the way we think about farming.
In fact, today marks the opening of the Farm on Ogden in Chicago, a massive facility and project aimed at providing fresh, local food to an undernourished (literally and figuratively) part of the Windy City.
With those two pieces of news in mind, here’s a brief look at a few other cities and companies where the indoor farming movement is thriving:
The Farm on Ogden
Chicago
Though the enormous vertical farming operation FarmedHere shuttered in 2017, Chicago is still seeing plenty of developments from other urban agriculture players. Gotham Greens operates a facility in the Pullman area. And generating quite a bit of buzz of late is the aforementioned Farm on Ogden, a partnership between the Lawndale Christian Health Center and Chicago Botanic Garden. The $3.5 million year-round project will provide both jobs and local, sustainably produced food to the struggling North Lawndale area, where unemployment soars, over 14 percent of the population has diabetes, and one in four adults suffers from PTSD. The multi-use facility will offer year-round food production, teaching kitchens, and job training for everyone from teenagers to those with criminal backgrounds. The project is also in the midst of building a 50,000-gallon aquaponic system that will raise lettuce and tilapia.
Grove
Boston
Like Chicago, Boston’s urban landscape and often-grim weather make it a prime candidate for the indoor urban farming movement.
Dorm-room project turned full-fledged business Grove takes a slightly different approach, trading enormous warehouses for compact pieces of furniture in which to place its “farms.” As my colleague Catherine noted recently, Grove has teamed up with furniture and appliance companies to create custom hardware, while it supplies seed pods and ag software to cultivate the crops.
If, on the other hand, you’re after a more utilitarian means of growing your produce, Freight Farms can provide you with one of its vertical farms housed in 40-square-foot shipping containers. Each Leafy Green Machine container is a fully climate controlled environment with vertical crop columns, LEDs, and a closed-loop hydroponic irrigations system. The accompanying farmhand platform, meanwhile, lets users automate many of the growing tasks, and generates real-time data for crop analysis. Freight Farms counts multiple universities, as well as big names like Google, among its customers.
Detroit
Of course, if any city stands poised to benefit from the urban agriculture revolution, it’s Detroit; its 78,000 empty/abandoned spaces are prime real estate for potential farming endeavors.
Artesian Farms is a great example: the company’s current warehouse facility sat abandoned from the late ’90s to when the company moved in around 2014. Now, thanks to a collaboration with Green Spirit Farms, Artesian has turned the warehouse’s 7,500 square feet of traditional space into one gigantic vertical farm. The company is also a community builder: 100 percent of current employees are from the surrounding Brightmoor neighborhood, which also benefits from access to the food produced.
RecoveryPark Farms, meanwhile, is another effort to transform urban blight via indoor and urban farming practices. The project grows produce, root vegetables, and herbs in hydroponic greenhouses that’s then shipped out to restaurants within a 300-mile radius.
Like many other companies listed here, RecoverPark provides as much community outreach and employment as it does homegrown food. Which, at the end of the day, is really what “eating local” should be all about.
Jenn is a writer, editor, and ghostwriter based in NYC. At The Spoon, she covers agtech, sustainable food issues, and restaurant tech. She is obsessed with IKEA.
Panel Tackles Cities And Social Media
SESSION: State of the Nation panelists, Ausveg CEO James Whiteside, PMA A-NZ CEO Darren Keating, University of Qld's Professor Jimmy Botella, science writer and communicator Julian Cribb, with Hort Connections MC, Toby Travanner.
STOP talking about horticulture and agriculture and start talking about food, says science writer, Julian Cribb.
The well-known communicator was part of the State of the Nation panel session held at Hort Connections 2018 at Brisbane on Tuesday.
"You have to close the gap both mentally and economically between producers and consumers. People don't eat agriculture, they don't eat horticulture," Mr. Cribb said.
As heard at other horticulture conferences at which he's addressed, Mr. Cribb called for an embracing of vertical farms for food production in urban centres.
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"Production is going to move off farm and into the cities," Mr. Cribb said.
"Half the world's food is going to be grown in cities using wastewater from those cities.
"We humans only eat about 200 different plants. We haven't even begun to explore the earth as to what is good to eat.
"Horticulture is going to be the mainstay in these diets."
But his fellow panelists took a more here and now approach to the issues facing horticulture.
The panel consisted of Produce Marketing Association Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer, Darren Keating, Ausveg CEO James Whiteside and the University of Queensland's Professor Jimmy Botella.
Mr. Whiteside posed the question of who will be the farmers of tomorrow?
"That's a much greater challenge than the industry has given thought to," he said.
"I think there is a whole long list of innovation of how we are going to grow food. That will happen in course.
"The broader question is, how do we go from a relatively agrarian horticulture to those growing in cities?"
FOCUS: PMA A-NZ CEO Darren Keating taking part in the State of the Nation panel session.
Mr. Cribb's view of the future was based on green cities.
"Cities are such ugly places compared to what it's going to be when they are covered with plants and trees," Mr. Cribb said.
Futuristic hydroponic cities cost money though, a point not dismissed by Mr. Whiteside.
"The issue is we have enormous potential to grow more food but it takes capital and it takes people taking risks," he said.
"We can't assume our food will be grown within 20 kilometres (of major cities).
"Fundamentally, we are in the business of feeding our fair share of the population."
Away from the production issues, PMA A-NZ's Mr. Keating said one area of concern was how consumers viewed the food supply chain through the lens of social media.
"The way people eat and interact with food has changed over the years," Mr. Keating said.
"When you look at the number of conversations people are having with food, it can be overwhelming.
"A big part of this problem is the billions of customers being face to face with social media.
"It may not always be well informed but it will impact your business.
FUTURE VIEW: Ausveg CEO James Whiteside says the horticulture industry needs to think about who will be farming fresh produce in the future.
"We can't control the discussions but we can add our voice."
Professor Botella pushed the case for innovation and technology as a means of creating change for both growers and consumers.
"Adopt technology and adopt technology early," he said.
Mr. Keating suggested technology as a way to engage young people into horticulture.
"Don't fear the technology. There is a way to be involved in agriculture and food which doesn't mean you have to be living in a regional area," he said.
Mr. Cribb also reiterated his call for "a year of food" for every school on the planet.
"We need the Stephanie Alexander model of a farm in every school," he said.
"When kids grow their own vegetables, they eat their vegetables. Broccoli becomes delicious."
The conversation also covered part of the conference's theme - halving waste.
"The other side of the coin is waste. Having a good conversation about how the product gets there and in good condition, is a tough one," Mr. Keating said.
"The waste part is a really important conversation to be had.
"Packaging is easy to call evil but it's also the thing that can minimize food waste. Getting to something that works is important."
Mr. Cribb said recycling needed to become second nature.
"We've got to build these large recycling plants. We've got to recycle everything," he said
McOutbreak: CDC Investigating McDonald’s Salads
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration are investigating a multistate outbreak of Cyclospora infections.
JULY 16, 2018
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration are investigating a multistate outbreak of Cyclospora infections.
As of July 13, a total of 61 laboratory-confirmed cases of Cyclospora infection were reported in people who consumed salads from McDonald’s restaurants in seven states: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Two people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.
CDC said at this time, there is no evidence to suggest that this cluster of illnesses is related to the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak linked to Del Monte fresh produce vegetable trays.
Illnesses started on or after May 1, and the median illness onset date is June 28. Illnesses that started after June 1 might not have been reported yet due to the time it takes between when a person becomes ill and when the illness is reported. For Cyclospora infections, this can take up to six weeks.
Epidemiologic evidence indicates that salads purchased from McDonald’s restaurants are one likely source of these infections. The investigation is ongoing and FDA is working to determine the source of the ingredients used in the salads served at McDonald’s. The investigation has not identified a single, common ingredient in the salads linked to illness.
State and local health departments are interviewing ill people to find out what foods they ate in the two weeks before they got sick. Many ill people reported eating salads from McDonald’s restaurants located in the Midwest. People reported eating a variety of McDonald’s salads.
McDonald’s is cooperating with the investigation and has voluntarily stopped selling salads in more than 3,000 locations in the following 14 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
US (PA): COE For Indoor Agriculture Feasibility Study Completed
US (PA): COE For Indoor Agriculture Feasibility Study Completed
Barisoft Consulting Group has just released a feasibility study to establish a Center of Excellence (COE) for Indoor Agriculture in the Kennett region of Pennsylvania. This region, located near Philadelphia, PA, has long been considered the “Mushroom Capital” of the U.S. The proposed Center of Excellence would serve as an international hub and knowledge base for investment, production, operations, distribution, research & development, training and workforce development for all forms of indoor agriculture.
Indoor agriculture is a means of growing crops year-round under tightly controlled conditions. Kennett's massive mushroom growing infrastructure, which produces nearly half a billion pounds yearly, has fit that definition for over one hundred years. Over the past five years, more than $500 million dollars of venture capital has been invested nationally in efforts to grow other crops such as leafy greens indoors on a commercial scale, which is predicted to become a multi-billion industry according to the study.
The Kennett COE feasibility study was commissioned by Kennett Township with additional support from neighboring New Garden Township and Kennett Square Borough. It is part of a larger initiative to leverage the Kennett area’s extensive mushroom industry infrastructure to support a variety of other indoor crops.
This two-hundred-page feasibility study report is grounded in extensive primary data and is not another “white paper.” Methods of data collection included over 35 hours of interviews with industry executives, senior university administrators, and local and state officials. An online survey was distributed to select segments of industry and to local leaders by invitation only. Over sixty high-quality responses were received.
Dr. Eric W. Stein, who conducted the study, is an Associate Professor of Business at Penn State and CEO of Barisoft Consulting Group. He also runs an indoor vertical farm named e3garden for R&D and local production. According to Dr. Stein, “Our findings show strong support for the Center’s feasibility according to multiple criteria and for locating it in the heart of mushroom country. We expect the Center to accelerate commercialization of indoor agriculture and to help businesses reach profitability sooner.”
Michael Guttman, Director of Sustainable Development for Kennett Township (the town which commissioned the study), states, “This study represents a milestone in the evolution of indoor farming and will validate our position that Kennett can serve as a future home for both the Center and for all kinds of indoor agriculture facilities. It’s a win-win for the industry and the Kennett area.”
For more information:
Publication date: 6/27/2018
UAE Scientists Tap Organic Waste To Enrich Soil
UAE Scientists Tap Organic Waste To Enrich Soil
AUS team being funded by EGA to explore potential for creating biochar, which acts as a soil improver to support plant life
Image Credit: COURTESY AUS
July 8, 2018
Staff Report
Dubai: Researchers from American University of Sharjah (AUS), in collaboration with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), will explore ways of converting organic wastes into soil improvers that can ultimately promote green cover in the UAE.
The largest industrial company in the UAE outside the oil and gas sector announced that it has signed the agreement with AUS and will be fully funding the two-year, Dh630,000 research project.
Scientists from the AUS College of Engineering will study the conversion of commonly-available organic wastes, such as food and agricultural wastes, into biochar, which is a highly-stable form of carbon that is used worldwide to improve the potential of soils to support plant life.
The research project will be the first to comprehensively investigate the potential of organic waste materials found in the UAE for use in biochar, and to analyse the water- and nutrient-holding capabilities of such biochar.
EGA said it was interested in the potential of combining biochar with bauxite residue (a by-product in the production of aluminium oxide) to create soil for greening and other uses in the UAE.
“Finding economic uses for bauxite residue is a challenge for our industry globally,” Abdullah Al Zarouni, EGA’s Vice-President of Technology Development and Transfer.
“This research with AUS is an important part of our investigations into one potential solution, and we are pleased that we can work with UAE-based scientists on this project. We also hope this project will help the UAE more broadly in reducing waste to landfill in line with ‘UAE Vision 2021’.”
EGA is separately working with The University of Queensland’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences to research the viability of using bauxite residue for this purpose. Bauxite residue will be a by-product of EGA’s under-construction Al Taweelah alumina refinery, once it begins production during the first half of 2019.
Industry experts estimate that at least 150 million tonnes of bauxite residue are produced worldwide each year. It is thought that less than two per cent of this is currently put to productive use.
EGA is also currently researching the potential of using bauxite residue in large-volume construction materials.
While new productive uses for bauxite residue are being developed, EGA will operate a dedicated storage site in line with current world-class best practice, about 30 kilometres inland from the coast in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi.
EGA works with local and international universities to combine the latest scientific thinking with EGA’s decades of experience in the aluminium industry in order to find solutions to technical challenges.
U.S. Farmers Launch “Real Organic” Pilot Project
U.S. Farmers Launch “Real Organic” Pilot Project
July 13, 2018
A group of U.S. farmers has launched a pilot certification program for organic operations, saying the USDA’s National Organic Program “no longer adequately reflects how they farm.”
An initiative called The Real Organic Project is aiming to implement new organic standards and provide consumer transparency by “distinguishing organic farms that grow their crops in the ground, foster soil fertility and adequately pasture livestock according to foundational organic standards and principles.”
The project’s executive director is Dave Chapman, a longtime organic tomato grower with a farm in Vermont, who last year said he had been “dismayed” by the U.S. National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) controversial decision to not ban hydroponic and aquaponic crops from organic certification.
“In the last year, the USDA not only embraced hydroponic production under the organic seal, but they also rejected the Organic Livestock and Poultry Production (OLPP) Rule created to strengthen animal welfare,” a release from The Real Organic Project said.
A Real Organic Project ‘add-on’ label to USDA organic certification is expected to be rolled out on fruit and vegetable packaging by next spring.
The inspection process includes a video interview of the farmers on their land explaining their organic production practices.
“The Real Organic Project is an inspiring team,” said associate director and Colorado farmer, Dr. Linley Dixon, who is leading the pilot project effort. “The people who wrote the standards and advise the project are national leaders in the organic and greater environmental movements.”
Dixon recently began her work as associate director of the Real Organic Project and has a long history working for reform of the National Organic Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Florida and also held a two-year post-doctorate with the USDA’s Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory.
“Clearly the industrial egg operations became so powerful that they had significant political influence,” said Dixon.
“We tried to keep the same thing from happening in other sectors of organic, especially tomato and berry production, but we lost that battle at the USDA last fall. Now we are taking matters into our own hands because we know it is what the consumer wants and expects when they choose organic.”
Organic tomatoes and berries have seen a drop in wholesale prices due to the influx of industrial hydroponics, which can be produced more cheaply without growing in soil, according to the release. Real Organic Project farmers maintain that growing food without soil runs counter to the whole point of organic production.
“The USDA has embraced a redefinition of organic by rejecting the organic animal welfare rule and allowing hydroponics to enter organic crop production,” said Chapman.
NOSB member Emily Oakley is also a board member of the Real Organic Project.
“I’m not a big fan of phrases like ‘organic premium’,” she said.
“I think conventional food is falsely cheap, and frankly, the organic “premium” still doesn’t reflect the fair cost of producing the food if you account for unfair wages and the environmental costs of conventional food.”
US Federal Court Urged To Order Pesticide Ban
Chlorpyrifos
US Federal Court Urged To Order Pesticide Ban
A federal court will determine if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be ordered to ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in children. Seven states and a coalition of environmental and labor groups made final arguments before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this Monday. They are challenging the EPA's refusal to ban chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate related to sarin nerve gas.
According to Hector Sanchez, executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, a ban on the agricultural use of the chemical is long overdue. "These pesticides are very toxic for farm workers. They have been proven to lower the IQ of children, they have loss of working memory and attention deficit disorders; something that is totally unacceptable."
Against the recommendation of its own scientists, last year the EPA claimed the science on chlorpyrifos is "unresolved" and allowed its use to continue until it revisits the issue in 2022.
Chlorpyrifos is used extensively on apples, a major crop in New York, and a variety of other fruits and vegetables. It was banned for residential use almost 20 years ago. Sanchez says the EPA's refusal to ban agricultural use puts everyone at risk.
According to publicnewsservice.org, the state of Hawaii banned the agricultural use of chlorpyrifos last month.
Publication date: 7/12/2018
Growing a Greener World Awarded Emmy For Green Bronx Machine Episode
Atlanta, Georgia: On June 16, 2018, the long-running Sustainability Television Program Growing a Greener World® received a Daytime Emmy Award® for its powerful episode The Green Bronx Machine.
This is the broadcast’s first Emmy win. The honor comes on the heels of Growing a Greener World receiving the coveted 2017 Pioneer Taste Award® in April.
The mission of the show has always been to help others grow a greener world themselves – through gardening, responsible environmental stewardship and building healthy communities. In 2007, Growing a Greener World explored a non-profit organization known as The Green Bronx Machine and instantly knew this was a story needing to be told.
Moved by emotion at the love and care he witnessed during filming, Executive Producer and show host Joe Lamp’l, states “After filming over 100 episodes of Growing a Greener World®, I don’t think we’ve ever told a story that’s impacted me more emotionally than this one.”
Mr. Lamp’l is referring to the compelling story of educator, entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “People Farmer,” Stephen Ritz, who came from and returned to the Bronx to heal, to show love toward and to nurture generations of school children growing up in this difficult district. His thunderbolt idea, which ultimately formed The Green Bronx Machine, was to utilize gardening in the classroom to improve the lives of inner city youth.
And improve lives it has. In a community where it’s easier to get liquor than lettuce, Mr. Ritz’s non-profit has helped high school attendance improve from 40% to 93% and has reduced behavioral incidents and out-of-classroom time by a whopping 50% in the elementary school in which he teaches.
This humble man with unparalleled charismatic, infectious energy has changed the landscape of students’ lives through tireless 12-hour days where “Garden Time with Mr. Ritz” is always in eager demand. The kids are taught the botany, the biology, and the history of the fruits and veggies they grow in a way that sparks fascination and new-found ownership of the joy of growing food that is improving eating habits and helping create healthy food relationships.
And as the children love and nurture the plants they’re raising, the plants reward them with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, and apples to be eaten during school lunch and taken home to their families. The sense of accomplishment and taste for success that is borne of this symbiotic relationship will carry into the rest of these kids’ lives.
The Green Bronx Machine is truly breaking new ground in the world of education. This investment of passion for our food source isn’t just working, it’s creating one person(al) miracle at a time.
The Growing a Greener World® series featuring this remarkable program will continue to resonate with future audiences, and future seasons will remain dedicated to telling these impactful stories of people creating change.
The Emmy Award-Winning episode The Green Bronx Machine can be viewed at:
https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode-808-green-bronx-machine/
USDA Names Jennifer Tucker Deputy Administrator For The National Organic Program
USDA Names Jennifer Tucker Deputy Administrator For The National Organic Program
The Coalition of Sustainable Organics congratulates Dr. Jennifer Tucker on being selected to lead the USDA National Organic Program. Dr. Tucker has worked to enhance fraud prevention, detection and prosecution in addition to being open and transparent with the industry.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Tucker as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP), part of the Marketing and Regulatory Programs mission area.
“Dr. Tucker’s work to strengthen enforcement and improve customer service has already earned her the respect and trust of the program’s many diverse stakeholders,” said AMS Administrator Bruce Summers. “Under her leadership as Deputy Administrator, I am confident that this trusted program will continue to meet the evolving needs of farmers, businesses and American consumers in this rapidly growing agricultural sector.”
Dr. Tucker has served as Associate Deputy Administrator of the National Organic Program since 2011. Before joining USDA, she served as a group facilitator and organization development consultant, working primarily with scientific and technical government and non-profit organizations. She earned a B.A. in Environmental Science from Wesleyan University, an M.S. in Management from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech.
Based on her experience within the National Organic Program and her prior work, she has an excellent aptitude to facilitate constructive dialogue with the various viewpoints within the organic community as the head of the NOP. In addition, she has a strong understanding of the organic laws and regulations that should help the NOP and the industry focus their efforts on areas where positive change can be achieved.
NOP is a regulatory program housed within the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service that develops and enforces national standards for organically-produced agricultural products. These standards assure consumers that products with the USDA organic seal meet consistent, uniform standards for production and distribution. The growth and continuing demand for organic products can be attributed to the strength of the organic standards and trust in the organic industry and seal. Organic products are now found in the majority of U.S. households with Americans spending nearly $50 billion in organic purchases annually. In 2017, certified organic operations grew seven percent in the United States (26,400 operations) and 11-percent across the globe (41,000 operations).
New Type of Photosynthesis Discovered
The discovery of a new type of photosynthesis changes our understanding of the basic mechanism of photosynthesis and should rewrite the textbooks.
New Type of Photosynthesis Discovered
The discovery of a new type of photosynthesis changes our understanding of the basic mechanism of photosynthesis and should rewrite the textbooks. It will also tailor the way we hunt for alien life and provide insights into how we could engineer more efficient crops that take advantage of longer wavelengths of light.
The discovery, published in Science, was led by Imperial College London, supported by BBSRC, and involved groups from the ANU in Canberra, the CNRS in Paris and Saclay and the CNR in Milan.
The vast majority of life on Earth uses visible red light in the process of photosynthesis, but the new type uses near-infrared light instead. It was detected in a wide range of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) when they grow in near-infrared light, found in shaded conditions like bacterial mats in Yellowstone and in beach rock in Australia.
As scientists have now discovered, it also occurs in a cupboard fitted with infrared LEDs in Imperial College London.
Photosynthesis beyond the red limit
The standard, near-universal type of photosynthesis uses the green pigment, chlorophyll-a, both to collect light and use its energy to make useful biochemicals and oxygen. The way chlorophyll-a absorbs light means only the energy from red light can be used for photosynthesis.
Colony of Chroococcidiopsis-like cells where the different colours represent photosynthesis driven by chlorophyll-a (magenta) and chlorophyll-f (yellow). Credit: Imperial College London
Since chlorophyll-a is present in all plants, algae and cyanobacteria that we know of, it was considered that the energy of red light set the ‘red limit’ for photosynthesis; that is, the minimum amount of energy needed to do the demanding chemistry that produces oxygen. The red limit is used in astrobiology to judge whether complex life could have evolved on planets in other solar systems.
However, when some cyanobacteria are grown under near-infrared light, the standard chlorophyll-a-containing systems shut down and different systems containing a different kind of chlorophyll, chlorophyll-f, takes over.
Until now, it was thought that chlorophyll-f just harvested the light. The new research shows that instead chlorophyll-f plays the key role in photosynthesis under shaded conditions, using lower-energy infrared light to do the complex chemistry. This is photosynthesis ‘beyond the red limit’.
Lead researcher Professor Bill Rutherford, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “The new form of photosynthesis made us rethink what we thought was possible. It also changes how we understand the key events at the heart of standard photosynthesis. This is textbook changing stuff.”
Peter Burlinson, lead for frontier bioscience at BBSRC-UKRI says, “This is an important discovery in photosynthesis, a process that plays a crucial role in the biology of the crops that feed the world. Discoveries like this push the boundaries of our understanding of life and Professor Bill Rutherford and the team at Imperial should be congratulated for revealing a new perspective on such a fundamental process.”
Preventing damage by light
Another cyanobacterium, Acaryochloris, is already known to do photosynthesis beyond the red limit. However, because it occurs in just this one species, with a very specific habitat, it had been considered a ‘one-off’. Acaryochloris lives underneath a green sea-squirt that shades out most of the visible light leaving just the near-infrared.
The chlorophyll-f based photosynthesis reported today represents a third type of photosynthesis that is widespread. However, it is only used in special infrared-rich shaded conditions; in normal light conditions, the standard red form of photosynthesis is used.
It was thought that light damage would be more severe beyond the red limit, but the new study shows that it is not a problem in stable, shaded environments.
Co-author Dr Andrea Fantuzzi, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “Finding a type of photosynthesis that works beyond the red limit changes our understanding of the energy requirements of photosynthesis. This provides insights into light energy use and into mechanisms that protect the systems against damage by light.”
These insights could be useful for researchers trying to engineer crops to perform more efficient photosynthesis by using a wider range of light. How these cyanobacteria protect themselves from damage caused by variations in the brightness of light could help researchers discover what is feasible to engineer into crop plants.
Textbook-changing insights
More detail could be seen in the new systems than has ever been seen before in the standard chlorophyll-a systems. The chlorophylls often termed ‘accessory’ chlorophylls were actually performing the crucial chemical step, rather than the textbook ‘special pair’ of chlorophylls in the centre of the complex.
This indicates that this pattern holds for the other types of photosynthesis, which would change the textbook view of how the dominant form of photosynthesis works.
Dr Dennis Nürnberg, the first author and initiator of the study, said: “I did not expect that my interest in cyanobacteria and their diverse lifestyles would snow-ball into a major change in how we understand photosynthesis. It is amazing what is still out there in nature waiting to be discovered.”
Source: BBSRC
Publication date: 6/21/2018
Urban Agriculture — Europe’s Untapped Potential
Urban Agriculture—Europe’s Untapped Potential
Linked by Michael Levenston
Credit: European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
This was the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of urban agriculture in Europe. Published in 2015, it still attracts interest from researchers and policymakers alike, and will be presented at the 2018 Green Week.
Frank Lohrberg / Lilli Lika / Lionella Scazzosi / Axel Timpe (eds.)
European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
June 11, 2018
Excerpt:
Urban Agriculture Europe (UAE), a COST-funded network of over 120 researchers from 29 countries worldwide, investigated how urban agriculture provides solutions in Europe and contributes to innovative cities that are economically and environmentally viable.
Although the network ended in 2016, it is still making an impact. Its research has been cited extensively in a detailed briefing for the European Parliament.
The briefing is a valuable overview of trends, scope and impacts of urban agriculture in Europe. Lessons from UAE case studies from over 200 cities show where local policy can have the greatest impact – such as through specially adapted planning policy or an entrepreneurship-friendly culture – and areas where European-level policies might provide support.
UAE participant Dr.-Ing. Axel Timpe of RWTH Aachen University explains: “Our network’s key recommendation was that you integrate different actors and benefits when you develop policy. Urban agriculture is about more than food production. It has social, environmental and economic potential, too.”