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Long Beach, California: Urban-Agriculture Program Accepting Applications From Local Residents
Long Beach, California: Urban-Agriculture Program Accepting Applications From Local Residents
City of Long Beach / December 1, 2017
Long Beach residents can now submit their applications for the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone (UAIZ) Program, which would allow vacant-lot owners in the city to be eligible for a property-tax reduction by committing their lot to urban agriculture for five years.
Urban-agriculture projects include many types of farming activities, including community and educational gardens, as well as commercial farms with farm stands, which provide economic and educational opportunities to the community, according to the City of Long Beach.
“As a leading city for sustainability, this program is a testament to Long Beach’s commitment to expanding access to green space,” Mayor Robert Garcia said. “This program will activate vacant lots and provide new sources of healthy produce to the community.”
To qualify for the program, vacant lots must:
Be between 0.10 to three acres in size.
Have no habitable structures; all on-site structures must be accessory to agricultural use.
Not have any part of the lot listed on the Department of Toxic Substance Control’s EnviroStor Database.
Be within Long Beach City limits and comply with City zoning codes.
“I encourage all vacant lot owners to take advantage of this rare opportunity,” Vice Mayor Rex Richardson said. “This UAIZ program creates a win-win situation, fostering economic growth in Long Beach while paving way for more locally grown produce.”
On May 10, 2016, the Long Beach City Council requested City staff to explore the feasibility of implementing the UAIZ Program, an item sponsored by Richardson, 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez, 7th District Councilmember Roberto Uranga and former vice mayor Suja Lowenthal.
“This initiative supports sustainability within our community by helping to increase access to healthy foods for residents and reducing emissions from food transportation,” Gonzalez said.
“I am in full support of the UAIZ ordinance, because I want to see a cleaner, healthier Long Beach and this program helps prevent vacant lots becoming eyesores due to issues like illegal dumping,” Uranga said.
The city council passed the UAIZ ordinance last month, creating the program and updating the City zoning code to adopt urban-agriculture uses.
“The program is now open, and we are looking forward to possibly getting our first contract through this year,” said Larry Rich, the City’s sustainability coordinator. “These vacant lots have the potential to provide great community benefits, and we hope to help realize them through urban agriculture.”
Local farmers and gardeners interested in the program can visit longbeach.gov/sustainability/programs/uaiz-program/ or contact the City’s Office of Sustainability at sustainability@longbeach.gov or (562) 570-6396.
FFAR Awards $1 Million Grant to Create Open Source Technology for Gene Discovery in Plants
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), a nonprofit established in the 2014 Farm Bill with bipartisan congressional support, awarded a $1 million Seeding Solutions grant to University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to study the genetics of rice plants.
FFAR Awards $1 Million Grant to Create Open Source Technology for Gene Discovery in Plants
University of California, Davis researchers will study genes responsible for drought tolerance in rice
The research is being led by Principal Investigator Pamela Ronald, Ph.D., in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at UC Davis.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2017 - The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), a nonprofit established in the 2014 Farm Bill with bipartisan congressional support, awarded a $1 million Seeding Solutions grant to University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to study the genetics of rice plants. Together with researchers at the University of North Carolina and collaborators, the team will develop and implement a chemistry-driven gene discovery approach to identify genes that modulate root traits. The FFAR grant has been matched with funding from the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health, the Structural Genomics Consortium, AgBiome, and Promega for a total $2.3 million investment.
The project targets protein kinases, enzymes that control diverse biological process in plants, such as root architecture and drought response. Genes corresponding to kinases discovered in this project will be further characterized using a recently established comprehensive collection of mutants to assess their roles in root system architecture and drought tolerance.
"The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research is encouraged by the collaborative nature of this research," said Sally Rockey, Executive Director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. "This project is a prime example of how public-private partnerships can advance our understanding of plant genetics to develop crops resistant to drought and other climate extremes."
To accomplish their goals, the team will create and characterize a set of kinase inhibitors that collectively inhibit most of the kinases in rice. The starting point will be approximately 1,000 human kinase inhibitors carefully selected from a library of chemical compounds donated to the partnership from eight pharmaceutical companies. The set will be distributed without restriction to scientists studying other plants and traits, thus serving as a broadly useful platform. The team has agreed to operate under open access principles - specifically prohibiting filing for IP on any of the results and will communicate the results widely.
The research is being led by Principal Investigator (PI) Pamela Ronald, Ph.D., in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at UC Davis.
"I am delighted to work with this talented and diverse team of researchers to advance rice genetics research. We are grateful for FFAR support that has allowed us to launch this project," said Ronald.
"The pharmaceutical industry has poured resources into the study of human kinase inhibitors for drug discovery," said David Drewry, Ph.D., co-PI and professor at University of North Carolina. "We are excited to leverage this investment and apply what we have learned to the important problem of water scarcity. An open science approach will allow us to build our understanding of genes that influence root growth more effectively and efficiently."
Researchers on this project include:
- David Drewry, Ph.D., co-PI, professor at the University of North Carolina
- Aled Edwards, Ph.D., collaborator, professor at the University of Toronto and director of the Structural Genomics Consortium
- Rafael Najmanovich, Ph.D., collaborator, professor at the University of Montreal
This project is supported by FFAR through its Seeding Solutions grant program, which calls for bold, innovative, and potentially transformative research proposals in the Foundation's seven Challenge Areas. This grant supports the Overcoming Water Scarcity Challenge Area, which aims to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture, reduce agricultural water pollution, and develop water reuse technologies.
About the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization established by bipartisan Congressional support in the 2014 Farm Bill, builds unique partnerships to support innovative and actionable science addressing today's food and agriculture challenges. FFAR leverages public and private resources to increase the scientific and technological research, innovation, and partnerships critical to enhancing sustainable production of nutritious food for a growing global population. The FFAR Board of Directors is chaired by Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum, Ph.D., and includes ex officio representation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation.
Learn more: www.foundationfar.org Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking
About UC Davis
UC Davis is one of the world's leading cross-disciplinary research and teaching institutions, located in Davis, California. The Ronald lab studies genes that control resistance to disease and tolerance of environmental stress with the goal of improving food security for the world's poorest farmers. Ronald also directs the UC Davis Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy which cultivates a community of researchers dedicated to making scientific research accessible, relevant, and interesting to everyone.
Nexloop
Nexloop is a hyper-local, biomimetic strategy to visibly network rainwater into closed-loop urban food production. Our mission is to increase hyper-local urban food production, decouple localized irrigation from the city grid, and increase visibility of food system processes.
Project Overview
Nexloop is a hyper-local, biomimetic strategy to visibly network rainwater into closed-loop urban food production. Our mission is to increase hyper-local urban food production, decouple localized irrigation from the city grid, and increase visibility of food system processes.
Nexloop retrofits multistory residential building facades to promote small-scale, personalized food production. The design functions at the scale of the window to harness rainwater and provide in situ irrigation for sustainable hydroponic food production in individual urban homes. We aim to shift the paradigm of how urban populations relate to food consumption and access by bringing visibility and human-centered design to the food system. Nexloop addresses scale and the underlying system function with a bottom-up approach. The process of using rainwater to grow food inside requires the integration of multiple functions and a symbiotic relationship between system components. Looking at a variety of biomimetic strategies allows us to design a system that efficiently captures, stores, and distributes water for indoor growing.
The principal system components are a horizontal module and vertical membrane that utilize superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces and capillary action to channel water to indoor spaces. A unique, rhizomatic system within the module passively delivers water to the organic roots of edible plants. The vertical membrane provides additional surface area for water collection and integrates water storage for additional uptake to prevent the system from flooding. Our vision is a food-water nexus capable of sustainable, closed-loop urban living.
We intend to scale-up to facilitate building-wide adoption and citywide integration of the system to offset the needs of imported water from local water districts and regional sources, reduce the amount of water entering sewage systems, and decrease street runoff into the rivers and NY Harbor. A modular, scalable, systems approach is the foundation for a sustainable urban food system.
Jacob Russo, Stephanie Newcomb, Alexa Nicolas, Anamarija Frankic, Dale Clifford,
Project Overview
Nexloop is a hyper-local, biomimetic strategy to visibly network rainwater into closed-loop urban food production. Our mission is to increase hyper-local urban food production, decouple localized irrigation from the city grid, and increase visibility of food system processes.
Nexloop retrofits multistory residential building facades to promote small-scale, personalized food production. The design functions at the scale of the window to harness rainwater and provide in situ irrigation for sustainable hydroponic food production in individual urban homes. We aim to shift the paradigm of how urban populations relate to food consumption and access by bringing visibility and human-centered design to the food system. Nexloop addresses scale and the underlying system function with a bottom-up approach. The process of using rainwater to grow food inside requires the integration of multiple functions and a symbiotic relationship between system components. Looking at a variety of biomimetic strategies allows us to design a system that efficiently captures, stores, and distributes water for indoor growing.
The principal system components are a horizontal module and vertical membrane that utilize superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces and capillary action to channel water to indoor spaces. A unique, rhizomatic system within the module passively delivers water to the organic roots of edible plants. The vertical membrane provides additional surface area for water collection and integrates water storage for additional uptake to prevent the system from flooding. Our vision is a food-water nexus capable of sustainable, closed-loop urban living.
We intend to scale-up to facilitate building-wide adoption and citywide integration of the system to offset the needs of imported water from local water districts and regional sources, reduce the amount of water entering sewage systems, and decrease street runoff into the rivers and NY Harbor. A modular, scalable, systems approach is the foundation for a sustainable urban food system.
DP World Supports Saudi Vision for New Mega-City
DP World Supports Saudi Vision for New Mega-City
By MarEx 2017-10-26 21:57:15
Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is beginning a new push to diversify its economy. The nation’s government has long pursued the expansion of economic activity into new arenas beyond oil and gas, notably through the creation of greenfield industrial sites and cities, with separate, business-friendly regulatory environments. The most prominent of these projects to date, the industry- and logistics-focused King Abdullah Economic City, is about 70 nm north of the Red Sea port of Jeddah. It has its own seaport, King Abdullah Port, with a current volume of 1.4 million TEU and aspirations to exceed the 10 million TEU mark.
On Tuesday, Prince bin Salman announced a $500 billion plan to create another new city – a sprawling metropolis in a mountainous area of the nation's northwest corner, "an entire new land, purpose-built for a new way of living" with its "own laws, taxes and regulations." The high-tech plan calls for vertical farms, a bridge to Egypt, a strong logistics sector and 100 percent renewable electrical power. bin Salman also called for a return to a cultural environment grounded in "a moderate Islam open to the world and all religions."
NEOM’s Red Sea coastline, pre-development (NEOM)
On Thursday, UAE-based port operator DP World, which runs the South Container Terminal (SCT) at Jeddah Islamic Port, announced plans to invest at its existing facility to support the prince's vision. At present, Jeddah handles about 60 percent of Saudi Arabia's imports.
"Our plans involve increasing efficiencies using innovative tech solutions and making it a semi-automated facility to create skilled jobs for Saudi nationals," said DP World group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. He suggested that investment in Jeddah could make Saudi "ports and logistics services a necessity and not a choice for global trade markets, particularly the Red Sea, which is the blood line of global trade." Bin Sulayem also highlighted the "strong historic relations" between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are underpinned by “the clear vision of its great leaders who have planned a bright future for their people based on solid economic foundations.”
Development on multiple fronts
NEOM will proceed in parallel with other Saudi projects, like King Abdullah Financial District north of Riyadh, which is under construction; a new 13,000 square mile luxury tourism region on the Red Sea, located 80 nm south of NEOM; and a new 125 square mile "entertainment city" south of Riyadh. But the original set of "economic cities" founded by King Abdullah have not proceeded as rapidly as expected, analysts caution. "The overall progress with the economic cities has been very slow, even before the collapse of the oil price,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, speaking to Gulf News.
Transparent Solar Technology Represent's "Wave of the Future"
Environment + Science & Technology
Published: Oct. 23, 2017
TRANSPARENT SOLAR TECHNOLOGY REPRESENTS 'WAVE OF THE FUTURE'
Contact(s): Richard Lunt, Andy Henion
See-through solar materials that can be applied to windows represent a massive source of untapped energy and could harvest as much power as bigger, bulkier rooftop solar units, scientists report today in Nature Energy.
Led by engineering researchers at Michigan State University, the authors argue that widespread use of such highly transparent solar applications, together with the rooftop units, could nearly meet U.S. electricity demand and drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels.
“Highly transparent solar cells represent the wave of the future for new solar applications,” said Richard Lunt, the Johansen Crosby Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at MSU. “We analyzed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices can provide a similar electricity-generation potential as rooftop solar while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.”
Lunt and colleagues at MSU pioneered the development of a transparent luminescent solar concentrator that when placed on a window creates solar energy without disrupting the view. The thin, plastic-like material can be used on buildings, car windows, cell phones or other devices with a clear surface.
The solar-harvesting system uses organic molecules developed by Lunt and his team to absorb invisible wavelengths of sunlight. The researchers can “tune” these materials to pick up just the ultraviolet and the near-infrared wavelengths that then convert this energy into electricity (watch a demonstration of the process here).
Moving global energy consumption away from fossil fuels will require such innovative and cost-effective renewable energy technologies. Only about 1.5 percent of electricity demand in the United States and globally is produced by solar power.
But in terms of overall electricity potential, the authors note that there is an estimated 5 billion to 7 billion square meters of glass surface in the United States. And with that much glass to cover, transparent solar technologies have the potential of supplying some 40 percent of energy demand in the U.S. – about the same potential as rooftop solar units. “The complimentary deployment of both technologies,” Lunt said, “could get us close to 100 percent of our demand if we also improve energy storage.”
Lunt said highly transparent solar applications are recording efficiencies above 5 percent, while traditional solar panels typically are about 15 percent to 18 percent efficient. Although transparent solar technologies will never be more efficient at converting solar energy to electricity than their opaque counterparts, they can get close and offer the potential to be applied to a lot more additional surface area, he said.
Right now, transparent solar technologies are only at about a third of their realistic overall potential, Lunt added.
“That is what we are working towards,” he said. “Traditional solar applications have been actively researched for over five decades, yet we have only been working on these highly transparent solar cells for about five years. Ultimately, this technology offers a promising route to inexpensive, widespread solar adoption on small and large surfaces that were previously inaccessible.”
The work is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.
Lunt’s coauthors are Christopher Traverse, a doctoral student in engineering at MSU, and Richa Pandey and Miles Barr with Ubiquitous Energy Inc., a company Lunt cofounded with Barr to commercialize transparent solar technologies.
Vertical Farming: Key to Meeting Princeton University Sustainability Plan
Dr. Paul Gauthier, a postdoctoral research associate in the geosciences department, created the Princeton Vertical Farming Project (PVFP) this past April. The project is situated in Moffett Laboratory, which adjoins Guyot Hall, and was funded by the University’s Office of Sustainability and is directly related to the University’s SustainabilityPlan.
In 2008, as part of the a larger plan to promote sustainability, the University committed to reduce its overall carbon dioxide emission levels to those of 1990 by 2020. The University's plan also set several more goals in the area of environmentalism and sustainable energy meant to address pressing environmental issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and air pollution.
According to Gauthier, the PFVP is a present-day attempt to expand upon these goals from almost a decade ago. Indeed, Gauthier identified the project as a key addition to the University’s larger sustainability plan.
“The goal of the project [PFVP] is to help students familiarize themselves with vertical farming here [at the University] and eventually create start-ups that employ the technique outside of the University,” explained Gauthier, adding that another goal of the project is to eventually provide produce to the dining halls as a step towards the University becoming completely self-sustaining.
Gauthier explained that, globally, the majority of start-ups utilizing vertical farming shut down after only a couple of years. This short life, he said, stems from the startups' inability to generate enough profit to meet the costs of applying vertical farming to produce farming. PFVP, he hopes, will help advance vertical farming technology from a scientific standpoint to remedy this problem. This kind of technological advancement, he added, will encourage students to build their own start-ups utilizing vertical farming technology.
Gauthier noted that the issues with popular use of vertical farms include a shortage of adequate technology as well as a lack of proper experimental data on the optimization of vertical farming efficiency. To study these problems, Gauthier's team is currently measuring the effectiveness of different vertical farming settings by testing how different lighting and water environments impact plant growth.
As a result of months of experiments and research, Gauthier and his team have enhanced the efficiency of vertical farms in a number of ways, such as reducing water usage and utilizing LED lights instead of sunlight to provide photosynthetic catalyst.
“We are using approximately 0.5 gallons of water for every kale plant,” noted Gauthier. “This is considered very efficient, and will save a significant amount of water when applied to large-scale fields.”
Gauthier added that vertical farming can be utilized not only as a reliable source of food in the future, but also as a means for capturing carbon dioxide emissions.
According to Gauthier, vertically farmed produce is not only sustainable and efficient, but grows rather quickly and is comparable in taste to commercial produce. Gauthier explained that basil plants in the vertical farm take approximately a month to grow, and with the use of special LED lights, are almost indistinguishable from basil sold in markets. According to Gauthier, this is attributable to his focus on the taste and quality of the vertical farm products rather than the quantity.
Kyra Gregory ‘19, a communications assistant for the Office of Sustainability and PVFP website manager, has been working with Gauthier from the start of the project and believes it will contribute to the University’s larger sustainability initiatives.
“Overall, seeing the vertical farm progress from its initial stage to where it is now is very inspiring for me. The amount of growth and student interest gives me hope for sustainability efforts at Princeton and in our generation in general,” said Gregory. She also explained that the PVFP team, which includes other students, hopes to make a meaningful impact on sustainability at Princeton and to highlight the benefits of vertical farming.
In addition to being a great chance to improve sustainability on campus, PFVP has left a mark on the team members for other reasons. “It's wonderful being involved with a team where people from different academic and social backgrounds can come together to work on this project that we all care deeply about,” Gregory said.
Reached out to Dr. Shana S. Weber, Director of Sustainability Office, and Ms. Kristi Wiedemann, Assistant Director of Sustainability Office, were unable to be reached for comment before publication.
Future of the Prairie
FUTURE OF THE PRAIRIE
October 11, 2017 at 5:00 am | By DEVIN HEILMAN Staff Writer
LOREN BENOIT/Press From left, Coeur CEO Tom McNabb, Coeur Greens operations manager Kelly Lattin and Innovation Collective founder Nick Smoot pose for a photo in front of house at 1915 E. Mullan Ave in Coeur d’Alene. The house is a prototype for a future sustainable living community in Hayden.
A mixed-use sustainable village destined for Hayden is starting with a little old house in downtown Coeur d'Alene.
Coeur, a company that focuses on sustainable resources including power and food, recently purchased the house at 1915 E. Mullan Ave. to serve as a prototype for a sustainable living community and industrial campus in Hayden. Coeur purchased the 35 acres at the southeast corner of Hayden Avenue and Huetter Road in early 2016 and plans to start construction in the spring.
Coeur CEO Tom McNabb and Innovation Collective founder Nick Smoot, a partner in the project, are using the Mullan house as a demo site for the village.
"It's a simple model to see what we can do for starters," McNabb said Tuesday. "The word ‘sustainability,’ you never really know what it is, but we figure we’d try and figure it out."
Smoot said the community will be built on three core principles: outbound, sustainable and intellectual.
"Most people of this next generation want to live an outbound life in nature and having experiences in their community," Smoot said. "The idea of creating a whole village of people who have that mentality is something that's interesting as a housing development."
The "sustainable" principle is built upon dedication to low-cost, low-impact living where power sources such as wind and solar are maximized, gray water (mostly clean waste water from sinks, baths and kitchen appliances) is recycled, and native landscaping is used. Those involved in the project are researching and working on ways to expand even further into the sustainability aspect.
The third principle is "intellectual," meaning home owner associations and covenants, conditions and restrictions would encourage residents to read books, watch documentaries, help pay for educational guest speakers and otherwise maintain an intellectually stimulated community.
Smoot said he can imagine riding his bike into such a community, parking it at the community bike corral and walking to his house through a neighborhood where community fire pits generate conversation and serve as social gathering places. The houses are small (500 to 1,200 square feet), but provide enough space for their residents, and the community dining hall provides even more opportunities for people to meet and get to know each other.
"It makes me very happy," Smoot said. "That's the kind of place you want to live."
The solar-powered Coeur Technology Campus will be located just west of the village. It will house a solar farm to generate power for schools and public buildings, vertical farms to grow local produce, and a bottling plant to bottle local water at the source. It will also serve as a space where entrepreneurs and forward-thinkers can share ideas and put them into action.
"A lot of people don’t know it, but we have more sun hours per year than Florida,” McNabb said, “Solar, about five years ago, was 2 cents off because the rates for hydropower were cheap, but in the last five years the rates (for hydropower) are going up and the rates of hardware have gone down about 40 percent, so all of a sudden it makes sense.”
The 630-square-foot house on Mullan, built in 1930, would probably have been torn down if it had not been selected for this project. McNabb explained that the original structure will be kept as the inside is remodeled to be a studio-type dwelling that can be rented out on a short-term basis to give people an experience in sustainable living.
Tanks will be installed to recycle the gray water and help with temperature. The roof will be lined with solar panels, and energy-efficient appliances and products will be used, among other forward-thinking alterations that will boost the home's sustainability.
McNabb said a more precise estimate could be given near the house's completion date in the spring, but he believes the cost of giving the house a sustainable makeover will be somewhere around $50,000 or $60,000. About 20 people representing a wide variety of talent and expertise have already expressed interest in contributing to the project, he said.
The community is welcome to attend an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday to check it out prior to its sustainable makeover and exchange ideas with those leading the project.
Info: www.coeurllc.com
Viability of Indoor Urban Agriculture is Focus of Research Grant
Viability of Indoor Urban Agriculture is Focus of Research Grant
By Krishna Ramanujan | October 12, 2017
A commercial CEA greenhouse operation producing leafy greens in eastern New York. Chris Kitchen/University Photography
Neil Mattson, associate professor in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science.
Growing crops in controlled environments – in greenhouses, plant factories and in vertical farms – provides alternatives to conventional farming by producing food year-round near metropolitan areas, reducing transportation costs and water use, and improving land-use efficiency. Such local systems also offer valuable educational and psychological benefits by connecting urban people to the food they consume.
At the same time, there is little concrete evidence to show how so-called controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) compares to conventional field agriculture in terms of energy, carbon and water footprints, profitability, workforce development and scalability.
Cornell will lead a project to answer these questions, thanks to a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation, through its new funding initiative called Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems.
“By putting all these pieces together – including energy, water, workforce development and economic viability – we hope to discover if CEAs make sense for producing food for the masses,” said Neil Mattson, the grant’s principal investigator and associate professor in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science.
Six projects included in the grant will look at:
Case studies: Food system analysis of case studies in metropolitan areas will examine where vegetables are currently sourced and the market channels they go through to reach consumers, such as supermarkets, retailers or restaurants. Researchers will model whether urban CEAs could replace a large fraction of this produce, and whether it makes sense for CEA produce to go through the same market channels or other ones that may suit them better. This project is led by Miguel Gómez, associate professor, and Charles Nicholson, adjunct associate professor, both in Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.
Computer modeling of energy and water use: Computer models of energy and water use for different crops in greenhouses, vertical farms and plant factories (indoor environments with artificial lighting and racks of plants) will be developed. The models will be calibrated with real-world data from greenhouse growth trials at Cornell and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). A 2008 study by Lou Albright at Cornell found that based on that year’s technologies, the carbon footprint to produce lettuce in a greenhouse in New York state was twice that of growing it in a field in Arizona or California. Other researchers have reported that CEAs use 20 times less water than field agriculture, since water can be recycled indoors. Mattson leads this effort with research associate Kale Harbick, also in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science.
Networking: The project will foster industry-to-research networks for facilitating the acceptance, adoption and improvement of metropolitan CEA systems. Anusuya Rangarajan, senior extension associate, will lead this project.
Nutritional value: Researchers will examine the nutritional value of produce from greenhouses and plant factories and comparing those values with CEA systems where lighting might be optimized for more healthful produce. Project leaders include Marianne Nyman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Tessa Pocock, a senior research scientist, both at RPI.
Workforce needs: Cornell researchers are collaborating with the Association for Vertical Farming to assess the workforce needs of the urban CEA industry and develop programs to meet those needs and test if requirements are being met. Researchers will examine if, for example, all the tomatoes consumed in New York City were to be grown indoors, how many jobs at what education levels and training would be needed. Rangarajan leads this effort.
Training opportunities: Rangarajan and the Association for Vertical Farming will also create workforce training opportunities. They will spearhead outreach through conferences and events to share information. A forthcoming website will house a toolkit to assess the viability and resource availability of proposed urban agriculture projects.
“Urban agriculture is an increasingly touted way to connect producers with consumers, and this grant will help guide full development of this industry and do better to figure out where the best opportunities might be, as well as cases where it doesn’t make sense,” Mattson said.
STORY CONTACTS
Krishna Ramanujan
MPA ESP Student to Transform Urban Farming
MPA ESP Student to Transform Urban Farming
BY LAURA PIRAINO | October 6, 2017
MPA-ESP student Alexander Rudnicki is a civil engineer (Columbia University ’10), who comes to SIPA from AeroFarms, an urban farming pioneer. Rudnicki speaks to MPA ESP intern Shagorika Ghosh about the urban farming industry, the enriching experiences of the ESP program, and his plans for the future.
How did your background working with innovative and transformative urban farms lead you to pursuing theMPA-ESP program?
I was the first engineer working at AeroFarms, where being the plant manager for over three years allowed me to experience the entire spectrum of working in the industry. For example, there was a day in particular that I remember, when I spent all day working in the plant training people, supervising operations, as well as having to present our work to the Duke of Westminster, who is one of our largest funders. Working at AeroFarms allowed me to experience the reality of working in the sector–how slowly things can move in real life, how implementation of projects needs teamwork and lots of capital.
AeroFarms was a vehicle for agricultural companies to engage in urban farming. People are excited and enthusiastic about urban farming, but it is a nascent industry with respect to policy and technology, so it’s kind of like the Wild West right now. There isn’t much incentive for farming companies to move into urban areas at this point. I wanted to explore the confluence of urban farming technology and traditional farming techniques, and studying environmental policy seemed to be the way forward.
What specifically motivated you to choose the MPA-ESP program at Columbia University?
I want to shape what the future industry looks like, and how the industry can be developed. The MPA-ESP program really equips me to do that. There is a focus on the environment, but it also takes into account social perspectives. The length of the program and its rigor is definitely another factor. It is a shorter, more intensive program, and the course structure and hands-on experience is great for mid-career professionals because it doesn’t feel like a full step back into school, but more like a half step back. At the same time, it’s great to be at SIPA, which allows you to be flexible, branch out and take different electives. Being at Columbia has also broadened my horizons, and it’s possible to keep abreast of everything that is happening in the industry. A lot of avenues then open up–working in policy or with companies in different areas of the urban farming industry.
What are your favorite classes and why?
One of my favorite classes has been Leadership and Urban Transformation, taught by Professor Michael Nutter, the former mayor of Philadelphia. He brings his long time public service perspective, and incredible insights into the actual implementation of policies, and the challenges of politics involved in policy implementation. I am also enjoying Sustainable Finance with Professor Bruce Kahn, which covers components of corporate finance, sustainability accounting, and sustainability metrics.
How has living and studying in NYC contributed to your experience in this program?
New York City is taking efforts to be at the forefront of sustainability, and this is being supported through high level executive action as well. OneNYC (formerly the Bloomberg Administration’s PlanNYC) is the sustainability plan for the City of New York. I am very interested in their Zero Waste initiative, and I intend to volunteer for the city in the future.
What has been your experience with your Environmental Science and Policy cohort been like?
In the MPA-ESP cohort, we work collaboratively for workshop presentations and other group projects. After multiple projects, we all have worked and interacted with at least half of the entire class. Our cohort is a very close-knit one, and I make it a point to interact with my fellow classmates. It has been very interesting to know their backgrounds, their interests and what they want to pursue. In my role as the ESP Treasurer, I also work to understand what the needs of the cohort are, what events and speakers they would be interested in.
What are your plans once you graduate? What are some skills and tools you have developed over the last year that you can use?
I would love to work with city planning offices to integrate urban farming into city planning and layouts. It’s encouraging to see cities like Detroit that have outlined an urban farming policy. It’s a great start and I want to be involved in such urban initiatives after I graduate.
I came to SIPA to learn how to create policy that would shape the future of urban farming. Through my classes, I am developing skills to be able to do that. I am learning to adopt a systems thinking approach towards earth systems through classes such as Climatology and Hydrology, that allows for a broader perspective when looking at the sustainability industry as a whole. Through my Sustainable Finance class, I am learning not just how to evaluate sustainability quantitatively, but also learn and analyze trends in the industry that are attractive to investors. All of these will equip me to further develop the urban farming industry and integrate traditional techniques and new technologies.
'An Overwhelming Case For Action' - Expert Panel Identifies Unacceptable Toll of Food and Farming Systems On Human Health
09.10.2017
NEW REPORT: 'An overwhelming case for action' - expert panel identifies unacceptable toll of food and farming systems on human health
(9th October - Rome) Industrial food and farming systems are making people sick in a variety of ways, and are generating staggering human and economic costs - according to a major new report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).
Decisive action can be taken on the basis of what we know, the Panel found, but is held back by the unequal power of food system actors to set the terms of debate and to influence policy.
Lead author Cecilia Rocha said: “Food systems are making us sick. Unhealthy diets are the most obvious link, but are only one of many pathways through which food and farming systems affect human health.”
“This means that there are multiple entry points for building healthier food systems. We must urgently address these impacts wherever they occur, and in parallel we must address the root causes of inequitable, unsustainable and unhealthy practices in food systems.”
Launched today at the UN Committee on World Food Security in Rome, the report places the debilitating health impacts of inadequate diets side by side with environmental health risks (e.g. nitrate-contaminated drinking water and the spread antimicrobial resistance) and the endemic occupational hazards facing food and farmworkers.
IPES-Food found that many of the severest health conditions afflicting populations around the world - from respiratory diseases to a range of cancers and systematic livelihood stresses- are linked to industrial food and farming practices, i.e. chemical-intensive agriculture, concentrated livestock production, the mass production and marketing of ultra-processed foods, and deregulated global supply chains.
The economic costs of these impacts are huge and likely to grow. Malnutrition costs the world $3.5 trillion per year, while obesity alone is estimated to cost $760 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, combined EU and US losses from exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals amount to $557 billion per year, while anti-microbrial resistant infections are already thought to be incurring $20-34 billion of annual costs in the US.
IPES-Food co-chair Olivia Yambi said: “What is troubling is how systematically these risks are generated - at different nodes of the chain and in different parts of the world.”
Fellow co-chair Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, added: “When all of these health impacts are considered collectively, the grounds for reform are compelling. And when health impacts are placed alongside social and environmental impacts, and the mounting costs they generate, the case for action is overwhelming. It is now clearer than ever that healthy people and a healthy planet are co-dependent.”
The report found that those without power or voice are often exposed to the greatest health risks in food systems, meaning that these impacts often go unseen, undocumented and unaddressed. "Here as elsewhere," De Schutter said, "political disempowerment and marginalization goes hand in hand with risks to lives and livelihoods."
Furthermore, the health impacts of food systems are interconnected, self-reinforcing, and complex. They are caused by many agents, and exacerbated by climate change, unsanitary conditions, and poverty – factors which are shaped by food and farming systems.
Rocha said: “The industrial food and farming model that systematically generates negative health impacts also generates highly unequal power relations. Powerful actors are therefore able to shape our understanding of food-health linkages, promoting solutions that leave the root causes of ill health unaddressed.”
“The complexity of health impacts in food systems is real and challenging, but should not be an excuse for inaction. Urgent steps can and must be taken to reform food system practices, and to transform the ways in which knowledge is gathered and transmitted, understandings are forged, and priorities are set.”
IPES-Food identified five key leverage points for building healthier food systems: i) promoting food systems thinking at all levels; ii) reasserting scientific integrity and research as a public good; iii) bringing the positive impacts of alternative food systems to light; iv) adopting the precautionary principle; and, v) building integrated food policies under participatory governance.
The report, commissioned by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, builds on IPES-Food’s first thematic report, ‘From Uniformity to Diversity’ (2016), which identified factors locking in the industrial food and farming model, and called for a paradigm shift towards diversified agroecological systems.
Read the Full Report: Unravelling the Food–Health Nexus: Addressing practices, political economy, and power relations to build healthier food systems
Read the Executive Summary.
Meet 10 People Who Are Influencing Different Segments of The Produce Industry
In every industry, there are outstanding individuals who go above and beyond to improve the world around them. Produce is no different. From ag-tech to marketing to urban farming, these people are propelling the industry forward. In this month’s cover story, meet 10 of the leading People in Produce.
People In Produce
Meet 10 People Who Are Influencing Different Segments of The Produce Industry
October 3, 2017
In every industry, there are outstanding individuals who go above and beyond to improve the world around them. Produce is no different. From ag-tech to marketing to urban farming, these people are propelling the industry forward. In this month’s cover story, meet 10 of the leading People in Produce.
Do you know someone you think should be recognized in a future issue? Drop us a line at cmanning@gie.net. We’d love to know who you think is making a difference.
Specialty crops
Andrew Carter, CEO and co-founder, Smallhold
Photo courtesy of Andrew Carter
The authority on New York City mushroom production offers customers hyperlocal subscription-based farms.
graduate of the University of Vermont with a degree in ecological design and environmental sciences, Andrew Carter says that in college he learned a lot about mushroom production — a prime educational example of bioremediation. Following graduation, he worked in greenhouses, growing primarily hydroponic leafy greens and herbs, and consulted for vertical, container and warehouse farmers. A couple years ago, things came full-circle when he saw how he could launch the only operating mushroom farm in New York City.
Along with Adam DeMartino, Carter began Smallhold, which grows mushrooms in a container farm by Brooklyn’s East River and ships subscription-based “Minifarms” to restaurants and grocery stores throughout New York City. “I read a lot,” he says about the research he had to conduct before being able to corner the New York mushroom-growing market. “I went out to a few big farms and spoke with the operators there.”
Although Smallhold is still in its early stages, Carter hopes to expand its markets beyond the five boroughs and also potentially begin growing leafy greens and herbs. “In my opinion, as far as the ag market is concerned, you have to be competitive on freshness and price,” he says.
Smallhold’s roughly six-foot-tall Minifarms include rack row chambers that the company has developed in-house that are equipped with WiFi, LED lights, climate control and irrigation, Carter says. “It’s mostly automated, but when we want to update parameters or we want to change anything, we take care of that,” he says.
Carter calls Smallhold’s nine mushroom varieties gourmet and exotic, and they encompass everything from shiitakes to lion’s mane to oyster to pioppino — a delicacy in Italy. The company sells the mushrooms at a competitive price, and due to their proximity to the end consumer, they are very fresh.
“What we’re really figuring out is a way to bring the freshest produce humanly possible to our customers,” Carter says. “By growing it right there, there’s nothing better than that. We’re really working on ways of streamlining that process, making it affordable and making it easy for everyone to have their food growing right there.” — Patrick Williams
Vertical Farming
Photo courtesy of Henry Gordon-Smith
Henry Gordon-Smith,
Founder and managing director, Agritecture Consulting
Henry Gordon-Smith found his niche in agriculture by chasing new opportunities.
enry Gordon-Smith spent his childhood overseas. He was born in Hong Kong, and lived in Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia before attending university in Canada. While he was not directly engaged in agriculture while growing up, his international experiences primed him for his current career as the managing director of Agritecture Consulting, a company that helps to plan, design and implement urban agriculture projects around the world.
“I grew up in big cities, and big cities force you to think about how you’re using space,” Gordon-Smith says. “You have the chance to engage with so many different cultures and ways of thinking that it forces you to think in a more diverse approach, which I think is a big part of my philosophy.”
Gordon-Smith was first exposed to urban farming and its benefits while studying at a university in Vancouver, Canada. Involvement in local sustainable farming efforts and his own studies lead him to found a blog focused on vertical and urban farming issues called Agritecture (agritecture.com) while also volunteering at various urban ag operations to obtain hands-on- growing experience. Recently, Agritecture merged with Blue Planet Consulting — where Gordon-Smith served as managing director — to form Agritecture Consulting.
After graduation, he bought a one-way ticket to New York City to become an urban farmer. Despite not landing a job immediately, he stayed there, spent time studying at Columbia University under industry pioneer Dickson Despommier and ultimately found his current niche as a consultant. Now, five years after moving to New York, he wants to help people embark on their own journeys into urban agriculture as he continues his own.
“I want to be known as someone who's excited about this [industry], in it for the long-term and is ready to help people progress,” Gordon-Smith says. — Chris Manning
Technology
Dr. Nate Storey
Co-founder and chief science officer, Plenty
Photo courtesy of Plenty
Storey works to bring local, clean produce to communities around the world.
Dr. Nate Storey first made his mark on the produce industry by developing the ZipGrow Tower, a vertical farming system, at Bright AgroTech, a vertical farming equipment manufacturer he founded. Now, as a co-founder and the chief science officer at Plenty, a high-tech indoor farming company, he’s part of a team that’s trying to give everyone access to local food.
Storey started in agriculture by studying aquaculture-integrated hydroponics at the University of Wyoming, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. There, he was able to pursue research projects specific to his interests — projects that lead him to found Bright AgroTech and develop the ZipGrow Towers over a two-year period while he earned his Ph.D.
“[The university] supported my research,” Storey says. “This wasn’t research other universities were interested in or saw as valuable.”
Now, at Plenty, he’s continuing the work he did at Bright AgroTech — which was recently purchased by Plenty — and taking it further. Plenty’s goal is to bringclean, local food to communities across the world that’s grown in its vertical container farms. And, despite only being a young company, Plenty is already a success story.
According to Storey, Plenty is already competitive with field-grown pricing on different greens and herbs and should eventually be able to replace “a good portion” of what field growers currently produce. Publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company and Bloomberg say Plenty is a model business in a rapidly evolving industry.
This year, it also received a $200 million investment — the largest ever for an ag-tech company, according to TechCrunch — from a venture capital group that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
And while Storey understands that it’s not “free money,” he knows and appreciates that his work can make an impact beyond the checkbook.
“I love that I’m impacting the future of humanity,” he says. “I am not powerless to see my ideas come to life.” — Chris Manning
Association leadership
Lauren M. Scott
Photo courtesy of Lauren M. Scott
Chief marketing officer, Produce Marketing Association
A foodie from the beverage industry breaks into a leading produce and floral organization.
Self-proclaimed foodie and experienced marketer Lauren M. Scott appears to have found her dream job. A year ago, she was named chief marketing officer for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA). In her new role, she has the unique opportunity to help all businesses in the produce and floral industry prosper.
“I’ve always been a foodie and I’ve worked in the beverage business at Pepsi and Diageo most of my career,” says Scott. “When the PMA opportunity came my way, it gave me the chance to work with leaders in two of the most popular categories in culture today — produce and floral. I wanted to contribute my talent, energy and skills to help these industries grow and prosper worldwide.”
Scott says she’ll be working with her colleagues at PMA to help members by:
- Examining the landscape: consumer/industry research, including the role culture plays in this space.
- Offering actionable insights on strategic marketing: how it complements existing sales and marketing efforts and can be used as a discipline to grow a business.
- Providing resources companies can use to build their businesses, such as eat brighter! (pma.com/events/eat-brighter) and more.
“Our industry is operating in a highly competitive, dynamic food marketplace,” Scott says. “We have to understand that marketplace and then break through the clutter so that our member companies can perpetually thrive.”
In addition to helping established companies prosper, PMA is working to encourage young people to seek careers in the produce industry. It has set up a foundation called the Center for Growing Talent to “attract and retain the best talent for the industry.”
“PMA is committed to making the produce and floral industries the best place to work,” says Scott. “We have significant programs that target college students and we’ve had great success bringing them into member companies where they are contributing to growth.” — Neil Moran
Marketing
Chris Veillon
Photo courtesy of Chris Veillon
Chief marketing officer, Pure Flavor
In a new role with an expanding grower, this marketer conducts a top-down approach to branding.
Chris Veillon, who recently took the position as chief marketing officer for Pure Flavor, sees exciting times ahead for the company and offers some key insights into the future of the produce industry.
Founded in 2003 in Leamington, Ontario, Pure Flavor grows and markets a variety of greenhouse vegetables, including tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and living lettuce grown in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In his new role as CMO, Veillon hopes to take the brand to the next level, in part by taking on specific roles with promotions, advertising, content creation and digital marketing.
“The opportunity to grow with Pure Flavor, not only from a brand and product perspective, but professionally, was something I could not pass up,” Veillon says, citing an upcoming $105 million investment into a 75-acre greenhouse build in Georgia as just one growth opportunity for the brand.
Veillon got his start in marketing in the tourism industry. After 10 years in tourism, he was ready for a change. He says he was contacted “out of the blue” by a produce company that was looking to build a marketing department. Over the last 10 years, he was able to “create, strategize and build” a variety of brands that are developing into household names.
At Pure Flavor, Veillon says he gets to see the company from the 10,000-foot level. He sees opportunities to expand the company’s message, but hasn’t lost sight of the most important thing on consumers’ minds: great taste.
“Flavor drives repeat sales, hands down. Great packaging will attract, but what they bite into is what will determine their next move,” Veillon says. “In a space where there is an S-O-S, or ‘sea of sameness’ as I like to call it, there has to be a unique experience for you to retain that customer.”
As consumers become more savvy, they want to know where their fruits and vegetables come from, Veillon says. “Brands that resonate with consumers are the ones that have a unique value proposition,” he says. “It’s not about smoke and mirrors to get the sale, it is about authenticity to create a customer for life.” — Neil Moran
Sustainability
Photo courtesy of Nathan Kaufman
Nathan Kaufman
Director of living systems, The Perennial
This grower feeds flies to fish to fuel an environmentally friendly farm-to-table experience.
The husband-and-wife restaurateur duo of Karen Leibowitz and Anthony Myint started Mission Chinese Food and Commonwealth before founding The Perennial, a restaurant in San Francisco that sheds light on climate change and practices sustainability. Taking advantage of environmentally friendly food production and service methods such as carbon ranching and offering Kernza, a perennial grain, outdoor farmers and onsite employees do their part. But much of the work takes place across the San Francisco Bay with grower Nathan Kaufman.
As director of living systems, Kaufman runs The Perennial’s roughly 1,000-square-foot greenhouse and 2,000-square-foot outdoor production space in West Oakland. The greenhouse stands out for its highly nontraditional greenhouse crops — everything from turmeric to Australian finger lime to dwarf cardamom to papalo.
“In the year that we had for buildout, there was just so much give and take and discussion,” Kaufman says. “Initially, Anthony and Chris [Kiyuna], the executive chef, hit me with a wish list, and there would be stuff like jackfruit on there. I’m like, ‘Ok, guys. We’re not in Southeast Asia, and that’s going to take like 40 years for me to start getting fruit on it. That’s an 80-foot-tall tree, guys.’”
To boost sustainability efforts, Kaufman takes leftover food prep that the back of house staff has divided into two categories (the first being produce and the second being being meat, dairy and bread) and composts it. He uses worms to break down the produce and black soldier flies to break down the meat, dairy and bread. In turn, he feeds the fly larva to sturgeon and catfish that power aquaponic systems.
Kaufman is also executive director of The Perennial's nonprofit, the Perennial Farming Initiative, which educates others on sustainable efforts. But not every diner wants to hear about environmentalism while eating dinner. “Sometimes if you’re just getting a cocktail after work and you just want a great environment, hey, that’s totally fine by me,” he says. “For us, just by supporting us with your dollar, you’re voting with your buck. In that way, we can really engage with folks wherever they’re at.” — Patrick Williams
Leadership
Dr. Roberta Cook,
Photo courtesy of Dr. Roberta Cook
Director, Village Farms
A longtime academic economist now advises an industry-leading grower.
After 31 years working at University of California, Davis, Dr. Roberta Cook remains as passionate about the produce industry as when she was still a graduate student at Michigan State University.
“In my career at UC Davis, I was tasked with looking at all the key supply and demand trends affecting markets for fresh produce in California,” says Cook, who held the position of extension economist in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. She is now on the board of directors at Village Farms and Ocean Mist Farms.
Her research and consultations have allowed her to gain key insights into the trends affecting the produce industry — information that should be valuable to both growers and retailers. Cook says consumers became very value-conscious during the recession and haven’t reverted to earlier buying practices, making competitive pricing even more important for retailers, which puts pressure on suppliers.
One of the biggest trends she sees affecting the industry, which will most likely continue for years to come is “channel blurring,” or the advent of more and more types of competing retail outlets for fresh produce, beyond the conventional supermarket of old.
“From Walmart Supercenters to club stores, dollar stores, convenience stores, drug stores, online sales and limited assortment stores, such as Aldi and Trader Joe’s, the proliferation of store formats is still expanding,” Cook says. — Neil Moran
Education
Stephen Ritz
Photo courtesy of Stephen Ritz
Founder, Green Bronx Machine
A teacher with a big heart incorporates indoor ag into the classroom.
A teacher with more than 30 years of experience, Stephen Ritz embraced project-based learning decades ago through environmental restoration and community gardening with over-age, under-credited students. Now, the founder of Green Bronx Machine, a native of New York City’s northernmost borough, grows produce in Tower Gardens with primary school age children in the National, Health, Wellness & Learning Center at Community School 55.
In his lessons, Ritz aligns food production with academic standards, and his students are excited to take part. “We took targeted students that had 40 percent attendance and moved them to 93 percent attendance and a 100 percent graduation rate,” Ritz says. “But beyond that — and realize that we are in the poorest congressional district in America, in the least healthy county in New York State, with the highest percentage of homeless and transitional children in New York City — we have record attendance at this school.”
A 2015 Global Teacher Prize Top Ten finalist, Ritz — who is recognizable by his bowties, cheese hat and noticeably trimmer frame than when he carried 300 pounds in the early days of Green Bronx Machine — has visited the White House and worked in his classroom with former White House chef William Yosses. Ritz has also met Pope Francis, former President Bill Clinton, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and journalist Fareed Zakaria, among other influential public figures and celebrities. Author Michael Pollan featured Ritz in his book “In Defense of Food.” In May 2017, Ritz released his own book, “The Power of a Plant,” which details the path he took to champion for students to become more engaged in learning, make healthier diet decisions and contribute to society in a meaningful way.
When it comes to production output, Ritz and his students don’t skimp. They grow enough food indoors to send 100 bags of groceries home with students weekly. In addition to indoor production, they grow about 5,000 plants outdoors. Their 37 crops include gourmet lettuces, a variety of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, pickles, collard greens, squash, cucumbers, celery, oregano, basil, nasturtiums, corn, string beans and cilantro. And the food doesn’t go to waste. In partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Ritz and his students are growing about 5,000 pounds of produce for food-insecure, recovering cancer patients in the Bronx.
As a full-time volunteer, Ritz doesn’t expect payment for his work. This, he says, is to “step apart from” the system in order to fix it. “We need to go from a world that once loved people and used things and now kind of loves things and uses people — we’ve got to get back to our roots, literally,” he says. “Imagine if we refreshed our soil and our farmers the way we took care of our precious laptop screens. The world would be a better place. To me, this is about dignity and respect, growing something greater. Yes, I grow food, but really what we grow is hope and opportunity. I like to say I grow vegetables, but my vegetables grow students, schools and resilient communities and give everybody a chance to sit at the table.” — Patrick Williams
Research
Dr. Kevin Folta,
Professor and chairman, University of Florida’s IFAS Extension
Photo Courtesy of Dr. Kevin Folta
This professor pushes the development of horticultural lighting forward by pursuing unique research projects.
Dr. Kevin Folta grew up knowing that science, in some way, would be part of his career. When he started college at Northern Illinois University, he studied DNA and genetics. But as he interned at different companies as an undergrad, he developed a passion for agriculture and decided to get his graduate degree in biology, and then a Ph.D. in molecular biology, to apply to agriculture research.
In 2002, Folta moved to the University of Florida, where he currently serves as a professor and chairman of the horticultural sciences department. It was at UF where began working on the type of research he’s best known for — LED lighting, and how it can be used to improve plant growth
“That’s where it all came together,” he says.
Folta’s research explores the relationship between lights and plants and specifically how growers can use LED lighting to “talk” to plants. According to his research, a grower can use a specific light color — red, for example — to communicate specific instructions to a plant. This level of precision, in theory, would allow growers to get specific results from each plant in the greenhouse. That could even mean using a specific light color to draw out a specific flavor profile from a crop in the greenhouse.
“You’ve got something people need, something people want and something that makes money for the people who grow it and supply it,” he says.
In addition to his research, Folta also co-hosts podcast called “Talking Biotech” (talkingbiotechpodcast.com) and does it for the same reason he does his research: He loves it. “My one hobby is recording a podcast,” Folta, who records on Saturdays as early as 4 a.m., says. “So that’s why I do it.” — Chris Manning
To hear more from the People in Produce, be sure to check out The Hort Report podcast. Past guests include Dr. Gary Stutte, Dr. Kevin Folta and Dr. Jill Calabro. There is also coverage of industry events attended by the Produce Grower staff such as United Fresh and Indoor Ag-Con. You can find all of the podcasts at bit.ly/2fA8Umr and/or on iTunes at bit.ly/hortreportpodcast
Community Outreach
Photo courtesy of Mario Cambardella
Mario Cambardella
Director of urban agriculture, Atlanta
A career adjustment lead Cambardella towards his current role in shaping urban agriculture in Atlanta.
After graduating college, Mario Cambardella did what most people do after college: look for a job, secure a job and then work towards advancements. For Cambardella, who studied landscape design at the University of Georgia, that meant working at a company called Valley Crest as a designer and project manager for landscape developments in the Atlanta area.
But four years into his career, UGA created a new master’s program called “Environmental Planning and Design,” and the program’s dean recruited him personally for the program. While there, he completed that program, met his future wife, decided to stick around while she finished law school and completed a second master’s in landscape design while starting his own business, Urban Agriculture, which combined his design skills and new interest in sustainable city planning. After graduation, he turned that business into a full-time career for four years.
That business lead him to be hired by the city of Atlanta in 2015, where he now works for the city as the director of urban agriculture. There, he plays a key role in developing “Aglanta,” a digital food hub for Atlanta residents. That also includes the Aglanta Conference, which had 272 attendees in 2017, its first year, and the Aglanta Forum, an annual event where residents can learn about sustainability and healthy eating. (Editor's note: To learn more about the Aglanta Conference, listen to “Previewing Aglanta” here)
“Developing urban agriculture spaces within our city is, I think, a dream job,” Cambardella says. — Chris Manning
Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm Concludes First Season
Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm Concludes First Season
Atop its power plant facility this past summer, the hospital introduced 7,000 square feet of space dedicated to growing fresh produce.
September 25, 2017
Boston Medical Center (BMC) has transformed the once barren roof on top of its power plant building into the largest rooftop farm in that city. This past summer, the 7,000 square feet of growing space flourished with fresh produce, including arugula, bok choy, radishes, Swiss chard, and kale. The rooftop space produced approximately 15,000 pounds of food this growing season, most of which went directly to the hospital’s patients.
Rooftop farm at Boston Medical Center in Massachussetts
Close to 1,800 pounds of crops were harvested from the rooftop farm in June 2017. BMC’s Preventive Food Pantry received more than 960 pounds of the first yield, and the hospital’s kitchens received 830 pounds, ensuring the food is widely distributed to cafeterias across campus and that it is used in patients’ meals. Programs through BMC’s Demonstration Kitchen have also given the BMC community opportunities to visit the rooftop farm and learn about cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Later-season crops such as tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, summer squash, and peppers were ready for harvest in July.
“The goal with our rooftop farm is to provide fresh, local produce to as many of our patients, employees, and community members as possible,” said David Maffeo, BMC’s senior director of support services. “This initiative supports our mission to address social determinants of health by improving access to healthy fruits and vegetables, and it is a perfect example of BMC’s dedication to sustainability and green efforts.”
The brainchild of Maffeo and Robert Biggio, senior vice president of facilities and support services, with the support of BMC’s Office of Development, the rooftop farm project was a year and a half in the making. Maffeo worked with Lindsay Allen and John Stoddard of Higher Ground Farm to find a rooftop and growing system that would work best for BMC’s needs. The farm was designed and installed by Somerville, MA-based, Recover Green Roofs, and Higher Ground Farm is managing the growing.
Allen, who is serving as BMC’s first farm manager, also completed a light study of the roof to determine the feasibility of growing crops in the space. “I think one of the other important ‘harvests’ from the farm is the knowledge exchange that will happen aroundhealth and local food in relationship to the farm,” said Allen. “We are what we eat, so the more people we can provide healthy, nutrient dense food to, the healthier our communities will be.”
According to Stoddard, founder of Higher Ground Farm, rooftop farms function similarly to ground level farms and generally can accommodate the same crops as other farms. The main constraints on a rooftop are soil depth, wind, and access.
Two urban beehives, painted by pediatric patients at BMC, were installed on the rooftop in early June. Tours, volunteer opportunities for employees, and programs through the Demonstration Kitchen for patients have allowed dozens of other individuals to get hands-on experience on the farm.
Additionally, the rooftop farm reduces BMC’s carbon footprint by increasing green space, adding carbon-breathing plants, and reducing the building’s energy use. The farm absorbs and slows the flow of rainwater, which helps address the issue of “combined sewer overflows,” a common urban problem where stormwater combines with sewage in periods of high rainfall and pollutes waterways. And, by producing food on-site, BMC is decreasing the energy required to transport food.
The rooftop farm is one of numerous sustainability initiatives at BMC. As part of a clinical campus redesign, BMC is cutting emissions by 50%, and in Fall 2016, the hospital announced a solar power purchase agreement with MIT and the Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation. The solar purchase is equivalent to 100% of BMC’s projected electricity consumption, putting BMC on pace to become the first carbon-neutral hospital in New England upon completion of the campus redesign in 2018.
The World Is Facing a Global Sand Crisis
A recent report by the Water Integrity Network found that sand mining exacerbated the impacts of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka. In the Mekong Delta, sand mining is reducing sediment supplies as drastically as dam construction, threatening the sustainability of the delta. It also is probably enhancing saltwater intrusion during the dry season, which threatens local communities’ water and food security.
The World Is Facing a Global Sand Crisis
by The Conversation on September 11, 2017 1384
Sand Crisis
When people picture sand spread across idyllic beaches and endless deserts, they understandably think of it as an infinite resource. But as we discuss in a just-published perspective in the journal Science, over-exploitation of global supplies of sand is damaging the environment, endangering communities, causing shortages and promoting violent conflict.
Skyrocketing demand, combined with unfettered mining to meet it, is creating the perfect recipe for shortages. Plentiful evidence strongly suggests that sand is becoming increasingly scarce in many regions. For example, in Vietnam domestic demand for sand exceeds the country’s total reserves. If this mismatch continues, the country may run out of construction sand by 2020, according to recent statements from the country’s Ministry of Construction.
This problem is rarely mentioned in scientific discussions and has not been systemically studied. Media attention drew us to this issue. While scientists are making a great effort to quantify how infrastructure systems such as roads and buildings affect the habitats that surround them, the impacts of extracting construction minerals such as sand and gravel to build those structures have been overlooked. Two years ago we created a working group designed to provide an integrated perspective on global sand use.
In our view, it is essential to understand what happens at the places where sand is mined, where it is used and many impacted points in between in order to craft workable policies. We are analyzing those questions through a systems integration approach that allows us to better understand socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances and time. Based on what we have already learned, we believe it is time to develop international conventions to regulate sand mining, use and trade.
Sand mining on the west side of the Mabukala bridge in Karnataka, India. Image Source: Rudolph A. Furtado
Skyrocketing demand
Sand and gravel are now the most-extracted materials in the world, exceeding fossil fuels and biomass (measured by weight). Sand is a key ingredient for concrete, roads, glass and electronics. Massive amounts of sand are mined for land reclamation projects, shale gas extraction and beach renourishment programs. Recent floods in Houston, India, Nepal and Bangladesh will add to growing global demand for sand.
In 2010, nations mined about 11 billion tonnes of sand just for construction. Extraction rates were highest in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Europe and North America. In the United States alone, production and use of construction sand and gravel was valued at US$8.9 billion in 2016, and production has increased by 24 percent in the past five years.
Moreover, we have found that these numbers grossly underestimate global sand extraction and use. According to government agencies, uneven record-keeping in many countries may hide real extraction rates. Official statistics widely underreport sand use and typically do not include nonconstruction purposes such as hydraulic fracturing and beach nourishment.
Sand traditionally has been a local product. However, regional shortages and sand mining bans in some countries are turning it into a globalized commodity. Its international trade value has skyrocketed, increasing almost sixfold in the last 25 years.
Profits from sand mining frequently spur profiteering. In response to rampant violence stemming from competition for sand, the government of Hong Kong established a state monopoly over sand mining and trade in the early 1900s that lasted until 1981.
Today organized crime groups in India, Italy and elsewhere conduct illegal trade in soil and sand. Singapore’s high-volume sand imports have drawn it into disputes with Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia.
Sand mining harms humans and the environment
The negative consequences of overexploiting sand are felt in poorer regions where sand is mined. Extensive sand extraction physically alters rivers and coastal ecosystems, increases suspended sediments and causes erosion.
Image Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Research shows that sand mining operations are affecting numerous animal species, including fish, dolphins, crustaceans and crocodiles. For example, the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) – a critically endangered crocodile found in Asian river systems – is increasingly threatened by sand mining, which destroys or erodes sand banks where the animals bask.
Sand mining also has serious impacts on people’s livelihoods. Beaches and wetlands buffer coastal communities against surging seas. Increased erosion resulting from extensive mining makes these communities more vulnerable to floods and storm surges.
A recent report by the Water Integrity Network found that sand mining exacerbated the impacts of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka. In the Mekong Delta, sand mining is reducing sediment supplies as drastically as dam construction, threatening the sustainability of the delta. It also is probably enhancing saltwater intrusion during the dry season, which threatens local communities’ water and food security.
Potential health impacts from sand mining are poorly characterized but deserve further study. Extraction activities create new standing pools of water that can become breeding sites for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The pools may also play an important role in the spread of emerging diseases such as Buruli ulcer in West Africa, a bacterial skin infection.
Preventing a tragedy of the sand commons
Media coverage of this issue is growing, thanks to work by organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme, but the scale of the problem is not widely appreciated. Despite huge demand, sand sustainability is rarely addressed in scientific research and policy forums.
The complexity of this problem is doubtlessly a factor. Sand is a common-pool resource – open to all, easy to get and hard to regulate. As a result, we know little about the true global costs of sand mining and consumption.
Demand will increase further as urban areas continue to expand and sea levels rise. Major international agreements such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Convention on Biological Diversitypromote responsible allocation of natural resources, but there are no international conventions to regulate sand extraction, use and trade.
As long as national regulations are lightly enforced, harmful effects will continue to occur. We believe that the international community needs to develop a global strategy for sand governance, along with global and regional sand budgets. It is time to treat sand like a resource, on a par with clean air, biodiversity and other natural endowments that nations seek to manage for the future.
Kimbal Musk: “Cook Wonderfully Delicious Real Food”
Kimbal Musk: “Cook Wonderfully Delicious Real Food”
Kimbal Musk, Co-Founder of The Kitchen, 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.
Kimbal Musk, Co-Founder of The Kitchen, will be speaking at Food Tank’s NYC Summit on September 13, 2017.
Kimbal received the 2017 Social Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Schwab Foundation, a sister organization to the World Economic Forum, for his impactful, scalable work to bring Real Food to Everyone.
The Kitchen is a growing family of businesses that pursue an America where everyone has access to real food. His family of restaurant concepts, including Next Door and Hedge Row, offer food at a wide range of price points and source food from American farmers, stimulating the local farm economy. His nonprofit organization builds permanent, outdoor Learning Garden classrooms in hundreds of underserved schools around the U.S., reaching more than 200,000 students every day. His urban, indoor vertical farming accelerator, Square Roots, seeks to empower thousands of young entrepreneurs to become real food farmers.
Food Tank spoke with Kimbal about his passion for food and how that has inspired his mission to pursue an America where everyone has access to real food.
Food Tank (FT): What originally inspired you to get involved in your work?
Kimbal Musk (KM): I’ve always loved food and loved connecting with my family by cooking for them. I still do today, for my fiancé and kids. Food is my passion. My personal mission is to pursue an America where everyone has access to real food. I’ve co-founded three real food companies to make this mission a reality.
FT: What makes you continue to want to be involved in this kind of work?
KM: The amazing people around the country who are dedicated to real food and making change in their communities.
FT: Who inspired you as a kid?
KM: My mother, who worked tirelessly as an entrepreneur (still does) and always made sure she was there for the family.
FT: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?
KM: The biggest opportunity is moving away from industrial food to real food. I define real food as food we trust to nourish our bodies, our farmers, and our planet. It has been amazing to watch the consumer demand for real food grow over the past decade.
FT: Can you share a story about a food hero who inspired you?
KM: I have many food heroes. American farmers who are dedicated to growing colorful, delicious, real food. The teachers at each of our Learning Garden schools who work with kids every day to teach science and math through the growth of real food. All of the real food entrepreneurs that are part of our Square Roots program. Those are my everyday, real food heroes.
FT: What’s the most pressing issue in food and agriculture that you’d like to see solved?
KM: I’d like to see the majority of American farmland being used to grow real food rather than commodity crops like corn for ethanol and high-fructose corn syrup. It’s a tragedy to the consumer, these farmers are the most unhappy, and it’s a disaster to the planet.
FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?
KM: Cook wonderfully delicious real food at home with their families.
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.
Anonymous Donor Gives MCC $500,000 to Develop Urban Ag Degree
Anonymous Donor Gives MCC $500,000 to develop Urban Ag Degree
[Friday, August 25, 2017]
An anonymous donor has given McHenry County College $500,000, facilitated by the McHenry County Community
Foundation, toward the first phase of an effort designated to promote sustainable urban agriculture education in our community. The project "Transforming Sustainable Agriculture Enterprises in McHenry County through the Delivery of Innovative Education," will provide experiential learning related to intensive, organic food production, business management, and marketing.
During a two-year pilot program, the new funds will be used to research sustainable agricultural trends and practices, develop programming to support the needs of farmers, facilitate partnerships across the agricultural community, and promote the use of sustainable practices and food production in the region.
"This generous donation will help us expand our horticulture programming and facilities in the area of urban agriculture and local food crop production," said Bruce Spangenburg, horticulture instructor and department chairman. "We look forward to further developing the educational efforts of MCC related to growing local sustainable food crops to better serve residents throughout the area."
According to MCC President Clint Gabbard, Ph.D., the grant allows the college to continue its mission of providing new career opportunities.
"Our vision is to assist the region in continuing the transformation from industrialized farming to sustainable, innovative micro-agricultural enterprises that offer both career opportunities for individuals and families, as well as pathways to viable urban and rural food resourcing," Gabbard said.
A key component of this initiative is to strengthen educational and career pathways in food systems and sustainable agriculture. The goal is for students to learn small-scale organic food production in a farm setting, year-round; learn how to develop and apply sustainable, profitable models for processing and marketing food with area restaurants, grocers, distributors, and farmers' markets; apply economic, agronomic, environmental and social aspects of farming operations; and learn how to incorporate entrepreneurship principles and practices into sustainable food systems.
"I am excited that this grant will allow MCC to expand the Urban Agriculture program in a meaningful way," said Terri Berryman, executive dean of Workforce and Community Development at MCC. "As a community deeply rooted in agriculture, MCC will be positioned to help our future farmers sustain and grow this rich tradition. We are already offering cutting edge learning in the area of hydroponics and aquaponics and this will allow us to expand curricular offerings and facilities to include season extension methods and partner with our culinary department in the areas of food production and preservation."
MCC will promote partnerships with Loyola University’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability, McHenry County Farm Bureau, McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District, the University of Illinois Extension, and other local organizations dedicated to agricultural and environmental sustainability. The project builds on the recommendations of recent local and regional planning efforts that highlight the need for investing in sustainable local food systems in Illinois. The McHenry County Food and Farmland Assessment Report, published in 2013, cited the importance of educational institutions providing training for current and future farmers and chefs, stating that such efforts are critical to promoting a sustainable local food system and the economy in the county.
According to a report published by the Community Food Security Coalition, sustainable and locally-generated food production are becoming increasingly viable alternatives to industrialized agriculture. Local, sustainable food production results in significant societal benefits, including promoting economic and community development, increasing food security, and improving public and environmental health. However, in the Chicago region, few opportunities currently exist for farmers to obtain the agricultural, business management, or marketing skills needed to be successful. There are even fewer opportunities to pursue either a two-year or a four-year degree in the field of sustainable agriculture. This initiative will respond to these challenges by promoting greater economic opportunities for current and aspiring farmers, and creating educational pathways for students in the burgeoning sustainable agriculture job market.
Farm Aid Festival Will Only Serve Food from Sustainable Family Farms
Farm Aid Festival Will Only Serve Food from Sustainable Family Farms
Farm Aid recently announced that it is partnering with Legends Hospitality to serve family farm food at Farm Aid’s annual concert on Saturday, September 16, 2017, in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. Legends will adhere to Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Concessions® criteria for food and beverages, including that all ingredients are sustainably produced by family farmers using ecological practices and that farmers receive a fair price for their products.
“Our chefs have worked diligently with the Farm Aid team to curate a fantastic spread of food and beverage offerings, developed to reflect an authentic representation of Western Pennsylvania’s food culture,” said Bill Wilson, Vice President of Legends Hospitality.
Legends is a service provider in the sports and entertainment industry. They are working with Farm Aid’s Culinary Director Sonya Dagovitz, who is supervising the sourcing of all ingredients. The partnership is applying expertise in natural and organic food supply chains and using Farm Aid’s network of family farms and farmer organizations.
Farm Aid raises money to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture. Since 1985, they have raised more than US$50 million to support farming programs, promote the Good Food Movement, and advocate for changes in our food system. Its board members, and concert headliners, include Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews.
“Farm Aid’s mission is to strengthen family farm agriculture and connect farmers and eaters,” said Farm Aid Associate Director Glenda Yoder.
Tickets for the Farm Aid festival are sold out, but a webcast featuring behind-the-scenes looks and the organization’s work to strengthen family farming agriculture will begin at 3 pm EST on September 16. AXS TV will broadcast the concert live beginning at 7 pm EST.
This Brilliant Floating Farm Actually Heals The World’s Oceans
Founded by commercial fisherman Bren Smith and Emily Stengal, an expert in sustainable food systems, the revolutionary GreenWave vertical farming system cultivates an underwater ecosystemcomprised of seaweed and shellfish.
This Brilliant Floating Farm Actually Heals The World’s Oceans
85% of the world’s fisheries have been pushed beyond their limits – and the future of ocean life looks grim. Fortunately, GreenWavehas developed a revolutionary floating farm that actually regenerates our oceans while providing jobs and a sustainable source of food. The vertical aquaculture farm yields bountiful crops of shellfish and seaweed – species specifically selected to absorb greenhouse gas and filter out harmful chemicals.
Founded by commercial fisherman Bren Smith and Emily Stengal, an expert in sustainable food systems, the revolutionary GreenWave vertical farming system cultivates an underwater ecosystemcomprised of seaweed and shellfish. The farm requires zero input, and it actually restores ocean ecosystems by sequestering carbonand fixing excess nitrogen (which leads to algae blooms and oceanic dead zones).
The open-source farming system enables anyone with a boat and around $20,000 to set up their own restorative ocean farm within a year. The Greenwave system won the Fuller Challenge in 2015 and it was recently honored with the 2017 INDEX: Award, which recognizes innovative designs that improve life.
Hot and Hungry Cities: The Future of Urban Food Wars
When people think about food insecurity, they often associate it with the impact of climate change on rural areas. Make no mistake, drought and conflict, as well as an enduring lack of infrastructure that limits farmers from selling what they produce, continues to devastate sub-Saharan Africa. But these factors also push people to migrate to cities. By 2030, urban areas will triple in size and will have a significant impact on productivity of agriculture in farmlands that were once used to supply food to these megacities.
Hot and Hungry Cities: The Future of Urban Food Wars
SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 | JOHANNA MENDELSON FORMAN
JOHANNA MENDELSON FORMAN
DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, MANAGING ACROSS BOUNDARIES, STIMSON CENTER
This century will be defined by two trends: how we manage climate change and how we manage the rise of megacities. Over the next 20 years, the global urban population will grow from 3.5 to 5 billion people. The strain on resources and the environmental stresses that accompany the growth of cities – especially in brimming urban centers like Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lagos, Nigeria; and Mexico City – will create even more challenges as access to food and clean water become increasingly limited. It is no wonder that in 2015 the National Intelligence Council determined that food security is a national security matter. Countries facing severe shortages of food or affected by climate change are also the most vulnerable to destabilizing conflicts that affect U.S. interests around the globe.
Yet it is only recently that food security practitioners, traditionally focused on rural areas, have begun to turn their attention to megacities. In the world’s massive urban centers, migration from rural areas – often the result of vulnerable populations fleeing conflict or environmental degradation – has created new challenges to ending global poverty and hunger.
Many of these urban migrants will be forced out of the countryside by the ongoing impact of droughts, conflict, and the lack of opportunities for employment in rural areas. But consider this: roughly 60 percent of the world’s cropland lies just on the outskirts of cities. China is expected to lose one-quarter of the global cropland because of the expansion of cities into peri-urban areas that once were the source of local farming and food supplies. The disappearance of productive land near urban centers will impact the availability of staple crops like maize, rice, soy, and wheat – the basis of global food security. This is especially true in countries like Nigeria or China, where projections for crop loss due to urbanization means that the states will have to import more food.
When people think about food insecurity, they often associate it with the impact of climate change on rural areas. Make no mistake, drought and conflict, as well as an enduring lack of infrastructure that limits farmers from selling what they produce, continues to devastate sub-Saharan Africa. But these factors also push people to migrate to cities. By 2030, urban areas will triple in size and will have a significant impact on productivity of agriculture in farmlands that were once used to supply food to these megacities.
More than other challenges we face in this century, food security is complex precisely because to ensure access and availability of food requires that many other factors align, such as good governance and the resilience of infrastructure. It requires more changes in behavior, the development of new farming technologies, and a radically different approach to land use.
Most important to a country’s ability to feed its citizens is the quality of its governance. Weak or failing states are incapable or lack the political will to support the needs of their citizens to obtain food or to gain technical assistance from NGOs and foreign governments to enable them to grow more crops, have better access to technology, or even basic information about weather. Many countries are unable to enforce land rights because adequate legal protections are not in place. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, conflicts will continue to drain state resources and extend this cycle. Conflicts that show no signs of ending send a troubling signal to private sector investors who are essential partners in many programs geared toward expanding a nation’s capacity to grow and market food – and make it more widely accessible to vulnerable populations.
Mobile phone companies and software producers are among the business interests most able to help conditions in Asia and Africa, which happen to be the two fastest growing markets for these technologies. By 2025, there will be more than 360 million smartphones in Africa. With small farmers producing 80 percent of the food in developing countries, integrated agricultural data apps are playing a powerful role in helping farmers set prices for their goods. M-Farm, a messaging application, is doing this for more than 7,000 users. These apps also help women in urban market settings with information about competitive pricing of crops. Syngenta, and agriculture biotechnology company, created a text-driven app, Kilimo Salama, that is providing up-to-the-minute information to farmers in Kenya. These same applications also play a significant role in protecting crops by alerting growers of adverse weather events.
In the near-term, food security assistance must address the immediate needs of those moving into cities. This challenge will only grow as the world’s population continues to urbanize.
Technological advances in urban farming are now beyond mere experiments. They are becoming disrupters of more traditional approaches to agriculture. Vertical farms both afford crops and provide employment for many people who reside in cities.
Food security requires complex, multi-system approaches that still seem out of reach to most of the countries slated to be megacities by 2030. Plans for addressing these needs must consider how food production and consumption can be transformed to be both carbon neutral, abundant, and available to the world’s growing appetite. Failure to address these challenges in the short run will create conditions that are ripe for more conflicts and more climate migrants. We could be looking at new era of urban food wars if we do not address the issues of how to feed 9 billion people by mid-century.
THE AUTHOR IS JOHANNA MENDELSON FORMAN
Johanna Mendelson Forman is a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center’s Managing Across Boundaries Program in Washington, D.C. and an Adjunct Professor at the School of International Service at American University. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her work has been informed by field experience in Haiti, Guatemala, Colombia, Iraq, and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa as a senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Foundation,... Read More
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Safe Water Sources For Hydroponic Food Production
Safe Water Sources For Hydroponic Food Production
Whether using municipal or well water, monitoring and testing are important to ensure successful production of greenhouse hydroponic lettuce and leafy greens.
An increasing number of ornamental plant growers are looking to take advantage of the growing interest in local food sales by expanding their production with seasonal crops of lettuce, leafy greens and herbs. Unlike ornamental plants, growers of edible crops have the added concerns of food safety.
“If growers are using municipal water for growing ornamental crops and then add lettuces and leafy greens, there should be no concerns related to water quality from the standpoint of human pathogens that might be associated with surface water,” said horticulture professor Sarah White at Clemson University. “There are pH issues associated with municipal water because most municipal water is neutral or alkaline to prevent the corrosion of pipes. Ornamental growers would likely need to acidify their water if the pH is above 7.5, especially for leafy greens and lettuces. These growers may already be acidifying their water for the ornamental plants they are producing.
“For new growers who are planning on using municipal water, they need to know what the water pH is. Because the pH is likely to shift during the year, growers need to be cognizant of the shifting pH and how injecting acid needs to be responsive to these changes. Some bedding plant crops may require more or less acid injection than lettuces and leafy greens.”
White said most municipal water sources are drawn from surface water reservoirs, which can cause some seasonal variation in water pH.
“Usually during the winter the water source quality is consistent,” she said. “If growers are producing during the winter and carrying production into spring there might be some changes in the water source that can affect the pH.
Ornamental plant growers using municipal water who add lettuces and leafy greens should not be concerned with water quality from the standpoint of human pathogens.
Photo courtesy of Tyler Baras, Hort Americas
“Regardless of whether growers are producing lettuce and leafy greens in nutrient film technique (NFT) or deep water raft systems, they need to actively monitor pH year round. There are Bluetooth pH meters that can be stuck into a water source that will log pH. It’s easy to do. Growers should monitor and track their pH and know what they have to do to adjust it.”
White said for ornamental growers looking to add lettuces and leafy greens, it isn’t going to matter what type of acid is used to lower the water pH.
“Growers should be able to use the same acid for both ornamental and edible crops,” she said. “Usually they pick an acid based on the cost. If they are going to adjust the water pH they should inject fertilizers after the water pH has been adjusted.”
White said municipal water usually has a pH of 7.5 to 8. Most plants grow best at a pH of 6 to 6.5.
“Nutrient availability changes with different pH,” she said. “That is why the pH needs to be adjusted in order for the nutrients in the water to be available to the plants.”
White recommends if growers have never produced lettuces and leafy greens that they monitor the water pH more often.
“If growers don’t know how sensitive these new crops are to pH, they might try doing some trials with lettuces, leafy greens or herbs,” she said. “This will enable growers to determine the best pH for producing these new crops before they invest in filling a whole greenhouse.”
Adjusting water alkalinity
White said depending on where growing operations are located in the country, municipal water sources can have different alkalinities.
“In some western states and coastal regions of the United States, alkalinity issues are more likely,” she said. “In locations with higher alkalinity, more acid is required to get the water pH to the desired range for crop production. A lot of plants don’t do well with high alkalinity vs. low alkalinity. If the pH is being adjusted by injecting acid this coincidentally manages the alkalinity level as well. It typically requires more acid to accomplish the same pH change in water with higher alkalinity. Water that has high alkalinity will also have a high pH.
“If growers have a water source that is highly alkaline in a certain region of the country, chances are it won’t matter what source growers pull from because there are going to be alkalinity issues. The only thing they could do differently is if they capture rain water, filter it, and then blend it with their other water source.”
A rapid sand filter removes organic matter and other debris that might get into recycled irrigation water. This filter might remove some disease organisms, but it’s not 100 percent.
Photo courtesy of Sarah White, Clemson Univ.
Well water
White said well water is the most common water source used by growers.
“We have done two surveys in the last 10 years and about 65 percent of all growers indicated they use well water,” she said. “The reason is because it is a clean water source and there are not usually any issues with plant diseases. The contaminants that most growers might encounter are salinity and iron. If growers have a lot of salts in their water, how it is managed becomes very critical. Many Southwestern growers deal with this issue.”
White said water with a high salt level can be caused by a mix of elements and it is regionally specific.
“Sodium, chloride, calcium and magnesium are the biggest contributors to high salinity water sources,” she said. “If growers are having high salt issues, it’s probably caused by chlorine or sodium. Growers can manage fertilizers to help balance the high salts.”
White said the other contaminant growers might find in well water is iron depending on the region of the country where they are located.
“There are typically problems with iron and iron-oxidizing bacteria associated with well water use. If there is iron in the water, growers should aerate it before they use it. Aerating the water oxidizes the iron so that it precipitates out. The aeration should be done before the water goes into the fertilizer tank and before growers start adding salts. Once fertilizers begin to be added it might be more difficult to remove the iron.”
White said the pH for well water is usually in a good range for growing plants. She said growers should still test the pH of their water.
“If growers are drawing from a salty water source, chances are they are going to have alkalinity and pH issues. If growers are using salty water sources on ornamental plants and decide to try growing lettuces, leafy greens and herbs, whether they can use that water and how it is being treated will depend on the type of ornamental plants being grown. Some ornamental plants tolerate salts more than others. Growers may not have to do much to bring the salts to an acceptable level for lettuces, leafy greens and herbs.”
White said most growers won’t put in a reverse osmosis system to remove high salts because of the high cost associated with the equipment and having to manage it along with the waste water it produces.
“Growers are more likely to manage high salts by blending water sources, by heavily irrigating the crops or by their choice of which plants to grow,” she said. “Growers may want to use a municipal water source to blend with well water so that salts are at a manageable level for the plants. I highly recommend that growers get water quality analyses done periodically. They should also have an inline monitoring system if they chemically treat the water so that they know the real-time pH and salinity (electric conductivity is a proxy) levels of their water.”
Growers concerned with plant diseases can pair a rapid sand filter with a sanitizer such as a chlorination system like Accu-Tab.
Photo courtesy of Sarah White, Clemson Univ.
Water filtration
White said there really isn’t a need to filter municipal or well water unless growers are recirculating the water.
“A rapid sand filter, which is cheap and fast, will remove organic matter and other debris that might get into the water,” she said. “This filter might remove some disease organisms, but it’s not 100 percent. If growers are concerned with plant diseases, they are going to need to add a sanitizer like chlorine, ultraviolet light or ozone. A rapid sand filter is easy to pair with a chlorination system like Accu-Tab.
“Growers could also use a slow sand filter. This is a biologically-based system, but it just takes longer to filter the water. The slow sand filter removes both particulate and plant disease propagules. Depending on what a grower’s goal is, a slow sand filter would accomplish the same thing as a sanitizer.”
White said a lot of ornamental plant growers who use well water route it into an open containment pond.
“Most growers have a pond that they pump the well water into before irrigating their crops,” she said. “These growers might have an issue with using that water to irrigate edible crops. They would need to use a sanitizer, which would take care of plant pathogens as well as potential human pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli. Those are the main pathogens growers would have to be worried about.”
For more: Sarah White, Clemson University, Plant and Environmental Sciences Department, (864) 656-7433; swhite4@clemson.edu; http://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/swhite4; http://cleanwater3.org.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
The Finish Line Debuts On-Campus Farm
The Finish Line Debuts On-Campus Farm
Posted: Aug 24, 2017 4:23 PM CDTUpdated: Aug 24, 2017 4:23 PM CDTBy Dan McGowan, Senior Writer/Reporter
(Image of The Finish Line's Urban Farm courtesy of the city of Indianapolis.)
INDIANAPOLIS - Indianapolis-based The Finish Line Inc. (Nasdaq: FINL) has marked the opening of a 7.3-acre farm on its corporate campus on the city's east side. The athletics retailer says the farm is one of the largest in an urban setting in the state. The urban farm is a collaboration with Greenfield-based Brandywine Creek Farms and will produce cantaloupe, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and zucchini and include space for 250,000 bees.
The vegetables grown on the farm will be distributed by Brandywine Creek Farms evenly to the wholesale market, to retailers and to charity. Total Rewards by Finish Line Senior Director Kim Kurtz says "by growing and sharing this produce, we will develop a healthier community together including our Finish Line family and our nearby neighbors."
The goal, officials say, is to provide employees and the public with fresh and affordable food that can be stored at room temperature.