Bananas, Bananas Everywhere, But Not A One To Eat

Bananas, Bananas Everywhere, But Not A One To Eat

Kaveri Marathe  |  Interested in energy & environmental issues, entrepreneurship & startups. All views my own.

Nov 15, 2016

Eating Organic Isn’t Just For Hipsters

News has swirled in recent years that the banana industry is in crisis — a virus called Tropical Race 4 is, like its name suggests, rapidly spreading around the globe crippling the world’s banana plantations. How can a single viral strain be capable of wiping out all of the world’s bananas? The scary answer lies in our modern agricultural practices which focus on profit over sustainability. Ninety-nine percent of the bananas eaten in the developed world are of just one varietal called Cavendish, meaning it only takes one deadly illness to wipe out the whole lot.

What is monoculture?

Monoculture is the establishment of a single plant varietal on a, typically large, swathe of farmland. These varietals are grown season after season, without any crop rotation. Crop rotation, which was the standard method of farming for millennia along with the use of animal waste as fertilizer, ensured that countervailing nutrients passed into and out of the soil and interrupted the life cycles of harmful insects that were typically attracted to a certain plant. These natural processes have been replaced with the use of huge quantities of synthetic fertilizers for nutrients and pesticides to repel insects.

So what?

Ninety-two percent of the world’s water goes to agriculture, but more than half of it is wasted.

Proponents of monoculture claim it allows for greater yields of crops by isolating and selecting for certain qualities, like insect-repulsion, heartiness, beauty and increased flowering, through breeding. As our global population continues to grow, the production of sufficient quantities of food will be crucial to alleviating hunger and poverty. The drawbacks, however, could be even more damaging to our long-term ecology than the risk of not having enough food. (I will note also that humans globally waste 1/3 of the food we produce.)

The problems resulting from the widespread use of agricultural monocultures are numerous. I’ll break down the basics:

Pesticides: Genetically homogenous plants grown in monocultures do not have the natural defense system to fight off pests, so increasing quantities of pesticides are employed by farmers. Pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables has been shown to cause neurological problems in children and adults. Runoff can enter bodies of water and groundwater, impacting the quality of our drinking water and the health of the fish and birds that rely on those sources. Populations of beneficial microorganisms in soil also dwindle due to pesticides, as well as those of many non-target animals, such as bees, bats, spiders, fish and river dolphins.

Water: Agriculture accounts for 92% of the world’s water usage. Moreover, agriculture wastes 60% of the water it uses through leaky infrastructure, poor application techniques, and the cultivation of especially “thirsty” crops. Agricultural water use has certainly contributed to the current extreme drought California is facing.

Fertilizer: Excess fertilizer escapes fields as runoff into water sources and as gas into the atmosphere. In the water, these can cause eutrophication, which depletes oxygen from the water and kills the plants and fish living in it. It can also escape into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas that depletes the ozone layer. Furthermore, production of the primary elements in fertilizer — nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) — are expensive or limited. Nitrogen can be collected from the air, but only through a carbon-intensive production process. Phosphorous and potassium, meanwhile, only exist in limited quantities on Earth and they’re running out. Without them, food production is impossible.

Declining nutrient content: Crops of the past offered far more nutrients than crops do today, per calorie consumed. Modern agricultural methods, like close planting and the focus on yields, result in plants being unable to develop strong root systems and, in turn, being unable to absorb as many nutrients. Modern plants have between 10–25% fewer nutrients today than in the past. Not only that, but by investing in monoculture, we also eliminate variety in our diets, leading to illness and obesity.

Super weeds & superinsects: Modern agriculture attempts to subvert nature by biologically altering our plants to resist weeds and bugs, but nature is fighting back. Weeds and insects have begun to evolve to counteract the effects of pesticides and herbicides, creating a vicious cycle in which we are developing ever-more-toxic chemicals to ward off our agricultural foes.

This brings me back to the banana story. The irony is that this is not the first instance of the world’s bananas falling prey to a deadly virus. Beginning in 1903, the predecessor of the Cavendish, the Gros Michel, a sweeter, creamier banana, was wiped out by a cousin of the Tropical Race 4, the Race 1 virus. The Cavendish was one varietal (among many) that was resistant to the virus and, thus, chosen to replace it on plantations across the globe. Clearly the banana masterminds were not thinking long term and banana plantation owners are now having trouble finding a species that can replace the Cavendish. The reason? Tropical Race 4 came from “one of the ancient cradles of banana civilization,” Malaysia. There, it had the time to evolve into a super-virus, capable of tackling even the well-adapted native Malaysian bananas. Foreign bananas didn’t stand a chance. The current plight of the bananas is just one example of the dangers of monoculture — hopefully we’ll learn our lesson and shift back towards more sustainable forms of agriculture. In the meantime, it’s a good reason to buy local and organic.

Sustainable Agriculture Is The Best Way To Feed The World, New Research Confirms

CHEW NEWS

Sustainable Agriculture Is The Best Way To Feed The World, New Research Confirms

AUGUST 23, 2017 by EMILY MONACO

iStock/martinhosmart

Two new studies point to the importance of the continued development of sustainable agriculture around the world, both for the climate and for the world’s population.

One peer-reviewed paper authored by a researcher at Macalester College shows that sustainable agriculture is the best option for feeding the growing global population, despite the promises made by developers of genetically modified (GMO) crops. The other study, which comes from the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, shows that conventional agriculture has contributed nearly as much to climate change as deforestation over the last two centuries.

The latter study, appearing in PNAS, a journal published by the National Academy of Sciences, was the first to quantify soil carbon loss in this way. The researchers discovered that some 133 billion tons of carbon have been pulled from the top two meters of the earth’s soil over the last 200 years due to agriculture alone, and the rate of this carbon depletion is only increasing. By comparison, deforestation has contributed to the loss of 140 billion tons of soil carbon over the same period.

Soil naturally absorbs carbon in organic matter and sequesters it, which not only decreases the risk of the loss of other nutrients in the soil, but also keeps carbon out of the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming in the form of CO2. Industrial agricultural methods like tilling and neglecting to plant cover crops have contributed to this massive loss of soil carbon.

“It’s alarming how much carbon has been lost from the soil,” Jonathan Sanderman, a soil scientist at the Center and one of the authors of the research told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Small changes to the amount of carbon in the soil can have really big consequences for how much carbon is accumulating in the atmosphere.”

This is only one reason that sustainable agriculture may be the answer moving forward, as the second study released this week by Professor William G. Moseley notes that while GMO technology may provide tools for combatting food shortages, these techniques actually increase the cost of food production in developing countries, due to a prerequisite of standardized food production methods in environments where such standardization is difficult, if not impossible.

“[GMO] solutions are often aimed at maximizing production under ideal conditions, as opposed to minimizing risk in highly variable meteorological environments,” writes Mosley, noting that such technology “represents a significant financial risk” for small farmers living in variable rainfall environments.

These studies only confirm previous research on the topic, such as a report published in June of last year by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems that indicated that sustainable agriculture was the key to solving the world’s hunger crisis. This information is also consistent with comments made by United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization Director, General Jose Graziano da Silva, at an International Forum on Agriculture and Climate Change in 2015. Graziano da Silva called for “a paradigm shift” toward “more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient” food systems in order to feed the growing world population.

In 2009, the United Nations wrote that food production would have to double to feed the projected world population of nine billion by 2050.

Related on Organic Authority
Can Sustainable Farming Really Feed the World’s Hungry?
7 Ways Chicago is Becoming the New Beacon of the Sustainable Food Movement
To Feed the Hungry, We Need to Change Our Farming System

Ready Pac Foods Sends 24,000 Salads to Texas

Ready Pac Foods Sends 24,000 Salads to Texas

Ready Pac Foods has prepared a truck with 24,000 Chicken Caesar Bistro Bowl salads for those in Texas who may be affected by Hurricane Harvey. The company is working closely with the Red Cross to get the salads to those in need quickly. 

Truck that is ready to leave from Irwindale, California plant.

Ready Pac Foods CEO, Tony Sarsam, helps with loading cases of Chicken Caesar Salad Bistro Bowl salads.

"Our front line associates in Irwindale, California really helped make this possible," says Alan Hilowitz with Ready Pac Foods. "We mobilized on Thursday and loaded the truck on Friday. The truck left Friday evening and arrived in Houston Sunday morning."

The Red Cross handles distribution. "We’ve been working closely with the Red Cross since the beginning to make sure the salads get to those in need quickly," mentioned Hilowitz.

Publication date: 8/28/2017

Amy Keister: Food Is Precious

Amy Keister: Food Is Precious

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Amy Keister, Vice President of Consumer Engagement for Compass Group North America, will be speaking at the inaugural New York City Food Tank Summit, “Focusing on Food Loss and Food Waste,” which will be held in partnership with Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED) and with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and The Fink Family Foundation on September 13, 2017.

Keister holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from James Madison University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. She joined Compass Group in 2004 and has since managed a number of enterprise-wide initiatives in the areas of technology, finance, purchasing, and distribution.

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Amy Keister, Vice President of Consumer Engagement for Compass Group North America, will be speaking at Food Tank’s NYC Summit on September 13, 2017.

As VP of Consumer Engagement, Keister is responsible for driving sales as well as spearheading Compass Group North America’s sustainability efforts. Her mission is to create a great customer experience while ensuring a mindful business strategy that takes customers, clients, and the environment into consideration and has implemented best practices for beverages, queuing, and analytics. Keister personally declared April 28 as her Stop Food Waste Day holiday, helping Compass’s sustainability program reach their goals around sustainable purchasing, transparency, and food waste reduction. Keister also serves as a board member of Loaves and Fishes, a nonprofit that seeks to match a week’s worth of healthy groceries with underprivileged families.

Food Tank spoke with Keister about the issues which have inspired her to shift her behaviors and attitudes towards food.

Food Tank (FT): What originally inspired you to get involved in your work?

Amy Keister (AK): My grandparents never wasted anything. Food was precious to them, not something that was taken for granted or thrown away.

FT: What makes you continue to want to be involved in this kind of work?

AK: First and foremost my two children. I want to help change our behaviors and attitudes toward food so that they have a better relationship with both food and waste.   I’m also extremely inspired by the results we have achieved to date on reducing food waste and am humbled by the task still at hand.

FT: Who inspired you as a kid?

AK: My parents really inspired me while growing up in a rural town in Connecticut. It wasn’t a farm, just an acre or so, but my parents acted as if it was. We grew all of our veggies, had fruit trees, and we canned everything that we didn’t use right away. We had chickens, pigs, and a pet cow named hamburger…Nothing went to waste. Ever.

FT: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?

AK: Awareness that 40 percent of food in America is wasted, that sell-by dates are misleading, communicating how easy it is for everyone make a little change, and how all of these little changes add up to tremendous change.

FT: Can you share a story about a food hero who inspired you?

AK: Tom Colicchio. Not only is Tom a fantastic chef, he is a true humanitarian. Chef Tom founded Food Policy Action in 2012 to hold legislators accountable on votes that have an effect on food and farming. He has been an outspoken voice on issues like improving school meals, the use of antibiotics in food sources, and better anti-hunger policies in America. I was honored to have Tom Colicchio partner with us on Stop Food Waste Day to bring about the change that is needed in our world to combat food waste.

FT: What’s the most pressing issue in food and agriculture that you’d like to see solved?

AK: The overwhelming amount of food from going to farm to landfill. I want to see more food going from farm to table.

FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?

AK: Shop with a shopping list.

The NYC Food Tank Summit is now sold out. Register HERE to watch the livestream on Facebook. A few tickets remain for the Summit Dinner at Blue Hill Restaurant with a special menu from Chef Dan Barber. Apply to attend HERE. If you live in New York City, join us on September 14 for our FREE outdoor dance workout led by Broadway performers called Garjana featuring many great speakers raising awareness about food waste issues. Register HERE. 

Home Depot To Put Up Solar Farms On Its Rooftops

Home Depot To Put Up Solar Farms On Its Rooftops

Headlines August 19, 2017  technoadmin

Home Depot has announced that store rooftops at 50 of its locations will be turned into solar farms. The Atlanta, Georgia-based retailer will do this in partnership with Tesla and Current, a General Electric subsidiary. These store locations are in five states – New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and California plus the District of Columbia.

The area of an average Home Depot store is about 104,000 square feet which means that approximately 50,000 solar panels can be installed on the roof. The home improvement retailer will make use of power purchase agreements in leasing roof space and generating solar energy. To store the solar energy for use when there is no sun, Home Depot will use Tesla’s Powerpack batteries.

Reduce power grid demand

It is expected that electricity grid demand at every Home Depot store will be reduced by the solar farms at a level that is estimated to be between 30% and 35% every year. This is enough electricity to power about 2,300 households in the United States for a year. The rooftop solar farm initiative is part of Home Depot’s plans to increase renewable and alternative consumption to 135 megawatts by 2020.

“Our alternative energy projects are important elements of our sustainability and operations efforts as they reduce carbon emissions while also lowering our energy costs,” David Hawkins, a labor and operations vice president at Home Depot, said.

Wind farm

Earlier in the year Home Depot made a move towards wind energy when the retailer made a major investment in a renewable energy farm located in Northeast Texas focused on generating energy from wind sources. Consequently Home Depot committed to purchasing approximately 50 megawatts every year from the wind energy farm.

The sustainability efforts being undertaken by Home Depot are similar to those of its native Atlanta city. Atlanta has emerged as one of the cities which is committed to using renewable energy exclusively in a couple of decades. Earlier in the year the city council of Atlanta resolved that all operations of the city government must use renewable energy exclusively by the year 2025. The rest of the city, which includes households and the private sector, must turn to renewable energy by the year 2035.

Besides Home Depot, other retailers that are increasingly turning to renewable sources of energy include Amazon which began a solar power initiative earlier in the year. Before the year ends the Seattle, Washington-based online retail giant plans install solar panels on 15 of its fulfilment centers. And by 2020 Amazon intends to use solar power exclusively at 50 of its warehouses.

Pina: We Need More Innovation To Repurpose And Reclaim Natural Resources

INTERVIEWS

Pina: We Need More Innovation To Repurpose And Reclaim Natural Resources

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Tinia Pina, sustainability professional and Founder and CEO of Re-Nuble, is speaking at the inaugural New York City Food Tank Summit, “Focusing on Food Loss and Waste,” which will be held in partnership with Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED) and with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and The Fink Family Foundation on September 13, 2017.

Pina received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Technology from Virginia Tech and studied briefly at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She has six years of experience in the financial services industry and six years within the sustainability and food waste management industry. Her experiences related to food waste, food systems, and the circular economy have fueled her passion to increase our communities’ resilience, prosperity, and knowledge to help us live more conscious lives. Pina’s pioneering business model has earned her a Huffington Post Millennial Impact Grant, the American Express Emerging Innovator award, and a MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneur grant, among other honors.

Food Tank had the opportunity to talk with to Pina to find out what drives her innovative approach to reducing food waste.

Food Tank (FT) What originally inspired you to get involved in your work? 

Tinia Pina (TP):  Food became personal for me as a former volunteer Prep-SAT teacher in Harlem with New York Cares. Every Saturday at 9 am, I noticed how the options for nutritious food within a two-block radius from where I was teaching not only impacted the productivity of my kids in class but also ultimately dictated their future. By working to indirectly help increase the production of more produce supply, I am committed to helping more healthy food become affordable as a result of more organic farms servicing densely populated areas.

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Tinia Pina is a sustainability professional, and Founder and CEO of Re-Nuble. She will be speaking on September 13, 2017, at Food Tank’s NYC Summit.

FT: What makes you continue to want to be involved in this kind of work?

TP: Until premium priced, slow, organic, food fast casual chains are located in communities representative of a larger demographic range, I will continue to fight this good fight. These establishments’ business models are incredibly successful but their impact is limited if they are claiming to be a benefactor in increasing the accessibility of nutritious food.

FT: Who inspired you as a kid?

TP: The most immediate and direct sources of inspiration were my mom and my grandfather. Both were relentless, independent, hard workers that always figured out a way to make something work. These qualities transcend my career for what has honestly evolved into my life’s purpose by figuring out how to apply contrarian ways of thinking to various challenges present in our food system. As an engineer, my grandfather was a big thinker and made logical order of non-consequential theories and topics. I like to believe I apply this aspect of his personality when problem-solving as I tend to connect the dots related to trends, developments, and innovations that impact very different economies while reflecting my mom’s ability to persevere.

FT: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?

TP: I see distributed manufacturing, production, and sourcing being the largest opportunity for a number of reasons: increasing supply chain efficiencies, resilience, and economic development. Though nascent in development, our team also recognizes and is working on finding ways to use existing biological resources to increase plant productivity with the goal of removing the need for synthetic agriculture inputs.

FT: Can you share a story about a food hero who inspired you? 

TP:  Ever since I read Jonathan Bloom’s American Wasteland, I have become enamored by the negative externalities that exist after food is consumed. I think there are a ton of heroes that have really left a footprint on returning a sense of conscious, purpose, and innovation both in food service and food production, such as Dan Barber, but to make the dialogue around food waste relatable and meaningful to the common consumer and will always influence my ‘why,’ has been effectively done by Jonathan Bloom.

FT: What’s the most pressing issue in food and agriculture that you’d like to see solved?

TP: I’d like to see the food system incorporate more innovation in the repurposing and reclamation of natural resources. I know many producers and food distributors want to increase their food waste recycling but the existing infrastructure is de minimis at best. Often this entices major decision makers to resort to the option that is the most economical, easiest to decide on, and allows their team to easily outsource. That’s right, it is landfilling. Given the barriers to entry and high costs, I hope that this spurs more partnerships and innovation, blending existing technologies in applications that allow for higher volumes of food waste processing into new and innovative products serving higher market-based needs.

FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?

TP: In my apartment, we try to be stewards by controlling our own food waste, which is heavily dependent on meal planning. New food items are seldom purchased until we have ensured that we’ve used everything in our pantry and refrigerator to the best of our abilities. This requires ingenuity, thriftiness, and the ability to not be easily influenced by consumerism.

Can Agritech Save The Future of Food?

Photo: SKY GREENS

Can Agritech Save The Future of Food?

Aug. 7  06:00 am JST

By Maxine Cheyney for The Journal (ACCJ)TOKYO

The Fourth Industrial Revolution—a fusion of cloud-connected technologies, Big Data, and biotech—is changing the way we do business, travel, communicate, and even how we eat and produce food. The agriculture industry has already seen two revolutions of its own, with scientists and manufacturers dabbling in mechanization, plant breeding, and genetics. Now, this technological shift has sparked the rise of smart farms and what is being called the Third Green Revolution.

Although agritech—a broad collection of innovations and technologies that can be applied to farming—is not new, it is finding new life in Japan and abroad. As the world’s resources are stretched thin by population growth, and as environmental factors begin to impact our food supply, agritech is finding sure footing as a possible solution.

This is particularly true in Japan. Following the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011, the demand for untainted food swelled. The declining population of farmers has caused further production problems, making technologies that can improve yield, profit, and provide clean produce more important than ever.

More companies are looking for ways to invest, whether through venture capital funds, public equities, or direct investment. In Japan, technology companies such as Toshiba Corporation and Panasonic Corporation are finding ways to support smart farming.

But how are these technologies progressing? What potential do self-contained farms have to become the new way to grow fruit and vegetables? What is the science behind the agritech movement?

TECH TIME

According to Digital America: a tale of haves and have-mores, a 2015 report by consultants McKinsey & Company, agriculture and hunting remain the least-digitized industries in the United States.

But farmers have long been seeking the most efficient tools for their trade. Sensors that measure air and soil, livestock biometrics, and automated systems that use the Internet of Things (IoT) to control irrigation are just some of the tools already available. Precision equipment, geo-positioning systems, Big Data, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, and even robotics are also leaving their mark on farming.

“The whole agritech sector is really interesting—it’s kind of like the healthcare sector, because it’s fundamentally important,” said Trista Bridges, founder and president of Vizane KK. “It’s very complex, very regulated, and there’s lots of different actors and stakeholders.”

The Journal also spoke with representatives from Japan’s Institute of Agricultural Machinery (IAM), part of the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), about this growing sector.

“In smart agriculture,” they explained, “it is important for it to be cost-effective and have set rules and regulations, such as liability upon accidents.”

Bridges recently helped organize the AgriTech Summit (AG/SUM), which took place in Tokyo from May 23 to 25 and focused on how disruptive technology is helping to shape agriculture. She explained that many start-ups at the event provided a variety of solutions to meet a range of agriculture needs. Not one, however, delivered an end-to-end solution.

One of the main issues is understanding farmers’ needs, which differ from farm to farm. “The [return on investment] on a lot of these technologies is not proven at all,” she added. “It’s extremely complex to make a smart farm that is full-functioning, and indoor farming is probably a little easier because it’s self-contained.”

She also pointed out that the price of LED light bulbs is beginning to drop, an important change that will help many indoor farms.

Japan-based plant factory operations and vegetable production company Spread Co., Ltd. has created its own LED lighting for the soon-to-open Techno Farm Keihanna. Chief Executive Officer Shinji Inada said, “The lights are tailored to vegetables cultivated in indoor vertical farms.” He added that, compared with existing LED lighting, the system reduces energy consumption by 30 percent.

The number of self-contained farms is certainly increasing, helping the sector grow. They also provide a place for innovative technologies to be tested.

“I think it has a lot of potential, especially in a country where you have limited space and fewer people working on farmland,” Bridges said. But, she added, it is not yet clear in what situations equipping a farm with robotics and advanced technologies is the best option.

Inada added, “Although indoor farming comes with its fair share of challenges, its ability to control the environment not only allows for more stable production year round, but also for the cultivation of high-quality produce without the use of pesticides.”

Another aspect to consider is the cost of bringing in produce. “In Japan, you have substantial issues with importation of food,” Bridges explained. This means pressure is mounting for Japan to become more self-sustaining, especially as migration to the city increases. This is a concern shared by the United States.

Gotham Greens, an urban greenhouse opened its doors in Brooklyn in 2009. During the winter months, much of New York City’s produce was coming from places such as Mexico, California, and Israel, and CEO Viraj Puri saw a business opportunity. “We realized that by the time the produce made its way here, it was at least a week old and had changed hands multiple times. We also began to notice that consumer preferences were shifting toward more local and sustainably produced food.”

SECTOR SOLUTIONS

The importance of agritech falls into two crucial areas undergoing change: climate and population. Rapid growth of urban areas, resulting in declining land availability for agriculture, is fueling the need to find farming alternatives.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations report, Strategic Work of FAO for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, by 2050 there will be more than nine billion people on earth. That means we will need to produce 60 percent more food—an increase from 8.4 billion metric tons a year to almost 13.5 billion metric tons. This will require increased use of fertilizer, water, pesticides, and drugs, and the introduction of new crop varieties and animal breeds. Much of this production will come from already-cultivated land.

Unpredictable climate change also impacts the productivity of farms. The report states that sustainability relies on enhanced systems and “we must learn to produce more food with less resources and do so under much harsher conditions.” Smart farm alternatives could provide some respite.

One such smart farm is in Singapore. Sky Greens, a low-carbon, hydraulic-driven vertical farm, has found a way to create a sustainable business using minimal land, water, and energy. CEO Jack Ng explained how he saw an opportunity while working in the construction industry at a time when Indonesia had stopped exporting sand to Singapore. This heavily impacted the industry.

He knew that if something such as that happened in the agricultural sector, the impact would be much greater. “I realized that our country is very vulnerable due to our size and open economy,” he said.

Sky Urban Solutions—Sky Greens’s holding company—has patented its water-pulley system, which harnesses hydraulic power for irrigation. “This reduces the energy required to rotate the trays of crops upwards to get natural sunlight and down to the water tray for irrigation,” he explained.

Ng claims the system uses just five percent of the water used in conventional farming, and reduces energy consumption—each tower requires just 40W per hour to grow up to 2,500 plants.

Reduced labor is another key benefit. “The opportunity for our technology lies in the fact that it requires relatively few people to operate,” said Inada. “And it provides a comfortable and safe environment for its farm workers.”

The environmental benefits are also broad, with no agricultural runoff thanks to a scalable and flexible closed-loop irrigation system. Sky Greens has technology that can meet the unique needs of the local environment. Towers can also be built on non-arable land.

Gotham Greens, too, has found sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions that serve its inner-city communities all year round. “Our pesticide-free produce is grown using ecologically sustainable methods in 100 percent clean, electricity-powered greenhouses. We use advanced, recirculating hydroponic techniques to maintain precision plant nutrition.”

In addition, the greenhouse uses many of the technologies mentioned previously, including sensors, controls, and data science to create optimal conditions for the plants to grow. “Hydroponic farming, when practiced effectively, can be very efficient,” Puri said.

NARO-IAM has also developed a movable bench system for high-density cultivation of strawberries. This means workers do not have to move between cultivation benches, saving time and labor. The organization has also developed a robotic strawberry harvester.

Other projects to further develop agritech are now on NARO-IAM’s drawing board, including joining the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) created by the Cabinet Office of the government of Japan. NARO-IAM works as the representative research body, looking at revolutionary technologies to boost rice production.

Of course, this all requires rules and regulations to ensure food safety. “In March 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan announced safety measure guidelines for autopilot agricultural machinery, and this will be revised as autopilot in agriculture advances,” NARO-IAM experts explained.

Efforts in Japan to encourage smart farming businesses are strong. According to the Nikkei Asian Review on May 22, the government of Japan is moving to cut taxes for operators of high-tech indoor farms to encourage growth in this sector. Land that is paved over for indoor farms will be subject to the same taxes as agricultural land rather than higher property taxes.

Japanese technology companies are also taking an interest in the smart farming sector in Singapore. Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation, opened an indoor vegetable farm in Singapore, and uses its LED lighting to grow Japanese vegetables that cannot withstand Singapore’s tropical climate.

FUTURE FARMS

Opening a smart farm is not all smooth sailing. Inada’s experience opening Spread’s Kameoka Plant in 2007 highlighted this. “It took us about six years to reach the point of stable cultivation in such a large environment.” He explained that there were also difficulties with conveying the concept to stores and the general public.

Ng said some farmers have misconceptions about the aim of his farm. “I am often misunderstood; [farmers think] that my innovation is built in order to replace them,” he said. “Farmers are also generally skeptical of modern methods of cultivation, and are therefore slow to embrace technology and engineering solutions.”

Even now, Ng admits that he is still learning in the rapidly growing agritech sector. “Any viable modern farming system is a synthesis of two main branches of science: engineering and horticulture.” Coming from the construction industry, for Ng this meant learning from scratch about plant science, crop behavior, pest control, and environmental factors.

Gotham Greens’ Puri, too, had to overcome obstacles when opening his greenhouse. “We initially faced some setbacks,” he said. “Challenges we faced included finding the right real estate and landlord, as well as logistics, regulatory challenges—zoning and permitting—and high upfront costs.”

One of Ng’s main concerns with the agricultural sector is that “many traditional farmers are giving up their trade, getting on in years, and are not likely to be succeeded by their children. The younger generations will not be attracted to agribusiness unless it pays more, requires much less work, and offers better prospects.”

However, the opportunity is there to further advance the smart farming sector, and having the right approach is crucial. Puri emphasized the need for perseverance and capital for any business looking to enter the market.

“For any vertical farm or businesses involving intensive cultivation, mixed or integrated farming, it is important to work backwards by identifying market demand to determine crop selection.”

Puri’s concerns for the industry goes further than just the pressures of the environment. “One of the problems with our current food system is over-industrialization, which has led to a huge disconnect between consumers and producers.”

“Long distance transport associated with trucking food across the country—and the food waste that results from it—are also significant issues.” he added. The idea that Gotham Greens can harvest daily and deliver food straight to supermarkets and restaurants within hours makes the self-contained greenhouse a viable option in any big city environment.

Japan’s smart farming sector is certainly growing, and Inada is looking to expand Spread’s operations. “Domestically, we will aim for a 10 percent share of the Japanese lettuce market by utilizing a franchise/ownership model to establish 20 facilities and a daily production capacity of 500,000 heads of lettuce.”

As technological innovation transforms agriculture, the smart farming sector is bound to go through the trials that other industries have experienced during such transitions. But we are sure to see more and more smart farms on the global scene, and the Third Green Revolution could ensure that each of the world’s soon-to-be-nine-billion people are fed.

Photo: SKY GREENS

Gotham Greens, New York  Photo: GOTHAM GREENS

Which Country Is The Most Sustainable?

Which Country Is The Most Sustainable?

The Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation, ranks countries on food system sustainability based off of three pillars: food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture, and nutritional challenges.

“A food system does not sit in isolation, and a large number of stakeholders act together according to dynamics created by specific drivers,” say researchers Francesca Allievi, Marta Antonelli, and Katarzyna Dembska, who worked on the Food Sustainability Index with the BCFN Foundation. This causes increasing complexity at the regional, national, continental, and global level, they explain. Trying to assess the interaction among its parts creates a high level of these creating a high level of uncertainty when trying to assess the interaction among its parts.”

Released in 2016, the FSI aims to encourage policymakers to place food and its production issues as high-priority items in their policy agendas. BCFN has since released two Food Sustainability Reports: “Climate Change and Famine: Issues at the Heart of International Awareness,” which focused on climate change, food security, and food safety; and “Environmental, Food and Migration Sustainability: Three Challenges To Overcome Together,” raising awareness about crucial issues surrounding food and sustainability. Both reports were a joint effort between BCFN and the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy.

According to the FSI, The world population is projected to reach 8.1 billion by 2025. Ninety-five percent of this growth will come from developing countries, many of which are dealing with the double burden of hunger and rising obesity. Meanwhile, climate change is presenting new challenges to the agriculture sector. By highlighting performance of different countries and identifying best practices, the index establishes a comparable benchmark for leaders around the world to reference and measure their progress in establishing a sustainable food system.

The FSI is publicly available. Data can be accessed in the form of a map or a country ranking, and the full dataset can be downloaded. Through this approach, the FSI can serve as a tool for policymakers and experts to take action, students to be educated, and the public to adjust their behavior for the well-being of our health and our planet.

“The objectives of the FSI are not only to highlight the performance of countries, but to establish a comparable benchmark, to offer examples of best practices at the national and city levels, and to measure progress over time,” say the researchers.

The index analyzed the 20 countries in the G20, which maintain the largest economies and contain two-thirds of the global population, as well as five nations from regions otherwise unrepresented, using 58 different indicators to measure sustainability. FSI identified France, Japan, and Canada as the top-scoring countries. The top score earner, France, maintains a holistic policy response to food waste and nutrition issues. For example, French supermarkets are required to donate excess food and tax incentives are in place to discourage unhealthy food consumption.

Fixing Food, a white paper released with the FSI, advises developing countries to use institutional and infrastructure reform to improve sustainable agriculture practices. “Including more transparent land rights, greater access to finance…and stronger infrastructure for storage, transport, and logistic, can promote greater efficiency,” write authors of the report. Policy options to address nutritional challenges include public education campaigns, tax measures on unhealthy foods, and restrictions on junk food advertising to children.

The EIU and BCFN Foundation also developed City Monitor, a city-level database and evaluation tool for urban food systems. City Monitor applies sets of quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as child obesity rates and quality of urban farming initiatives, to assess urban food systems.

Together, City Monitor and the FSI provide city and national-level benchmarking tools to help leaders take action on food production, nutrition, and food waste issues. “Progress will be measured over time by updating of the FSI in the next years through new inputs, feedbacks, and new focus of research,” say the BCFN Foundation researchers.

How the World’s Smartest Cities Are Being Built

JEFF DESJARDINS  August 15, 2017

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How the World’s Smartest Cities Are Being Built

View the high resolution version of today’s graphic by clicking here.

As the world’s biggest cities continue to sprawl with many millions of new people, they’ll look to many of the technologies and tactics covered in today’s infographic from Raconteur to work smarter – and not harder – for their inhabitants.

WHY CITIES?

Cities are the engines of modern society.

They power the global economy, consume vast amounts of resources, house the majority of the world’s population, and create much of the pollution and emissions that have scientists concerned about the future.

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And while big cities consume a lot of resources already – this hardly compares to the megacities of the near-future. In fact, in our lifetimes, we will see massive urban areas in Africa and Asia with populations that swell to 50 million people or more.

That’s right – there will be swelling urban populations that consume more food, energy, and materials than most countries.

THE RIGHT TIMING

While the prospect of optimizing for the problems of burgeoning metropolises may seem daunting, the timing is actually perfect. The arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT) – thanks to innovations in cheap sensor technology, big data, and predictive analytics – is making it possible to tackle all sorts of urban issues.

Integrating this, along with other advancements in information communication technology (ICT), into urban planning is the vision for smart cities:

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But, enough on the broad strokes of this movement – here’s how specific changes are taking place.

WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER

Here are some of the initiatives taken on by the people running the smartest cities today:

Smart roads
Monitoring vehicle and pedestrian levels to optimize or divert traffic according to conditions. Intelligent, adaptive fast and slow lanes for walking and cycling.

Smart buildings
Rooftop gardens or vegetation on sides of buildings to help with insulation. Optimization of heating, energy usage, lighting, and ventilation. Integrating photovoltaics and wind turbines into building designs.

Smart lighting
Intelligent and weather adaptive street lights to boost energy efficiency.

Smart waste management
Monitoring garbage levels in containers in real-time to optimize collection routes.

Smart grids
Energy consumption monitoring and management. Uses tech to detect and react to local changes in usage.

And cities aren’t the only thing becoming smarter. See how the home is becoming smarter, as well.

Soil Testing: The Need for Total Testing

Soil Testing: The Need for Total Testing

July 28, 2017 in Eco-Farming, Farm Management, Soil Fertility, Soil Life, Soils, Uncategorized, Weeds

What many farmers probably don’t know about soil testing is that most soil tests only tell us what is soluble in the soil. They do not tell us what is actually there in the soil, no matter what fertilizer salesmen might like to imply. To find out what is actually there requires a total acid digest similar to what is used for plant tissue analysis. Mining labs run these total acid di­gests on ore samples which are crushed, ground and extracted with concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acid solutions, but a mining assay does not determine total carbon, nitrogen and sulfur as a plant tissue analysis would. These ele­ments need a separate procedure essen­tial for evaluating soil humic reserves.

Total soil testing is key to understanding your soils’ needs.

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Most soil tests measure total carbon, which then is multiplied by 1.72 to calcu­late soil organic matter. This assumes that most of the carbon in the soil is humus of one form or another. While this may or may not be true, determining the car­bon to nitrogen, nitrogen to sulfur, and nitrogen to phosphorus ratios is a good guide for evaluating organic matter, and this requires testing total nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus as well as carbon.

While carbon in almost any form is a benefit to the soil, it helps enormously if it is accompanied by the right ratios of ni­trogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Though these ratios are not set in stone, a target for carbon to nitrogen is 10:1, for nitro­gen to sulfur is 5.5:1 and for nitrogen to phosphorus is 4:1. This works out to an ideal carbon to sulfur ratio of 55:1, and a carbon to phosphorus ratio of 40:1. Because soil biology is very adjustable these targets are not exact, but achieving them in soil total tests is a good indica­tion of humus reserves that will supply the required amounts of amino acids, sulfates and phosphates whenever the soil food web draws on them.

Humus as Vague Science

Humus formation and utilization is a fuzzy subject that has long been poorly understood. Humification may result from long-term geological processes as with the formation of peat, brown coal and leonardite. But humification can also result from humus-forming activ­ity by mycorrhizal fungi, actinomycetes or any microbial species that can add to or withdraw, somewhat like bees stor­ing honey in the hive from the soil’s storehouse of humic acids. The pre­cise carbon structures of humic acids are enormously difficult to characterize, which means carbon structures end up classified as humic acids whenever they are too large to pass through bacterial cell walls. This pretty much limits humic acids to consumption by fungi, actino­mycetes or protozoa. This vague but use­ful rule draws the dividing line between humic and fulvic acids at somewhere around 2,000 atomic weight units — above is humic acid, and below is fulvic.

It is not much easier to determine the precise structures of fulvic acids. Though fulvic acids can also be extract­ed from peat, brown coal or leonardite, generally fulvic acids are low molecular weight residues from the breakdown of plant and animal wastes. However, much of the carbon chemistry that plants give off around their roots as root exudates could be classified as fulvic acids based on molecular weight. This low molecu­lar weight fulvic chemistry is very ver­satile and may be taken up by plants, consumed by soil bacteria, or used by humus building microorganisms to as­semble stable, high molecular weight humic acids.

Many of these humus-forming mi­crobes form symbiotic relationships with crop roots and capitalize on the fact that virtually all plants that are growing well also give off some of their sap as an energy-rich bonanza of root exudates. When photosynthesis is abundant these microbes convert surplus root exudates into humic acids and store them in the soil as clay/humus complexes. Then when there is rain or photosynthetic conditions are not ideal they tap into these stores, much like bees do in the hive. This evens out plant and soil food ­web interactions and keeps things going on a fairly even keel.

Where we really see the benefits of this plant/microbe/humus interaction is where we see root exudate overlap, which will be dealt with later. The important bit here is the organisms that consume humic acids also store them as clay/humus complexes. This is a good reason to use 10 percent soil in making compost to ensure adequate soil surfaces for humus complexes to form. The large molecular weight carbon compounds in the resulting clay/humus complexes will incorporate amino acids, sulfates and phosphates along with silicates and vari­ous cations. Only a small portion of these materials show up on soluble soil tests even though they are available to the mycorrhi­zae, actinomycetes and/or protozoa.

Charcoal & Fossil Humates

Carbon is the basis of life, and in al­most any form carbon benefits the soil by attracting life. Biochar is a very ben­eficial carbon source. But just because something is a carbon source does not mean it has sufficient other elements as­sociated with it. The process of making biochar pretty much guarantees that most of the nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus are driven off; and since these elements are anions, the char that results — while bio-active — will have a high pH because it will still contain most of its original cal­cium, magnesium, potassium and silicon.

Fossil humates, such as are mined or extracted from brown coal or leonardite, also tend to be deficient in nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Even composts, which tend to be better balanced, may be deficient in certain elements. Chars, fos­sil humates and composts will increase soil life, but will that soil life scavenge the soil for such things as nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus and tie them up so they aren’t soluble? We only need small amounts to be soluble on a steady basis.

If we want to achieve the best results we should test and adjust our ratios of carbon to nitrogen, nitrogen to sulfur and nitrogen to phosphorus, not only in our soils but also in the chars, humates or composts we apply — and this requires total testing. The significance of these ratios is huge in developing a long-range plan for thriving, robust growth, efficient pho­tosynthesis and biological nitrogen fixation without resort to nitrogen fertilizers.

Just suppose the ratio of C to N in the soil reserve is 15:1 or even 20:1 and there’s not enough amino acid nitrogen in the soil’s humus reserve. In cloudy weather when photosynthesis is reduced, root exudation and nitrogen fixation are low and the microbial symbiosis with crop roots mines the humus flywheel — then it comes up short in amino acids.

Or suppose the N:S or N:P ratios don’t deliver enough S or P. Will there be enough free in the soil or will the plant come up short? Deficiencies may also include silicon or boron, or any macro- or micronutrients that might be stored in the soil’s clay/ humus complexes. What can the soil’s humus flywheel deliver? Total tests are our best clue.

Keep in mind that we do not want more than a steady trickle of soluble nutrients. For the most part we want our nutrients to be insoluble but available. We should also keep in mind Liebig’s law of the minimum. The great 19th century chemist, Justus von Liebig, pointed out that plants can only grow to the extent of their most deficient element, and it won’t matter how much other stuff they have. This implies that whenever there is a shortage of something in the soil’s humus flywheel, the plant may have to slow down and limp along.

Building N, S & P

Truly amino acids are of first importance for protein de­velopment, but as long as nitrogen fixation supplies a steady stream of amino acids from the microbial symbiosis around crop roots there is no other element closer to hand in greater abundance than nitrogen.

A more urgent deficiency to remedy is sulfur. Sulfur works at surfaces and boundaries making things accessible. As such it is the catalyst for most of plant and soil chemistry. For example, sulfur is what peels the sticky, miserly magnesium loose from its bonding sites in the soil. Without sufficient sulfur the plant may not take up enough magnesium even if it is abundant in the soil. This deprives the plant of sufficient chlorophyll to make efficient use of sunshine, and then there is a shortage of sugary root exudates to feed nitrogen fixation — which requires 10 units of sugar to produce one amino acid. Considering how common magnesium deficiency is in plants growing on magnesium-rich soils, we shouldn’t ignore sulfur deficiencies in the soil reserves. Many soils are abundant with magnesium, but without the 55:1 carbon to sulfur ratio needed for optimum growth, plants can easily be magnesium deficient, poor in photosynthesis — and when they don’t make enough sugar they won’t have good nitrogen fixation.

One can amend sulfur in the soil in various ways. With chars or raw humates, both of which are deficient in nitrogen and sulfur, small amounts of ammonium sulfate (30 to 80 pounds per acre depending on the case) can be helpful. But keep in mind this is a soluble chemical and only so much can be absorbed by the soil’s carbon complexes and the microbial life they support.

Potassium sulfate might also be of use, but total soil testing often indicates an abundance of total potassium and more in soluble form interferes with magne­sium uptake, which usually is counter­productive. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is most commonly used for corrections, though only about 50 ppm of sulfur (0.4 to 0.6 tons per acre) can be absorbed by the soil in one application.

The problem here is sulfate tends to leach if there’s too much. That might be good if all it carried with it was magnesium as most soils are high in magnesium. But, what if the sulfate carries copper, zinc, manganese or even potassium along with it? Can we afford such losses?

If we try to keep soluble sulfur topped up at 50 ppm (Morgan test) by using gyp­sum mixed with compost or raw humates, gypsum will probably work beautifully and not acidify the soil. It may take a few years to build sulfur levels into the soil totals, but patience is a virtue. However, when the soil pH is already 7.0 or above, elemental sulfur becomes the input of choice. Elemental sulfur pulls oxygen out of the atmosphere as it oxidizes to sulfate and this lowers pH — which for alkaline soils is desirable. Again, try to keep the soluble sulfur level around 50 ppm and gradually build this element into the soil reserves as humic reactions or interactions progress.

Visual Signs

Sometimes we can see a field that had water standing in a streak, puddle or blanket for a day or two, which leached some of the sulfur and left a meander­ing, light-color streak or area where the water was. Often such events are repeat­ed, which can make the area of leaching stand out rather clearly. This is sulfur deficiency, which leads to magnesium deficiency in plant growth on what is probably a high mag soil — which would explain not draining fast enough in the first place. Usually on such soils the calcium leaches leaving the magnesium behind. Fixing such problems takes care­ful applications to the deficient area rather than just making a simple recom­mendation for an entire field. It may be possible to remedy such a deficiency by eye by following the lighter colored area with one or more sulfur applications — most likely gypsum — along with compost, fossil humates or biochar.

Phosphorus may also be deficient, though sometimes total phosphate is surprisingly high without sufficient phosphorus availability. If a total test shows the N:P ratio is too high, add enough rock phosphate to compensate for the deficiency and apply this with compost, raw humates or char inputs. As with sulfur, calculate the amounts once the inputs are spread and don’t go overboard. Adding too much can be like having a soup with too much salt in it.

Keep in mind it is not rare for total tests to show 10 to 100 times as much total P as shows up on soluble tests. Al­though sulfur deficiency limits phos­phorus availability, the key deficiency that often must be remedied to make phosphorus available from soil totals is copper. Phosphorus is useless without copper. Though 2 ppm soluble copper is generally considered adequate, 5 ppm gives more margin and 10 is not harm­ful unless the soil is extremely light with poor humus reserves.

Zinc deficiency can also keep phos­phorus tied up, and a 10:1 phosphorus to zinc ratio is a desirable target in total tests. Total tests of rock phosphates gen­erally show the desired amount of zinc. Usually trace mineral deficiencies such as copper and zinc show up most clearly in winter where these elements work 1/100th less efficiently at 30 or 40°F as they do at 70 or 80°F. The signs of these deficiencies are quite obvious in winter, and if the deficiencies are remedied, growth in cool periods of spring or au­tumn will be much better.

Silicon & Boron

Even though silicon is secondary in importance to sulfur, silicon accounts for all transport in plants. It is the basis of capillary action. As a co-factor, boron works with silicon to provide sap pres­sure and often is found in appropriate amounts in siliceous rock formations. Boron has an affinity for silicon in the capillary linings where borate molecules take the place of silicate molecules. How­ever, boron forms three electron bonds where silicon forms four. Boron’s in­ability to form the fourth bond creates a hunger in the surrounding silicate mol­ecules, which causes them to draw water and electrolytes from the roots through the capillary system to the transpiration sites in the canopy. Without sufficient boron, plants with high boron require­ments like legumes, crucifers, vines, etc., will have too little sap pressure to feed their canopy. Then they may wilt at mid-day or not have enough root exudation at night. Where plants have high brix in the early morning, boron is deficient.

Lest we forget, however, the key role of sulfur is in the soil biology around plant roots where sulfates and sulfur-containing amino acids interact with the surfaces of soil particles, most of which are siliceous. Actinomycetes and mycor­rhizal fungi in particular need sulfur to peel silicon and boron away from the surfaces of clay and sand particles in the soil. This is a gradual process because it only works at surfaces. It is the nitrogen to sulfur ratio in soil total tests that lets us know whether the soil food web can do an adequate job of silicon and boron ac­cess — and this makes a huge difference with how well alfalfa, tomatoes, grapes, wheat or other crops can transport things.

Most importantly, since photosyn­thesis is hugely dependent upon the ef­ficiency of transport, silicon and boron are essential for efficient photosynthesis. Energy has to travel in chemical form from the chloroplasts, which capture sunlight, to where sugars are made. Also any newly made sugars have to get out of the way of the next sugars being made, and so forth. Anything that slows down transport slows down photosynthesis and will ultimately slow down the nitro­gen fixation that chlorophyll formation depends on.

Sugars & Nitrogen Fixation

Usually sugar is the most limiting factor in nitrogen fixation. This shows up in root exudate overlap. Where garlic, ginger, corn, beans, bananas, etc., double their root density in the soil and have root exudate overlap between plants, they grow more vigorously.

Ever notice where corn is planted too thickly so that five or six seeds sprout in just a few inches? Always the corn sprouts in the middle grow fastest. Later if the corn isn’t thinned there may be competition for nutrients and moisture; but if nutrient and moisture competition was all that was going on the middle corn seedlings wouldn’t be the most robust.

Native Americans used to plant corn — without fertilizer — as a soil-build­ing crop by planting their seeds in tri­angle shaped groups or hills to maximize root exudation, nitrogen fixation, and amino acid uptake. They grew big, tall, long-season corns that built carbon into their soils. In some cases they bundled the stover for winter fuel, which they burned, sprinkling the ashes back on their fields. They did this for hundreds and even thousands of years without recourse to nitrogen fertilizers. In terms of efficiency, agriculture took some giant steps backward in the 20th century.

If we had corn planters that perfectly singulated seed and we could plant with double drills that alternated seeds from left and right drills with 10-inch spacing in each drill and 5 inches in between drills, the seeds would come up in a zig­zag pattern that maximizes root exudate overlap in high population corn plant­ings. This would minimize the need for nitrogen fertilizers.

Soil Testing: An Eye-Opener

As an agricultural consultant in far northern Queensland, Australia, I grew $2,000-$3,000 of culinary ginger in my garden as well as an aloe vera nursery without nitrogen fertilizers. Both were high-silicon crops. At nearby Mt. Garnet we had a diatomaceous earth mine that sold diatomaceous earth (DE) at $300/ton — somewhat pricey, but an excellent silicon fertilizer. When I sprinkled this DE on my ginger it grew beautifully and was twice as robust wherever I spilled a liberal amount. The same was true for my aloe vera. What was clear was that nitrogen fixation and amino acid uptake by both ginger and aloe was far more abundant with high-silicon availability. On a nearby banana farm using the same diatomaceous earth at a rate of 1 ton per hectare (2.5 acres) there were 1.28 more new leaves per month, a sure sign of quality nitrogen availability and robust growth. This meant silicon was a huge influence in nitrogen fixation.

One of the most common problems is too much soluble nitrogen at any given time. A little nitrogen on a steady basis is good, but it is easy to go overboard. Nitrogen availability is a double-edged sword because too much soluble N leads to the nitrification of amino acids, which strips silicon and boron from the soil while shutting down nitrogen fixation. The result is insufficient transport in following crops. We have to be observant and intelligent in our management of soil nitrogen, as ignorance is hardly bliss.

Grasses usually are the best silicon accumulators, which makes maintain­ing them in our soil cover along with legumes a good idea. Bare soil is always a dead loss and a sure way to ensure sili­con and boron leaching — which easily results from too much cultivation, and this welcomes weeds. Weeds love soluble nutrients, which is one of the reasons we don’t want soluble nutrients. What we want is insoluble but available nutrients, and we want to get all our nitrogen from the air where it is abundant.

My target on pastures is to keep sol­uble silicon levels above 80 ppm with totals above 1,000 ppm — not so hard without nitrogen fertilizer abuse. For tomatoes I like 100 ppm soluble silicon which is more difficult; and for cher­ries — a really silicon-sensitive crop — I aim for 120 ppm. This really takes good management though it pays off hand­somely. Hopefully American soil labo­ratories will take total soil testing on board like my Australian lab, Environmental Analysis Laboratories (EAL).

Though growers can send samples to EAL, I’d prefer a quicker, more respon­sive domestic approach. So far Texas Plant and Soil Lab in Edinburg, Texas, and Midwest Laboratories in Omaha, Nebraska, have indicated interest. I’m not sure how they do with the Mehlich III analysis, my preference, but I’d like to think they can perform adequate total soil testing including totals for C, N and S.

By Hugh Lovel. This article was published in the April 2013 issue of Acres U.S.A.magazine.

Property Owners Reap Cost Savings With Green Building

Property Owners Reap Cost Savings With Green Building

June 27, 2017 | Julie Littman, Bisnow Bay Area 

Eco-friendly features are cropping up on buildings around the country. In addition to green roofs and solar panels, private-public partnerships are increasingly building more efficient and cost-effective stormwater systems. And owners are reaping major monetary rewards for their efforts.

ULI The roooftop at Gerling Edlen's Meier Frank building in Portland, Ore.

Green infrastructure is an umbrella term for anything that helps manage stormwater naturally and often includes rain gardens, green roofs, cisterns and rainwater recycling. Stormwater runoff, which often contains oil, grease and fertilizer, is among the most consistent pollutants of local waterways, according to the U.S. National Research Council. With more development in urban areas consisting of concrete and other impervious surfaces, stormwater often has no place to go other than down the local sewage channel. Without mitigation, the stormwater can overflow channels, flooding streets.

With this in mind, local governments are starting to require some kind of green infrastructure within commercial development and are creating coordinated green infrastructure networks that include public and private sites.

The Urban Land Institute, which reviewed several water management and green infrastructure systems in a recent report, found in addition to benefiting the city, green infrastructure is adding value for property owners. 

“We found that green infrastructure was capable of creating value,” ULI Senior Director of Urban Resilience Katharine Burgess said. “It created an enhanced user experience, improved placemaking opportunity and improved development yield of land to be used more efficiently.”

These additional amenities, such as green roofs, parks and water features, will often lead to rental increases. A 200-unit apartment complex at 1330 Boylston in Boston garnered an additional $300 to $500/month in rent for units that overlooked the green roof. The green roof cost $113K to build and the extra rent nets $120K/year, according to the ULI report.

Savings Initiative

Courtesy of Katharine Burgess ULI Senior Director, Urban Resilience Katharine Burgess

Partnering with private developers creates a more affordable way for cities to address green infrastructure, which studies show is more cost-effective than implementing graywater infrastructure (where sewage mains and tunnels collect and treat stormwater and sewage before discharging). New York City estimates gray strategy would cost $6.8B compared to a green strategy that would cost $5.3B to implement. Burgess said she expects stormwater management and green infrastructure to become increasingly more prominent until one day it is part of business as usual.

"Real estate developers are taking really effective approaches on requirements or desires to achieve sustainability practices,” Burgess said.

Several developers have already noticed savings in building costs since implementing various green infrastructure.

In 2016, Gerling Edlen was able to harvest rainwater at its 180K SF Meier & Frank building in Portland, Oregon, that met 93% of the building’s non-potable water needs. The company saved more money than it paid the city. Annual savings equaled 107% on the building’s total annual water cost, according to Gerling Edlen Director of Sustainability Renee Loveland. The building owner also uses the stormwater system as a marketing tool with tenants. The renovation benefited from a local green investment fund grant. 

This historic building, which is LEED Platinum certified, has an underground rainwater collection tank, a 12K SF green roof, a 112-kilowatt solar array and bioswales at grade.

Retail Owners Follow The Trend

ULI Burbank Water and Power EcoCampus

The retail center Market at Colennade in Raleigh, North Carolina, uses three cisterns and a water reuse system, bioretention swales, an efficient irrigation system and a detention basin as part of its water management system. It is so efficient that of the 30.6 inches of rainfall captured in one year, only 0.6 inches flowed out of the system, according to Regency Centers Vice President of Investments Chris Widmayer.

Among the biggest benefits of this project was its ability to partner with anchor tenant Whole Foods, which uses the cistern to help market the grocery store’s green culture, Widmayer said.

For Burbank Water and Power, the green infrastructure helped attract younger employees to the company's campus, Burgess said. The campus, which was renovated in 2000, operates on 100% recycled water, using green roofs that absorb 70% of rainwater and save the facility about $14K/year, according to ULI’s report. 

These 5 Technologies Are On The Verge of Massive Breakthroughs

These 5 Technologies Are On The Verge of Massive Breakthroughs

A new report highlights a few promising fields that could explode in the near future.

By Kevin J. Ryan |Staff writer, Inc.@wheresKR

An Aerofarms employee uses a scissor-lift to check the vertically-growing greens within the company's Newark, NJ headquarters.

CREDIT: Ellise Verheyen

Here's a glimpse of what the future will look like.

This week, Scientific American published its annual report on emerging technologies. The list is a compilation of what the publication calls "disruptive solutions" that are "poised to change the world." To qualify, a particular technology must be attracting funding or showing signs of an imminent breakthrough, but must not have reached widespread adoption yet.

Here are a few of the cutting-edge technologies that made the list--and the companies that are already making strides with them.

1. Noninvasive Biopsies

Cancer biopsies, which entail removing tissue suspected of containing cancerous cells, can be painful and complicated. Analyzing the results takes time. Sometimes, the tumor can't be reached at all.

Liquid biopsies could be the solution to all those issues. By analyzing circulating-tumor DNA--a genetic material that travels from tumors into the bloodstream--the technique can detect the presence of cancer and help doctors make decisions about treatment. It can potentially go even further than traditional biopsies, identifying mutations and indicating when more aggressive treatment is necessary. Grail, which spun out from life sciences company Illumina earlier this year, currently has $1 billion in funding from investors including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. The startup is working toward developing blood tests that could detect cancer in its earliest stages.

2. Precision Farming

Farming doesn't have to be an inexact science. Thanks to artificial intelligence, GPS, and analytics software, farmers can now be more precise in managing their crop yields. This makes agriculture a more efficient operation, which is especially critical in parts of the world where resources or climate aren't conducive to growing. Indoor farming startups including Aerofarms, Green Spirit Farms, and Urban Produce all closely analyze their crops using these types of tools to maximize output and flavor. Blue River Technology and others use computer vision to cut down on wasted fertilizer--sometimes by 90 percent.

3. Sustainable Design of Communities

Creating sustainable neighborhoods isn't just be good for the environment--it might be good business, allowing companies and residents to reduce their energy costs. Google spinou Sidewalk Labs is scouting locations for a huge feasibility study that would use one neighborhood to showcase what the city of the future might look like, creating infrastructure for self-driving electric cars and sustainable energy sources like solar. Last year, Denver and Detroit were rumored to be front-runners for the project.

4. Deep Learning For Visual Tasks

Artificial intelligence has become shockingly successful at identifying images across a range of applications. Facebook already can recognize many of the people and objects in your photos and allows you to search for images by describing their contents. Google's image recognition software is the basis for its new platform, called PlaNet, which can in some cases predict the locations where photos were taken based on clues in signage, landmarks, and vegetation. Earlier this year, researchers at Stanford revealed that they'd trained A.I. to correctly identify skin cancer with 90 percent accuracy--higher than the dermatologists it went head to head with.

5. Harvesting Clean Water From Air

What if moisture could be pulled from the air, even in arid climates? Scientific American reports that research teams at University of California-Berkeley and M.I.T. are developing systems aimed at accomplishing just that. The scientists customize crystals called metal-organic frameworks to be extra porous and thus able to collect large amounts of water, which are then deposited into a collector.

An Arizona-based startup called Zero Mass Water harvests water using a different method. According to the publication, the company creates a system that uses solar energy to push air through a moisture-absorbing material. A unit with one solar panel, which runs about $3,700, produces between two and five liters of water per day. The company has performed installations in the southwestern U.S. as well as in Jordan, Dubai, and Mexico. It also recently sent panels to Lebanon to provide water to Syrian refugees.

Urban Farming As An Integrational Factor for The Municipalities

By Thomas Tapio  Blog 

Urban Farming As An Integrational Factor for The Municipalities

Our modern society is facing many poverty related social, nourishment and health related issues as well as economical challenges that must be solved in order to maintain our wellbeing and democratic life style. Both individuals and different organisations can experience temporary critical times when extra incomes matter.

EkoFARMER offers opportunities for micro-entrepreneurship that augment the social status of unemployed persons, an extra income for active associations and an turn-key entrepreneurial bridge for businesses that want to expand their business.

More information:
Thomas Tapio, CEO, Exsilio, +358 44 9809682
www.ekofarmer.fi
www.exsilio.fi

Going Green - How Worcester, Central Mass Are Leading The Way

Going Green - How Worcester, Central Mass Are Leading The Way

By Stephanie Campbell

 2017

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Solar Farm panels on the former Greenwood Street Landfill. Elizabeth Brooks photo.

The irony seeps through the ground – a vast wasteland on Greenwood Street that once held heaps of residential trash for more than a decade is now home to what city officials deem to be the largest municipally-owned solar farm in New England. With a ribbon-cutting ceremony expected to occur sometime this summer, the 25-acre site will have completed its transformation from an environmentally unfriendly dump to one that will be the greenest of the green in terms of energy saving measures.

The solar arrays over on the south side of Route 146 are impressive – 28,600 panels tilted at 25-degree angles, row after row, one after another. And then, just up ahead, with the hills in the distance on the northern side of 146, a lofty wind turbine spins at 262 feet high on the campus of Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School. Separately, the two are just some of the many energy efficiency projects in the city; together, they serve as a beacon along the highway, a gateway to the city and the road map for the future. Driving down the highway and seeing both gives a feeling of “Welcome to Worcester,” says John Odell, Energy & Asset Management director for the city.

Welcome to Worcester, indeed. In a world of “going green,” the city has gone green enough that officials there consider Worcester to be a leader in such efforts.

“Yes,” says City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. “You might expect me to say that. I think you can prove that.”

In fact, “going green” is not a new concept for Worcester. Efforts date back to before the current administration, and other city institutions, such as Worcester Polytechnic Institute, have been practicing energy efficiency for more than a decade. Worcester was one of the first in the state to have a curbside recycling program and a climate plan, and it was also one of the first certified Green Communities. Even the Beaver Brook Farmers’ Market, which sets up Mondays and Fridays on Chandler Street, is the oldest in Worcester – its roots dating back to the ‘90s, when it was originally located near City Hall.

Even so, “It’s easy not to notice the strides the city has made in green issues,” says Steve Fischer, executive director of the Regional Environmental Council, an organization that started in 1972 with a mission to study clean air, clean water and open space issues. It has since expanded over the years to include other green initiatives, including urban farming.

Today, however, officials want residents to take note of Worcester’s many green efforts.

Saint Gobain Kiln.

Worcester Energy, a municipal initiative of the Executive Office of Economic Development and the Division of Energy & Asset Management, has an extensive website detailing the city’s green projects past and present. And both Augustus and Odell cited three ongoing projects – not only the solar farm, but also a street light replacement conversion and an energy aggregate plan – that have had or will have significant impact on the city. The three together, Odell says, are “near completion or far enough along that we can say we are in a leadership position. We’re in a great position to start spreading the word.”

Ten years ago, the city entered into a multiyear, multi-million energy efficiency and renewable energy project to assess all of its municipal facilities. Honeywell International was hired in 2009 as Worcester’s Energy Services Company to conduct energy audits of those buildings. Two years later, the city signed an Energy Savings Performance Contract for $26.6 million. As part of the ESPC, energy conservation work was to be done in 92 of the city’s largest facilities, out of 171 total. Some buildings have benefited from small changes, such as computer power management systems, while other, more aging facilities have received more extensive improvements – heating and cooling systems, insulation, air-sealing, lighting fixtures and water conservation equipment and solar panels.

The goal, according to Odell, was to save $1.3 million a year – an amount guaranteed by the ESCO. But a recently completed assessment of the ESPC revealed a $1.7-million savings per year.

“Energy efficiency has become a really good investment,” Odell says. “I think it’s important to note that the dollars are real. It costs money to do these things, but because of the benefits you get, it’s a savings.”

Mayor Joe Petty agrees, saying green energy is ever-important, not just for the environmental aspects, but for cost-savings as well.

“I know it’s a little more expensive sometimes, but that in itself is a positive,” he says, adding the city’s endeavors are going to save millions of dollars over the next several years.

A major contributor to those savings are the city’s numerous solar projects, including the Greenwood Street solar array. Although it cost approximately $28 million to construct, with a three-year payback, the 8.1-megawatt farm will produce about 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year once connected to National Grid’s distribution center. That’s enough to offset the electricity used by more than 1,300 homes in the city. In total, the city expects a return of about $50 million over the 20 years of the project, plus approximately $15 million more the following 10 years.

“It’s equivalent to 19 football fields of energy,” Augustus says. “That’s a big deal in terms of taxpayers’ dollars and in terms of shrinking our carbon footprint.”

Another major project completed this past fiscal year involved the installation of approximately 4,500 LED, high-efficiency street lights throughout the city, a measure expected to save $400,000 in electricity costs. Once all 14,000 planned street lights are switched over, city officials say they expect the savings to be more than $900,000 per year.

Beyond the cost savings are the additional benefits that come with the new street lights. Officials say the lights will cost less to maintain and have longer life cycles, reduce carbon emissions and light pollution at night, and improve lighting quality overall, plus give a sense of greater security. According to Augustus, Los Angeles County did a similar street light conversion and officials there credited the project with a 10-percent reduction in crime because the intensity of the lights was able to be calibrated at specified times.

“There are a lot of operational efficiencies that come from having this kind of technology,” Augustus says.

In addition to those projects, Worcester has upgraded lighting at four parking garages to LED, saving an additional $89,000 per year in electricity costs; completed a $1.7 million lighting upgrade project at the DCU Centre without using any taxpayer funds; and replaced a failing HVAC center at the senior center, among other initiatives, with more on the way. And when President Donald Trump announced the federal government would no longer participate in the Paris Climate Agreement, Petty made his own announcement: that the city would continue to battle climate change locally and invest in green technology.

“As our federal government retreats from its responsibility as steward of our environment, it is vitally important for state and municipal government to uphold our commitment to the future of our planet,” says Petty, who joined mayors across the country in signing the U.S. Climate Mayors statement. “If the president doesn’t want to do it, we will.”

Mary O’neill and Eva Elton display fresh produce at the Mobile Farmers Market Laurel St. location, in Plumley Village.

Green Schooled

Worcester Public Schools has gotten into the green zone as well. Over at 35 Nelson Place, a school dating back to 1927 is being demolished in preparation for a new building to serve Worcester students in pre-kindergarten through grade 6 starting this fall. But unlike the old Nelson Place School, the new 600-student facility will be twice the size – 110,000 square feet compared to the original’s 55,000 square feet – and will be the city’s first-ever, net-zero energy building, defined by the U.S. Department of Energy as, “an energy-efficient building where, on a source energy basis, the actual annual delivered energy is less than or equal to the on-site renewable exported energy.”

And even though “you could effectively pull that building off the grid,” Odell says, that doesn’t mean the new school is being built with highly-specialized technology and equipment. On the contrary, it’s all “off-the-shelf technology.”

According to Brian Allen, chief financial and operations officer for Worcester Public Schools, the roof’s solar panels will provide 100 percent of the building’s energy, and together with the high-efficiency windows and insulation, “natural gas for heating will be one-third of what we’re using.”

“You basically have one school taking care of itself,” Augustus says. “Imagine if I could have every city building take care of itself.” The school was designed as a green building from the start as part of the application process for the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which works with cities and town across the state to help build affordable, sustainable and energy-efficient schools. Because the state offers more reimbursement credits for green buildings, it made more sense to create the new Nelson Place School as net-zero energy, Allen explains.

The new Nelson Place School is just one of the many examples of how the city of Worcester and the educational system have collaborated on the ESCO contract, and in the near future, the hope is to do another energy partnership with the schools, Augustus says. Many of the schools have benefited from new doors and windows, with others slated for similar work soon.

“The city,” he says, “has been very aggressive over the years with window replacement, making them energy-efficient and more aesthetically pleasing in some of the older buildings.”

Other schools have been outfitted with new boilers and exterior LED lights, while converting interior lights is currently being explored, according to Allen. In addition, the school district as a whole also benefits from numerous solar panels at its buildings, about 3 million kilowatts of energy, Allen says. Two of the schools have parking lot canopies, and eight – including the new Nelson Place – have roof arrays. Four of those roofs, according to Odell, were nearing the end of their lifespan and were resealed with white roof coating application instead of black to make the arrays more effective.

“The net effect,” said Odell, “is we got the roofs for free.”

As a result, all of these green efforts are beneficial to the city and school district and the students. “Any way that we can be part of the initiatives and save money and be more environmentally aware, it seems to perfectly align with the mission of the school district,” Allen says, noting it also demonstrates to students that there are ways to be environmentally conscious and friendly.

The solar panels on the roof of the new Nelson Place School

Windfall

Holy Name’s wind turbine is another example of how the city has collaborated with schools. Although it is a private school and no city funds were expended to construct the turbine, regulations did not allow for such projects a decade ago. City officials, however, allocated staff resources to review the regulations, and as a result, in June 2007, adopted the Large Wind (Energy Conversion Facilities) Ordinance, allowing for wind turbines to be located in Worcester by special permit with provisions for height, abutting uses buffers and noise regulations.

The turbine has been largely successful. Holy Name, built in 1967 and heated electrically, was paying $180,000 in utility bills each year, according to a sustainability profile by Worcester Energy. In 2015, when the report was written, the turbine was producing an average of 74 percent of Holy Name’s yearly energy needs.

That’s one of the reasons why Worcester officials feel it is so important to partner with other schools and businesses on green technology.

“It allows us to be credible,” when businesses want to locate or relocate in the city, so that they don’t feel like they’re working on projects in isolation, says Odell.

City officials also believe it is important to help residents go green – and stay green. The Municipal Electric Aggregation program, which City Council recently approved, pools all of Worcester’s National Grid customers into one negotiating block as long as they are signed up for the Smart Grid program. By doing so, the city can offer residents and businesses various components of green energy to them.

“That’s the next big thing,” Odell says. “You can make your own portfolio greener.”

Saint Green

One such company that is no stranger to green issues is Saint-Gobain, a world leader in designing and building high-performance, innovative and sustainable building materials. Recently, the company announced a renewed commitment to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program, which works with manufacturers to improve energy efficiency to drive cost savings for the industrial sector. Eighty four of Saint-Gobain’s manufacturing plants in the country – Worcester included – are participating in the program, with a goal of achieving an energy savings of 20 percent over the next 10 years. Saint-Gobain joined the program in 2011, the same year it launched.

Michael Barnes, vice president of operations for Saint-Gobain Abrasives North America, says the company chose to focus on the Better Plants Program because it “really aligns with our own strategic direction. Saint-Gobain is committed to not only what we do every day with the products we make and sell, but in the communities as well.”

In Worcester, specifically, the plant is getting a lights makeover with the installation of LED lamps, plus a new kiln was installed. Many of the company’s products, Barnes says, are fired in high-temperature kilns, and the new one has provided the company with a significant reduction in natural gas consumption. In addition, Saint-Gobain in Worcester has its own powerhouse that generates steam, which in turn heats the buildings, so that the company not only procures energy but produces it as well.

It’s a “very smart move,” Barnes says, to look at the energy the company consumes and expels. Part of that as well is the company’s carbon monoxide emissions, which SaintGobain seeks to reduce by 20 percent.

With these strategic, long-term plans “heavily supported” by capital investment, a creative team and the continued financial support from the corporation, Barnes says, it shows Saint-Gobain’s commitment to remain in Worcester and to contribute to the city’s employment rate.

“It’s difficult to do business in New England. It’s a high-cost area. It’s very highly regulated environmentally. It’s easy for people to say, ‘Let’s do this elsewhere,’” Barnes says.

But, he adds, the company remains committed to its Worcester roots and helping the environment as well through its Better Plants Program participation.

“Energy is a very critical cost component. That’s why we take this initiative seriously,” he says, adding, “This isn’t just something we talk about. It’s something we’re committed to.”

While the company cites its efforts to become more environmentally friendly, it has not been without its missteps. Saint Gobain allegedly violated the Clean Water Act, reaching a settlement last December with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that required the company to pay a $131,000 penalty and to install new storm water treatment equipment.

Technically Green

If Worcester and its businesses have been in the green game for some time, WPI has, too. In fact, its very mission statement pledges the college will “demonstrate our commitment to the preservation of the planet and all its life through the incorporation of the principles of sustainability throughout the institution.”

WPI has a Sustainability Plan, an initiative put into motion during spring 2012 by the WPI Task Force on Sustainability, that outlines goals, objectives and tasks for academics, campus operations, research and scholarship, and community engagement. It offers 119 undergraduate and 30 graduate sustainability related courses, as well as a minor degree in sustainability engineering. And, back in 2004, five undergraduate students from the college were the ones to conduct the wind turbine study at Holy Name’s request.

Ten years ago, the Board of Trustees passed a resolution that all new buildings be designed to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, a national rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council. Today, WPI boasts four LEED buildings: Bartlett Center, LEED Certified in 2006; East Hall, LEED Gold in 2008; the Recreation Center, LEED Gold in 2012; and Faraday Hall, LEED Silver in 2013.

Although WPI has many sustainability programs, two have stood out, according to WPI Director of Sustainability John Orr, who is also a professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering.

“The project with the greatest environmental impact has been our building energy and lighting retrofit program that saves energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions,” Orr says. “This is largely invisible to the community, but has a great environmental impact. Our bike share program, Gompei’s Gears, is highly visible and has received great community feedback.”

Gompei’s Gears was originally an Interactive Qualifying Project (submitted for degree requirements) by two students, Kevin Ackerman and John Colfer, and the program has evolved from an idea in 2015 into a fullscale program. Gompei’s Gears, named after the WPI mascot, allows students, faculty and staff access to bikes from various locations on campus that they can ride anywhere on site or even off school grounds. It is available after spring break (weather depending) until the first snowfall.

For all its efforts, in June WPI earned a gold rating in the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), awarded by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Two years ago, the first time the school submitted a STARS application, it earned a silver rating and worked hard to improve upon that. This year, WPI was one of 117 schools out of 415 total that received a gold rating. Only one received platinum, 201 silver, 67 bronze and 29 reporter rating.

Orr says he believes the campus’ four LEED-certified buildings – with another under construction – Gompei’s Gears, the building energy upgrades and other programs make WPI a leader in the “going green” movement out of colleges in similar size.

“Also, very much in our educational programs – environmental engineering and environmental and sustainability studies – and our global project programs in developing nations,” Orr says. “Advanced technology is required to address the world’s environmental challenges, and we are showing leadership in our campus operations, our educational programs and our research (advanced batteries, biomass, advanced recycling, etc.).”

Leeding and Leading the Way

Other Worcester and Central Mass colleges are making an effort to go green as well.

At Assumption College, the new Tsotsis Family Academic Center, which will open this fall, and site lighting were all designed for LED lights, with the exception of specialized lighting in the performance hall, according to the school’s Office of Communications. Five interior space renovations are underway, where the lighting will be replaced with LEDs and reverse refrigerant systems will be installed in place of air-conditioning to control the temperature within those particular spaces. In addition, speed controllers were added to the HVAC units in the Fuller/IT buildings, and last summer, low flow shower heads and aerators were installed on the sink’s faucets in all the resident halls. Opened in 2015, it is the first building on the campus to be designated LEED certified and is the only Gold-certified building in southern Worcester County (a term sometimes used to define towns south, southwest and southeast of Worcester), according to college officials.

Over at Nichols College in Dudley, its newest academic building was awarded LEED Gold certification last year. Opened in 2015, it is the first building on the campus to be designated LEED certified and is the only Gold-certified building in southern Worcester County, according to college officials. The three-story building’s green components include locally-sourced and recycled materials; excellent indoor air quality; efficient water use systems; sensors that better control heating and lighting in individual rooms; and large windows for natural light, which reduces the need for interior lighting and minimizes the use of electricity during the daytime.

“Gold LEED certification for the new academic building is an exciting accomplishment and a statement to Nichols College’s commitment to environmental stewardship,” says Robert LaVigne, associate vice president for facilities management at Nichols. “Since opening its doors last fall, the building has served as a testament to the college’s dedication to innovation – not only in sustainable design, but also education.”

Other green programs at Nichols include its single-stream, campus-wide recycling program, food waste recycling at Lombard Dining Hall, geothermal heating and cooling systems at two residence halls and LED conversion of all exterior lights on campus. In addition, Fels Student Center received National Grid’s Advance Building Certification for energy efficiency.

Food for Thought

But “going green” doesn’t just refer to eco-friendly buildings, energy-efficient lights and solar panels – it can also mean the food we eat and how it is sourced. In cities, people don’t always have access to fresh food, but Worcester has been working to change that as well.

On Mondays and Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 306 Chandler St., the Beaver Brook Farmers’ Market sets up shop with local produce, plus bread and craft vendors. Originally the Worcester Hill Market, it is the oldest farmers’ market in the city, according to Fischer. It moved to Chandler Street when the front of City Hall closed for repairs, and the REC took over management in 2012.

Beaver Brook is just one of the city markets, which all opened in late June and run through Oct. 28. The University Park Farm Stand, a Main South staple since 2008, moved to its current location last year so that the REC could more closely partner with Clark University, the Main South Community Development Corporation and other area organizations to provide not only fresh food but family-friendly activities as well. It is open every Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 965 Main St. The REC also runs the Mobile Farmers’ Market, which makes 16 stops around the city Tuesdays through Fridays, bringing locally grown produce straight to residents who might not otherwise be able to travel to a farm stand. Fischer notes the city is home to many other farmers’ markets not run by the REC. “We’re seeing a demand in farmers’ markets,” he says. “We’re seeing a demand for local food.” Martha Assefa, manager of the Worcester Food Policy Council, agrees.

“There are so many amazing farmers’ markets happening in the city,” she says, recalling, “A while ago, it was a few folks at the table talking about this. Now local food and food access is becoming mainstream. I think folks are much more interested in buying local than they were 15 years ago.”

But is buying fresh and local more expensive? The Healthy Incentives Program makes sure people who receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) assistance have just as much access to fresh food as others. Through March 31, 2020, the program will match any SNAP dollars spent at farmers’ markets or stands, mobile markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm stand programs. Families of one to two people can have up to $40 instantly debited back to their EBT card each month, $60 for three to five people, and $80 for families with six or more people.

“I think many folks realize it makes sense to buy local,” Assefa says, adding it reduces the amount of food travel from producer to consumer, and it also reduces some of the packaging it comes in as well. Plus, it directly helps local farmers – and all that leads to a greener planet.

“A lot of the farming community knows how important it is to protect Mother Earth. A lot of the farmers are innovators. If they don’t protect it, they’re going to see it on their fields,” Assefa says. “That’s the forefront of it all,” she says. “Plus, local food tastes better.”

Urban Gardens

Just as farmers’ markets are not reserved for the suburbs, neither are gardens. In 1995, the REC started a network of urban farms and community gardens that has now grown to 64 in number. These farms have allowed citizens to contribute to the community, learn about growing their own food and beautify their neighborhoods. There are also 20 gardens at the public schools, as well as a youth program in Belmont Hill for ages 14 through 18 that has been in existence since 2003, Fischer says. Both programs, he says, are “transformative,” adding that, for many, this exposure to gardening is the first time students see “how a carrot comes to be, how lettuce comes to be, other than buying it in stores.”

And by working in the gardens, Fischer continues, “They can see the fruits of their labor. It has an amazing impact.”

That’s precisely why groups in the city are pushing for more urban farming – specifically to allow residents to grow and sell their own food. Although personal gardens are allowed, Fischer says, residents are not currently permitted to set up roadside stands or sell to farmers’ markets or stores.

The Urban Agriculture Zoning Ordinance seeks to change that.

“It’s a set of rules to make sure there are rules in place for growing and selling food in the city,” Fischer says. “Right now there’s a big hole in the regulations for growing food in the city.”

Currently in committee hearings, the ordinance has been three years in the making, after the mayor convened a working group with concerned citizens, those associated with urban farming, the Chamber of Commerce and other groups to look at the zoning regulations from environmental and social justice perspectives, Fischer says.

The Worcester Food Policy Council is also heavily involved with the proposal to make sure anyone in the city can farm their land and in turn sell their products. The ordinance has received some pushback, however, particularly among area beekeepers who worry it will infringe upon their efforts.

The ordinance would require beekeepers to notify abutters that they have bees, which the keepers find potentially prohibitive. Worcester Magazine wrote about their concerns earlier this month, in a story titled, “Beekeepers buzzing over proposed urban agriculture ordinance.”

Still, says Fischer, the ordinance and other work is an acknowledgment that urban agriculture is real.

“There is a growing interest as to how the food is produced and where it is grown and the quality of how it’s grown,” he says, noting that “it’s full circle, and essentially we need to rebuild the infrastructure that was dismantled over the last decade, and also to rebuild the biodiversity.”

Plus, says Fischer, “It’s exciting to have the city and local businesses and the residents taking an interest in these things and providing leadership in moving things forward.”

It is a project of which the mayor is particularly proud.

“I think it’s a great asset to the city,” Petty says of the ordinance. “We are taking what people are doing anyway and putting some rows around it.”

Plus, he adds, with that and the existing farmers’ markets, “It’s a driver for jobs. We’re taking locally grown food and selling it.”

 Barking Up a New Tree

Amanda Barker knows much about urban agriculture. On a sunny day, she is planting scallions at Cotyledon Farm, her newest venture in nearby Leicester. She is the founder of Nuestro Huerto on Southgate Street in Worcester, which she watched grow from a small-scale community garden to a successful urban farm.

When she moved to Main South eight years ago for graduate school at Clark University, she didn’t know anyone but had a desire to “ultimately help create and become part of a community around food,” she recalls.

Barker started a garden in her back yard, but soon found the shady space and the lead in the soil made it unsuitable for growing anything. Faced with needing to take on an unpaid internship for her requirements at Clark, her “practical” gardening project ended up becoming long-term when she set up on land owned by Iglesia Casa de Oración (House of Prayer Church). Initially, she says, she started with 10 raised wooden garden beds, with the intent to give away the food for free. Eventually, it became a full-scale urban CSA.

“It demonstrated interest and demand for those projects. Certainly, we weren’t lacking for volunteers, depending on the day,” Barker says, recalling that there were always a “lot of young people showing interest in being outside and being in a non-city place. It was a respite and a green space.”

Today, after a largely successful run, Nuestro Huerto and the CSA are now closed to the public, but with good reason—the site is host to three farmers from Nepal who will use the opportunity to provide for themselves, their families and their communities. Barker still serves as a liaison for the project, she says, even though the farmers are mostly independent.

“You can produce incredible amounts of food, and they certainly are. Every inch is going to be packed with vegetables,” she says.

It is why she has “mixed thoughts” on the Urban Agriculture Zoning Ordinance.

“What I want is everything to be allowed by right in all zones,” Barker says. “We’re human beings; we eat food. What is there to have a conversation about?”

If the proposal is successful, it should address some of her questions and transform some of those blank spaces into only more green spaces for the city.

“We’re excited about the potential urban agriculture has in responding to how difficult it is for some people who are working hard but are unable to access fresh food,” Fischer says. “It also makes neighborhoods beautiful. That is a key strategy for beautifying the city.”

Not only that, but “people in the area grow to love those neighborhood farms, and they look out for it,” he says. Between the urban farms and solar farms, plus all the energy-efficiency programs, is there room for Worcester to improve? Augustus says,“Yes,” adding Worcester should “continue to set the pace of what can be done by a municipality … in terms of great and innovative ways to save the taxpayer money instead of being paid to a utility to produce.”

Worcester, Petty says, “is killing it” not only with green issues, but other aspects as well, such as the arts.

“I think we have a government that’s pretty interactive, and people are noticing. We’ve made all the right decisions so far.” When it comes to going green, he says, “This is good, cooperative effort between the government and the community.”

Farms On the Fringe: New Takes On America’s Farming Tradition

Farms On the Fringe: New Takes On America’s Farming Tradition

These six farmers have found innovative ways to grow plants in today’s climate, whether in corn country or coal country, with fish tanks or smartphones.

August 01, 2017 Tracie McMillan

How do you feed a hotter, drier, more inequitable world? A new generation of American farmers are coming up with answers that rarely resemble the cornstalks and cattle pens of mainstream agriculture.

Today’s American farmers are less white. They’re also increasingly experimental. Even as our biggest farms get bigger, small producers are innovating in countless ways as they grapple with the serious questions that face our food system. Some prioritize making high-quality food affordable to folks on minimum wage and accessible in places where fresh produce is scarce; others are learning how to farm with far less water on drought-prone fields. They may be discovering hidden super fruits, reinvigorating coal country, or bringing urban farming to the mountains. Here are six who will change your mind about what it means to farm.

Fish Farming on Dry Land

Ouroboros Farms
Half Moon Bay, California

Chard grown in Ouroboros’s aquaponics system reveals its colorful roots.

Courtesy of Ouroboros Farm

When the recent six-year drought hit California, most farmers were screaming for water. Here’s one who wasn’t: Ken Armstrong, owner of Ouroboros Farms in the Bay Area. And that is more than a little strange—because for Armstrong, water is actually a growing medium. He specializes in aquaponics, a system of raising fish and vegetables in tandem.

Armstrong founded the farm in 2012 after watching a YouTube video about Will Allen, a MacArthur Grant–winning urban farmer in Milwaukee. Inspired, he gathered some potential partners and attended a four-day workshop in Florida, then went home and got to work. Today, Ouroboros’s greenhouses sit on a sliver of land, just one-third of an acre. Nutrient-rich water from the farm’s 9,000 gallons of fish tanks circulates out through neighboring “raft beds,” which hold floating frames with sprouting greens whose roots are suspended in water, and through “medium beds,” which use clay pebbles to filter and disperse water for the vegetables. The roots take up the nitrogen from the fish, and clean water circulates back into the tanks.

Aquaponic farmers Jessica Patton and Ken Armstrong at Ouroboros’s farm stand

Courtesy of Ouroboros Farm

The system, says Armstrong, produces mature lettuce more quickly than soil planting and uses less water, too. The monthly output of 12,500 heads of lettuce requires about 8,000 gallons of water—a little less than two-thirds a gallon per head, as opposed to 12 gallons on traditional California farms. And output is constant, allowing his fraction of an acre to match the annual production of five acres of soil.

Armstrong says he launched Ouroboros to prove that the method could work commercially. He sells greens and other vegetables to local restaurants, and an on-site farm stand offers direct sales, with salad mix going for $4 to $5 for an 8-ounce bag. He also hosts training programs and farm tours and consults with new growers looking to run commercial aquaponics operations.

“Being able to bring high-quality, nutritious food closer to urban areas is going to be one of the agricultural paradigm shifts for the future,” he says. “I think more and more it’s going to be popping up.”

Mountainside Urban Farming

Tassinong Farms
Crested Butte, Colorado

Tassinong Farm utilizes a hydroponic system housed in repurposed shipping containers to grow vegetables year-round in the harsh Colorado climate.

Courtesy Tassinong Farms

Local food in Crested Butte, Colorado, has long been a summer-only affair. For residents, there has been little choice in the matter: tucked into the Rocky Mountains at 8,900 feet, Crested Butte doesn't exactly offer optimal growing conditions. Its night temperatures drop below freezing nine months of the year. But Kate Haverkampf saw a way around this obstacle. She launched Tassinong Farm, a year-round hydroponic facility housed in repurposed shipping containers, in December 2015. “It was such a difficult task to get fresh local food year-round,” says the former tech consultant. When her husband, who works in logistics, ran across a story about farming in containers, she was sold: “I just decided to make that my job.”

Inside four containers, which Haverkampf bought from a supplier aptly known as Freight Farms, LED lights illuminate shelves of plants rooted in a growing medium made from recycled plastic bottles. With a smartphone-enabled tracking system, Haverkampf can monitor her crops closely. If the nutrient mix gets out of balance in the irrigation water, she can swipe and tap to fix it, even from across the country. Because there is no soil, there is no need for herbicides to control weeds. There’s little need for pesticides, either, in this tightly controlled indoor growing space. Haverkampf’s biggest cost is electricity—the lights run 18 hours a day—so this year she’s exploring her options for solar.

Kate Haverkampf, owner of Tassinong Farms

Courtesy of Tassinong Farms

Perhaps most important for an arid place like Colorado, water usage is minimal. Agriculture accounts for 80 percent of water usage in the United States, and a typical pound of lettuce requires 34 gallons of water. At Tassinong, says Haverkampf, each container uses about 15 gallons a day—roughly equivalent to a quick shower―or 105 gallons weekly. At peak, this turns into about 60 pounds of greens a week—less than 2 gallons per pound.

Today the shipping containers churn out greens ranging from lacinato kale and purple spinach to romaine lettuces and lemony sorrel. They end up in salads and atop burgers at five local restaurants and are sold at a local food co-op. Haverkampf also takes individual online orders, and later this summer she’s opening a farm stand.

“I’m trying to prevent all of these miles and miles of driven produce,” Haverkampf says. With the new shop, “I like to think that people will come more often and know they can get their greens when they need them.”

Superfruit in the Heartland

Sawmill Hollow
Missouri Valley, Iowa

Andrew Pittz of Sawmill Holllow Farm carries aronia berry seedlings.

Nati Harnik/AP

If you think about the typical Iowa farm, you might picture rows of corn and soy; the state leads the nation in both. But Andrew Pittz, a sixth-generation Iowa farmer, is not typical. At his family’s Sawmill Hollow Farm, the fields are covered with certified organic aronia berries.

The project began in the 1990s, when Pittz’s mom and dad decided to branch out from the corn and soy both their parents had grown and began cultivating a berry farm. When Andrew graduated from Texas A&M with an agricultural degree and a passion for organic farming, he returned to the family homestead on the rolling hills of the Missouri Valley with a vision: he wanted to be part of “a rural renaissance, and create more farmers,” he says. To do that, he knew, he’d need to grow crops that both yield income and preserve land.

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Aronia berry bush

Flickr

The key to specializing in aronia, says Pittz, has been figuring out how to market the berries, which are highly astringent and bitter when fresh. The farm sells aronia jelly and syrup, aronia salsa, and even a spiced meat marinade, sold online and during on-site events like an annual Aronia Berry Festival. The berries also have one of the highest antioxidant ratings of any fruit, according to the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, making them desirable to consumers enthusiastic about so-called superfoods (a designation, it must be noted, met with less enthusiasm by health experts).

But above all, says Pittz says, he’s chosen to stick with aronia because it makes sense for the environment. The plant is native to Iowa and grows readily on his farm without irrigation. Between the bushes, a carpet of native grasses fixes nitrogen in the soil and boosts yield, limiting the need for chemicals. It’s a winning combination for the local turf, which is made of fertile but highly erodible soil called loess. Pittz points out that farmers planting annual grain crops like corn inadvertently increase erosion each time they pull out plants, turn over fields, and replant. Aronia berries, on the other hand, are perennials, so both the roots and the soil around them stay put.

And that, says Pittz, sums up his favorite trait of the aronia berry: “It is meant to grow here.”

Planting Justice

Soul Fire Farm
Grafton, New York

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Leah Penniman, co-director of Soul Fire Farm

Capers Rumph (circa 2014)

Rocky hillsides don’t get much play in agricultural daydreams. But when Leah Penniman and Jonah Vitale-Wolff laid their eyes on the thin, rock-strewn soil of Grafton, just outside Albany, New York, they decided to go all in. They applied soil remediation methods they had learned on urban farms and began contouring the hillside, removing rocks, planting crop rows, and even building a house. Five years later, in 2011, they opened shop at Soul Fire Farm, a CSA-only family farm focusing on environmental justice and supporting Albany’s low-income communities of color. They look beyond Albany, too, and run an agricultural training workshop, the Black and Latinx Farmers Immersion, which draws aspiring farmers of color from around the country.

Soul Fire’s CSA offers its 100 customers weekly one-bushel boxes selected from the farm’s 70 crops, which include beets, cucumbers, squash, corn, tomatoes, and peppers, among other veggies. All are grown without synthetic chemicals, and the farmers rely on compost to boost productivity, says Penniman. At the heart of the program is a careful sliding fee scale that can drop as low as zero for struggling families, and a doorstep delivery service to make sure everyone has easy access.

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Participants in Black Latinx Farmers Immersion harvest cilantro at Soul Fire Farm.

Capers Rumph (circa 2014)

That focus on accessibility comes in part from personal experience. When Leah and Jonah’s two children were very small, the family lived in a neighborhood where getting high-quality, fresh food meant walking to a farm CSA a couple of miles away. It was, says Leah, “really unfair as an expectation [of what was necessary] to feed families well.” So when the time came to start their own CSA, Penniman and Vitale-Wolff made access a priority.

Many of the couple’s customers share that concern. Francine Godgart, a married mother of two who works at the local hospital, chooses to pay extra every week to keep the costs down for low-income members. “It’s very expensive to eat organically,” she says. “I think it’s important for people who don’t have those resources to be able to be included.”

Re-energizing Coal Country

Fiber Flame/Pumpkin Vine Creek Farm
Paint Lick, Kentucky

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A customer chooses Kentucky-grown kenaf.

Jdeg Video & Photo

The hilltops of Kentucky have seen some tough times. More than 500 mountaintop removal sites dot the state’s Appalachian landscape, bringing with them a host of environmental problems: increased dust and toxins, contaminated water, and buried streams. And now that coal is on its way out, questions arise: How do you deal with all that degraded land? And is there a way for residents to make a living off it?

One entrepreneurial farmer, Robin Richmond Mason, has an answer: kenaf, a relative of hemp, okra, and cotton. Native to Africa, the plant has long been used for its fibers and is already cultivated in several states. Moreover, Mason says, it’s unlikely to spread, kudzu-like, since a shorter growing season means that it is harvested, or dies, before it goes to seed.

Working with researchers at a local commercial lab, Mason discovered kenaf is a potent source of fuel, burning longer and hotter than conventional firewood—a bonus in rural areas, where wood heat is common. (In 23 Kentucky counties, more than 10 percent of homes rely on wood heat, according to statistics from the state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet.) One log of firewood tops out at 4,800 BTUs and burns for two or three hours, but a log made of compressed kenaf silage, Mason says, can provide 7,500 BTUs and will burn for four hours. The firewood alternative also helps ease the pressure on standing forests wrought by the harmful biomass industry.

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Robin Richmond Mason of Fiber Flame/Pumpkin Vine Creek Farm

Jdeg Video & Photo

Mason wants the mountaintop removal sites “to be restored to Eden” and sees kenaf as an initial way to boost plant life there. “Let’s work toward the very best possible remediation plan. But unless there is economic motivation, I don’t see those developing.”

Last year’s initial run—farmed on an ex-miner’s land and hauled out by a trucker who worked for years with coal—was so successful that this year Mason has expanded to four growing sites across Kentucky. The biggest is at a former tobacco farm in the central part of the state that has dedicated 100 acres to kenaf. Judging by the yield from prior test plantings, Mason expects about five tons per acre. All of it will feed into Mason’s line of Fiber Flame products, including a sextet of logs sold with matches and instructions. She calls it a Pit Kit, and it’s currently being sold in local Whole Foods stores.

Old Farm, New Tricks

Santa Cruz Farm and Greenhouses
Española, New Mexico

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Don Bustos, organic farmer and owner of Santa Cruz Farm and Greenhouses

Gabriella Marks

There aren’t many farmers in the United States who can lay claim to their land the way Don Bustos can. His family’s been farming a patch of New Mexico for three centuries, and today he and his nephew still use the ancient community system of water ditches, called acequias, to feed their crops. And just as his parents did before him, much of what Bustos grows is sold within a 25-mile radius of his farm. But those traditions are only a foundation for this most modern of family farmers.

When Bustos left a construction career to return to the farm in the 1980s, the easy choice was to grow the staples that his parents had grown: crops like corn, potatoes, chilies, and squash. Instead he decided to try something different and set his sights on high-value organic crops, aimed at farmer’s markets and public schools. He began transforming his humble inheritance—three and a half acres across the road from a desolate stretch of federal public land—into something not just environmentally, but also financially, sustainable.

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Santa Cruz Farm and Greenhouses, New Mexico

Gabriella Marks

Today Bustos grows nearly six dozen varieties of fruits and vegetables year-round using a series of low-tech greenhouse structures, known as hoop houses, and a solar water heater. In any given month, it might be arugula or strawberries, salad mix or green chilies. Going solar, he says, made a huge difference in his livelihood. Not only did his energy costs plummet, from $750 a month to 7 cents a day, but the hoop houses “let us create income 12 months a year instead of trying to risk everything for 3 or 4 months.”

His market savvy has helped earn Bustos wide acclaim, including a 2015 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award. He’s also been recognized for his passionate activism on behalf of small and sustainable farmers who fall outside the conventional image of American growers. Bustos has advocated for female farmers and farmers of color in both Washington, D.C., and New Mexico; created a farmer training program that also connects small growers with public school cafeterias; and supported the state’s acequia system, which dates from the 1600s.

That history, says Bustos, is part of what makes New Mexico, where nearly one-third of farmers are Hispanic, special. “We’re not inventing anything new,” he says, with regard to his growing practices and local base of customers. “That’s all been done by our ancestors."

onEarth provides reporting and analysis about environmental science, policy, and culture. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of NRDC. Learn more or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

When Walmart Leaves Rural America…

When Walmart Leaves

Rural America…

 By johnikerd  1  July 26, 2017

The town “still boasts imposing brick buildings as a memory of better times. But the glow of coal’s legacy has cooled, as the boarding up of many of the town’s shops and restaurants attests.” This description of a coal mining town in Appalachia might just as easily describe a typically farming town in Middle America. The description is from a recent article in US edition of The Guardian: “What happened when Walmart left?” The place abandoned by Walmart was McDowell County—an economically depressed county in rural West Virginia. If current trends are allowed to continue, this may also be the future of farming towns all across America.

Coal mining was the economic foundation of McDowell County. When coal miners were replaced by technology—giant digging and hauling machines—many local residents were left without jobs or any other economic means of making a living in the county. It wasn’t only the mining jobs that were lost, but all of the other jobs needed to meet the varied needs of the miners and their families. “McDowell County has seen a devastating and sustained erosion of its people, from almost 100,000 in 1950 when coal was king, to about 18,000 today. That depleted population is today scattered widely across small towns and in mountain hollows, accentuating the sense of sparseness and emptiness.”

Farming was the economic foundation of many rural counties in the Middle America. As farmers were replaced by agricultural technologies—machines, agri-chemicals, livestock confinements—many local residents were left without jobs or other economic means of making a living in the community. It wasn’t only the farmers who lost their livelihoods, but all of the others local residents who had met the various economic needs of the displaced farm families. Farming communities all across America have seen the devastation and have sustained the erosion of rural people caused by the industrialization of agriculture. The depleted rural populations today are scattered widely across small towns and the rural landscape, accentuating the sense of rural economic depression and social disintegration.

The economic demise of mining towns is just more visible and more easily understood. When flying over the mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia, the environmental devastation is clear and compelling. Looking down at the green center-pivot crop irrigation circles on the High Plains creates a very different image—a false image of vitality. Both enterprises are mining nonrenewable natural resources. Coal mining is simply more obvious than water mining. These industrial farming operations are also mining the natural fertility of the soil, the only sustainable source of productivity. The demand for coal is slowing, environmental restraints of coal fired power plants are growing, and alternative energy sources are on the horizon. Meanwhile, demand for agricultural production is growing, industrial farming is heavily subsidized and virtually unregulated, and there are no alternatives to soil, water, or food. The erosion, degradation, salinization, and desertification of farmland may be occurring at a rate even faster than the depletion of coal.

Another major difference is that Coal mining is unsustainable by nature, but farming is unsustainable by choice. The earth’s reserves of usable and economically recoverable coal are finite and eventually and inevitably will be depleted. Soil, water, and solar energy are renewable resources that are capable of sustaining a resourceful, resilient, and regenerative agriculture indefinitely into the future. Unlike coal mining, today’s extractive, exploitative industrial system of farming is a matter of choice, not necessity. Regardless, the economic and social consequences of coal mining and industrial farming are much the same for rural communities.

Walmart got its start in the 1960s by moving into farming towns that were in early stages of economic decline—also the early stages of agricultural industrialization. The prosperity brought to farming and farming towns by World War II was fading. Local merchants were offering lower quality products at higher prices in an attempt to maintain their profit margins. Sam Walton understood rural people and saw an opportunity for continuing expansion and growth of Walmart in the face of rural economic decline. Walmart would offer better quality products at lower prices to rural people.

Early on, Walmart would not locate a store in a town with more than 15,000 people or more than 500 miles from Bentonville, Arkansas. Obviously those days are long past. Walmart found there were people in urban areas who also thought prices in their communities were too high. Walmart’s expansion strategies obviously have changed but its philosophy remains virtually unchanged. Walmart prospers from serving those with declining economic opportunities. Lower prices are their key to better living—but only as long as prices and sales are high enough to maximize profits and growth for Walmart. When that’s no longer the case, Walmart closes stores and leaves town.

Many rural people still celebrate when Walmart comes to town. However, we now know the eventual consequences for new Walmart communities. Quoting from the Guardian article, “Much has been written about what happens when the corporate giant opens up in an area, with numerous studies recordinghow it sucks the energy out of a locality, overpowering the competition through sheer scale and forcing the closure of mom-and-pop stores for up to 20 miles around. A more pressing, and much less-well-understood, question is what are the consequences when Walmart screeches into reverse: when it ups and quits, leaving behind a trail of lost jobs and broken promises?” In the Guardian article, the people in McDowell County expressed a deep sense of betrayal, depression, and loss of hope for the future of their community.

Communities abandoned by Walmart obviously are left with few surviving local retailers to supply the basic needs of people in the community. By the time Walmart leaves, a community is no longer seen as a logical place to start a new business venture. Walmart only leaves when the “economic carcass” of a community is pretty well “picked clean.” However, the people are also left without the social connections and sense of community that becomes centered on shopping at Walmart, once other local retailers are gone. There is no common local place for people to see and visit with their neighbors as they drive off in different directions to find the nearest remaining Walmart-like store in the area. There are no local businesses left to replace Walmart’s PR-motivated contributions to the Girl Scouts, Little League, county fair, local food bank, or other charitable causes. The Guardian article focuses on the deep sense of personal or even spiritual loss by local residents, which few might have expected from the closing of a Walmart Supercenter.

The basic point of this post is that if we do not stop and reverse the ongoing industrialization of American agriculture—with its miles and miles of corn and soybeans and giant animal factories—rural communities all across America can expect their Walmart to leave town. They can expect the same deep sense of economic, personal, and spiritual loss the local folks felt in McDowell County, West Virginia. Walmart came to much of rural America because rural America had bought into the extractive, exploitative system of industrial agriculture. When Walmart leaves rural America, it will be because there is nothing of economic value left for industrial agriculture or Walmart to extract or exploit.

However, the people in rural American have a choice. There are better ways to farm and better ways to develop rural economies. They can choose to replace industrial agriculture with an ecologically sound, socially just, economically viable—socially responsible agriculture. Then, Walmart can leave town, along with industrial agriculture, and people in rural American will be glad to see them both gone.

John Ikerd

TruLeaf Hits Commercial Shelves

ENTREVESTOR: TruLeaf Hits Commercial Shelves

PETER MOREIRA
Published August 1, 2017 - 7:06pm
Last Updated August 1, 2017 - 7:07pm

Bible Hill company strikes deal with Atlantic Superstores

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TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture, the ag-tech company planning a chain of indoor farms across the country, announced Monday its locally grown microgreen products are now available in select Atlantic Superstores across the Maritimes.

Appearing under the company’s GoodLeaf Farms brand, these products grown in the company’s farm in Bible Hill are now available in a dozen Superstores spanning the three Maritime provinces.

According to the TruLeaf website, the products include broccoli shoots, kale shoots, daikon radish shoots and pea shoots, baby arugula and baby kale.

TruLeaf is seeking to become a leader in sustainable agriculture through the use of vertical farming, which combines proven hydroponic technology with advancements in LED lighting and reclaimed rainwater to allow year-round production of plants indoors.

Vertical farming is nearly 10 times more efficient than traditional agriculture, uses as much as 90 per cent less water, and takes up less land.

TruLeaf, which closed an $8.5-million financing round last December, has been working with Loblaw, the parent company of Atlantic Superstores, on the development of its farms.

“We know our customers are looking for exceptional produce, grown locally wherever possible, which is why we are such huge supporters of local and regional suppliers,” said Loblaw director of corporate affairs Mark Boudreau said in a statement.

“Having fresh local vegetables year round in the Maritimes would have been impossible a decade ago. We’re excited about today’s launch and proud of our role working with TruLeaf over the past few years to bring this innovative farming technology to our Atlantic Superstore customers.”

The announcement comes as TruLeaf begins construction on its 50,000-square-foot facility in Guelph, Ont. which will produce vegetables for the Toronto market. It will be five times the size of the Bible Hill facility.

The company said last year that its $8.5-million funding round would be used to build a plant and access the massive Toronto market.

The round was led by Mike Durland, the former CEO of Scotiabank’s global banking and markets division, and included funding from Neil Murdoch, former CEO of Connor, Clark & Lunn Capital Markets.

The Chronicle-Herald reported in December that the new facility will include a network of sensors and artificial intelligence to automate the climate controls and feeding systems for the plants.

TruLeaf said GoodLeaf Farms has been embraced by local wholesalers and restaurants, and now the brand is available across the Maritimes in select stores.

“We are thrilled to be bringing a new era of freshness to Atlantic Canadian consumers,” said TruLeaf CEO Gregg Curwin.

“We grow our produce in tightly controlled environments to the very highest standards in the industry. It’s a difference you can truly taste — our products are bursting with flavour and nutrition. And by dramatically reducing the time and energy needed to grow produce, it really is a new way to eat responsibly.”

The GoodLeaf products are available at:

• Barrington Street Superstore, Halifax

• Charlottetown Superstore

• Fredericton Superstore, Smyth Street

• Joseph Howe Superstore, Halifax

• Trinity Superstore, Moncton

• Bayers Lake Superstore, Halifax

•Kennebecasis Valley Market, Rothesay

• Moncton Superstore, Main Street

• Quinpool Superstore, Halifax

•Dartmouth Superstore, Portland Street

•Truro Superstore

• Sydney River Superstore.

Vertical Farming: Can Urban Agriculture Feed a Hungry World?

Vertical Farming: Can Urban Agriculture Feed a Hungry World?

Agricultural researchers believe that building indoor farms in the middle of cities could help solve the world's hunger problem. Experts say that vertical farming could feed up to 10 billion people and make agriculture independent of the weather and the need for land. There's only one snag: The urban farms need huge amounts of energy.

Romses Architects

By Fabian Kretschmer and Malte E. Kollenberg

July 22, 201110:58 AM

One day, Choi Kyu Hong might find himself in a vegetable garden on the 65th floor of a skyscraper. But, so far, his dream of picking fresh vegetables some 200 meters (655 feet) up has only been realized in hundreds of architectural designs.

In real life, the agricultural scientist remains far below such dizzying heights, conducting his work in a nondescript three-story building in the South Korean city of Suwon. The only thing that makes the squat structure stand out is the solar panels on its roof, which provide power for the prototype of a farm Choi is working on. If he and his colleagues succeed, their efforts may change the future of urban farming -- and how the world gets its food.

From the outside, the so-called vertical farm has nothing in common with the luxury high-rises surrounding it. Inside the building, heads of lettuce covering 450 square meters (4,800 square feet) are being painstakingly cultivated. Light and temperature levels are precisely regulated. Meanwhile, in the surrounding city, some 20 million people are hustling among the high-rises and apartment complexes, going about their daily lives.

Every person who steps foot in the Suwon vertical farm must first pass through an "air shower" to keep outside germs and bacteria from influencing the scientific experiment. Other than this oddity, though, the indoor agricultural center closely resembles a traditional rural farm. There are a few more technological bells and whistles (not to mention bright pink lighting) which remind visitors this is no normal farm. But the damp air, with its scent of fresh flowers, recalls that of a greenhouse.

Heads of lettuce are lined up in stacked layers. At the very bottom, small seedlings are thriving while, further up, there are riper plants almost ready to be picked. Unlike in conventional greenhouses, the one in Suwon uses no pesticides between the sowing and harvest periods, and all water is recycled. This makes the facility completely organic. It is also far more productive than a conventional greenhouse.

Choi meticulously checks the room temperature. He carefully checks the wavelengths of the red, white and blue LED lights aimed at the tender plants. Nothing is left to chance when it comes to the laboratory conditions of this young agricultural experiment. The goal is to develop optimal cultivation methods -- and ones that can compete on the open market. Indeed, Korea wants to bring vertical farming to the free market.

Nine Billion People by 2050

Vertical farming is an old idea. Indigenous people in South America have long used vertically layered growing techniques, and the rice terraces of East Asia follow a similar principle. But, now, a rapidly growing global population and increasingly limited resources are making the technique more attractive than ever.

The Green Revolution of the late 1950s boosted agricultural productivity at an astounding rate, allowing for the explosive population growth still seen today. Indeed, since 1950, the Earth's population has nearly tripled, from 2.4 billion to 7 billion, and global demand for food has grown accordingly.

Until now, the agricultural industry could keep up well enough -- otherwise swelling population figures would have leveled off long ago. But scientists warn that agricultural productivity has its limits. What's more, much of the land on which the world's food is grown has become exhausted or no longer usable. Likewise, there is not an endless supply of areas that can be converted to agricultural use.

By 2050, the UN predicts that the global population will surpass 9 billion people. Given current agricultural productivity rates, the Vertical Farm Project estimates that an agricultural area equal in size to roughly half of South America will be needed to feed this larger population.

Vertical farming has the potential to solve this problem. The term "vertical farming" was coined in 1915 by American geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey. Architects and scientists have repeatedly looked into the idea since then, especially toward the end of the 20th century. In 1999, Dickson Despommier, a professor emeritus of environmental health sciences and microbiology at New York's Columbia University seized upon the idea together with his students. After having grown tired of his depressing lectures on the state of the world, his students finally protested and asked Despommier to work with them on a more positive project.

From the initial idea of "rooftop farming," the cultivation of plants on flat roofs, the class developed a high-rise concept. The students calculated that rooftop-based rice growing would be able to feed, at most, 2 percent of Manhattan's population. "If it can't be done using rooftops, why don't we just grow the crops inside the buildings?" Despommier asked himself. "We already know how to cultivate and water plants indoors."

With its many empty high-rise buildings, Manhattan was the perfect location to develop the idea. Despommier's students calculated that a single 30-story vertical farm could feed some 50,000 people. And, theoretically, 160 of these structures could provide all of New York with food year-round, without being at the mercy of cold snaps and dry spells.

The Power Problem

Despite these promising calculations, such high-rise farms still only exist as small-scale models. Critics don't expect this to change anytime soon. Agricultural researcher Stan Cox of the Kansas-based Land Institute sees vertical farming as more of a project for dreamy young architecture students than a practical solution to potential shortages in the global food supply.

The main problem is light -- in particular, the fact that sunlight has to be replaced by LEDs. According to Cox's calculations, if you wanted to replace all of the wheat cultivation in the US for an entire year using vertical farming, you would need eight times the amount of electricity generated by all the power plants in the US over a single year -- and that's just for powering the lighting.

It gets even more difficult if you intend to rely exclusively on renewable energies to supply this power, as Despommier hopes to do. At the moment, renewable energy sources only generate about 2 percent of all power in the US. Accordingly, the sector would have to be expanded 400-fold to create enough energy to illuminate indoor wheat crops for an entire year. Despommier seems to have fallen in love with an idea, Cox says, without considering the difficulties of its actual implementation.

Getting Closer to Reality

Even so, Despommier still believes in his vision of urban agriculture. And recent developments, like the ones in South Korea, might mean his dream is not as remote as critics say. Ten years ago, vertical farming was only an idea. Today, it has developed into a concrete model. About two years ago, the first prototypes were created.

In fact, the concept seems to be working already, at least on a small scale. In the Netherlands, the first foods from a vertical farm are already stocking supermarket shelves. The PlantLab, a 10-year-old company based three floors underground in the southern city of Den Bosch, has cultivated everything from ornamental shrubs and roses to nearly every crop imaginable, including strawberries, beans, cucumbers and corn. "We manage completely without sunlight," says PlantLab's Gertjan Meeuws. "But we still manage to achieve a yield three times the size of an average greenhouse's." What's more, PlantLab uses almost 90 percent less water than a conventional farm.

As a country which has limited land resources but which possesses much of the necessary technology, the Netherlands seems to be an ideal place to develop vertical farming. This is especially true now that its residents are increasingly demanding organic, pesticide-free foods -- and are prepared to pay more for it.

'The Next Agricultural Revolution'

Despommier believes that entire countries will soon be able to use vertical farming to feed their populations. The South Korean government, at least, is interested in exploring the possibility. At the moment, the country is forced to import a large share of its food. Indeed, according to a 2005 OECD report, South Korea places fifth-to-last in a global ranking on food security. Increasing food prices, climate change and the possibility of natural disasters can compound the problem.

These facts are not lost on the researchers in the vertical farming laboratory in Suwon. "We must be prepared to avert a catastrophe," Choi says.

Still, it will be some time before vertical farming is implemented on a commercial scale in South Korea. Choi's colleague Lee Hye Jin thinks that five more years of research are needed. "Only then will our vertical farm be ready for the free market," he says.

Biomimetic Architecture

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Daniel Christian Wahl  Glocal educator, activist and consultant, generalized in whole systems design and transformative innovation for regenenerative cultures  |  Jul 23, 2017

Biomimetic Architecture

Through its infinite complexity, nature is an instructive and inspirational influence that can expand the aesthetic horizons of the building arts and confirm the inalienable right of humanity to try to salvage a place on this planet before it’s too late. The mission now in architecture, as in all human endeavour, is to recover those fragile threads of connectedness with nature that have been lost for most of this century. The key to a truly sustainable art of architecture for the new millennium will depend on the creation of bridges that unite conservation technology with an earth-centric philosophy and the capacity of designers to transform these integrated forces into a new visual language.

— James Wines (2000: 237)

There are countless examples of architects taking inspiration from biology. The Uluru- Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre in Australia, designed by Gregory Burgess Architects, mimics the interwoven bodies of two battling snakes. Foster & Partner’s Swiss Re Headquarters in London, known as the ‘Gherkin’, is a 40-storey tower inspired by marine organisms called ‘glass sponges’. These suck in water at the bottom and expel it at the top to filter nutrients; the building’s ventilation system mimics this flow.

Many other internationally recognized architects often rely on zoomorphic inspiration for the designs, processes and concepts that shape their buildings. Other internationally recognized architects who frequently rely on zoomorphic inspiration for the designs, processes and concepts that shape their buildings are Santiago Calatrava, Michael Sorkin, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, and Nicholas Grimshaw (Martin, 2004; Aldersey-Williams, 2003).

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One of the domes of the Eden Project (designed by Michael Pawlyn) — Source

While many of them are inspired by natural and biological forms, Michael Pawlyn’s approach to biomimicry in architecture is to focus on what he can learn from biological processes to make buildings more efficient by modelling nature’s closed-loop, renewable energy, no-waste systems in the design of buildings (2011).

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Michael Pawlyn

In helping to design the indoor environments for the Rainforest and Mediterranean biome exhibitions at the famous Eden Project, Pawlyn learned a lot about how water and energy cycle through natural ecosystems and how processes and functions in ecosystems are integrated and interlocking to create synergies. His design for the ‘Sahara Forest Project’ (Figure 16) makes use of such biomimicry thinking.

The bold proposal aims not only to generate large amounts of renewable energy based on concentrated solar power and to desalinate large amounts of seawater. It integrates these functions through the use of seawater-cooled greenhouses for the horticultural cultivation of food and biomass, creating a long-term strategy to reverse desertification and regenerate productive ecosystems where the Sahara Desert borders the sea.

The project is on its way to implementation. A pilot test and demonstration centre has been built in Qatar in collaboration with two giant fertilizer companies, the Norwegian Yara ASA and its Qatari joint-venture partner Qafco. It would be good to keep in mind that in the long term the fertilizers used in such a facility will also have to be produced from renewable sources and with renewable energy. Nevertheless, this experiment at scale will give us many opportunities to learn. It will teach us how to ask the right questions in an attempt to re-green the world’s deserts.

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Figure 16: Reproduced with the permission of the Sahara Forest Project Foundation

Growing vegetables and biomass in the desert with external fertilizer inputs, but also using renewable energy and innovative desalination and horticulture approaches, can be considered a Horizon 2 stepping-stone technology, offering us important opportunities to innovate even more closed-loop systems that are based, as much as possible, on organic fertilizers and on-site nutrient cycling.

Conventionally, human-made systems tend to be fossil-fuel dependent, linear and wasteful, mono-functional and engineered towards maximising one goal. Here the aim is to pursue a different paradigm — that is demonstrated by mature ecosystems which run on current solar income, operate as zero waste systems, are complex and interdependent, and have evolved toward an optimised overall system. The Pilot Project will demonstrate concentrated solar power, seawater-cooled greenhouses, evaporator hedges creating conditions for restorative agriculture, halophyte cultivation and algae production in an interdependent cluster that achieves significant increases in productivity for all elements of the system.

— Michael Pawlyn (2014)

Human beings, as expressions of life-generating-conditions-conducive-to-life, are capable of creating designs that are both restorative and regenerative. We can go beyond simply not doing any harm and start to regenerate health, resilience and thriving communities everywhere. This is the promise of biologically and ecologically inspired design and architecture.

The Eastgate Centre is a multi-storey office building in the Zimbabwean capital Harare. It uses a passive cooling system inspired by the way termites (Macrotermes michaelseni) cool their mounds. Mick Pearce and engineers at Arup designed the building to use only a tenth of the energy normally needed to cool a building of this size in the hot African climate (Biomimicry 3.8, 2014b). The Swedish architect Anders Nyquist of EcoCycleDesign applied a similar termite ventilation to the Laggarberg School in Timrå, Sweden.

Andres Nyquist on Termite Ventilation applied to an eco-retrofit of an old school

The visionary architect and writer Jason McLennan, a Buckminster Fuller prize winner and Ashoka Fellow, created the Living Building Challenge in 2006 as a new kind of building certification system that goes beyond international or national standards like LEED or BREAM and sets a standard for regenerative architecture based on biologically inspired and ecologically informed design. There are currently 192 projects on four continents spanning a range of building types. The ‘Living Building Challenge 3.0’ challenges us to ask some fundamental questions about architecture and design:

What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place?

What if every intervention resulted in greater biodiversity; increased soil health; additional outlets for beauty and personal expression; a deeper understanding of climate, culture and place; a realignment of our food and transportations systems; and a more profound sense of what it means to be a citizen of a planet where resources and opportunities are provided fairly and equitably?

— International Living Future Institute (2014: 7)

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Jason McLennan

McLennan’s vision is to take what has already been learned through previous versions of the Living Building Challenge and incorporate these insights and new questions within the framework of the Living Future Challenge. McLennan regards the Living Future Challenge as “an opportunity to rethink and redesign all our systems and provide a vision for a truly regenerative society” (Living Future Institute Australia, 2014). He is a driving force in the transition towards a regenerative culture who has inspired architects around the world to take up his challenge to create buildings conducive to life.

[This is an excerpt of a subchapter from Designing Regenerative Cultures, published by Triarchy Press, 2016.]

In The Garden: Beth Mort of Zinnia Designs Helps People Grow Productive Gardens

In The Garden: Beth Mort of Zinnia Designs Helps People Grow Productive Gardens

Sat., July 29, 2017, noon

Beth Mort, founder of Zinnia Designs, helps clients design productive landscapes. (SUSAN MULVIHILL/SPECIAL TO THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)

By Susan Mulvihill inthegarden@live.com

You can contact Beth Mort via email at beth.zinnia@gmail.com or visit her websites at zinniapermaculturedesign.com and www.snapdragonflowerfarm.com.

Beth Mort has been around gardening for as long as she can remember. Not only does she enjoy growing bountiful gardens, but teaching others how to do this as well.

“My mom and dad always kept a good-sized garden,” she recalled. “I caught my love for gardening from them and have never turned back because eating fresh food changes your whole perspective.”

When she headed off to Evergreen State College, she majored in botany.

“I probably would have gone down that track if I’d been able to find a full-time job,” she admitted.

She later earned a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Eastern Washington University. But the turning point in Mort’s life occurred when two instructors from Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island gave a daylong workshop on permaculture, which is the development of sustainable agricultural ecosystems. That led her to complete an intensive Permaculture Design Certificate course at the homestead.

In 2015, she founded Zinnia Designs, with the goal of helping people produce a yield on their property.

“I’m more focused on edible landscaping but can also teach them how to set up and grow a dye garden or raise fiber-producing animals,” she said. “I want to show them how to be productive on their land in a way that is sustainable.”

She begins by having clients answer a short questionnaire.

“It’s a great way to get people thinking about the big picture: their vision of what their yard could be, what they perceive as obstacles, and what they want to get out of it,” Mort said.

If they decide to proceed, she does a site assessment to look at every aspect of their yard, including the factors they can control and ones they cannot. This includes itemizing which enhancements the yard will need, such as mulching, soil improvement, where to locate animals, the use of water, and choosing the best places to plant.

Once Mort has gathered the information she needs, she works on a conceptual design plan.

“I create a base map that includes a sector analysis of how sun, wind, water, animals and people move through the space, and zones denoting how the areas of the property are used and accessed,” she said.

Another service she offers is two-hour training sessions on skills such as growing edible crops, flowers, beekeeping, raising chickens or making compost.

“Building their confidence is No. 1,” she said. “Giving them the basic foundation and vernacular so they can start asking the right questions – and find what they’re looking for – is really important.

“Working with people and gardening together is an extension of that,” she said. “I want them to be comfortable working in the soil, getting used to working with plants, and to address problems rather than just reacting to them.”

Mort also grows and sells cut flowers at the Thursday Market in the South Perry district, located at 924 S. Perry St. In addition, she has established a “bouquet CSA” (community-supported agriculture) program through her companion venture, Snapdragon Flower Farm.

She believes strongly in the principles of permaculture and practices what she preaches.

“Permaculture includes us in nature, and nature in us,” she said. “It is a very logical, thoughtful and observant way of living in your space. It is a joy knowing that people want to grow things and interact with their landscapes.”

Susan Mulvihill is co-author of “Northwest Gardener’s Handbook” with Pat Munts. Contact her at Susan@susansinthegarden.com and follow her at facebook.com/susansinthegarden. View this week’s “Everyone Can Grow A Garden” video at youtube.com/c/susansinthegarden.