Month: December 2009

December 10, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Fort Scott Tribune: Op/Ed Column: Foreign landowners are accountable, agriculture experts say

Maine is the State with the largest number of acres owned by foreign persons.

Hawaii (9.3 percent) and Alabama (3.9 percent) follow Maine in percentage of foreign ownership. Kansas and Missouri possess foreign agricultural land ownership percentages of only .1 and .2 percent respectively.

Foreign investors who buy, sell or hold a direct or indirect interest in agricultural lands in the United States are required under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act to report their holdings and transactions to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

The Secretary of Agriculture has delegated the responsibility for collecting this information to the Farm Service Agency.

Foreigner investors buying or selling land must report such transactions within 90 days of the date of the sale. Failure to file an accurate or timely report can result in a penalty with fines up to 25 percent of the fair market value of the agricultural land.

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December 8, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

You better watch out … for invasive species — Pacific Daily News

These beautiful winged animals were all over this island.

Then, the brown tree snake entered and changed our ecosystem forever. Most of the birds that were found only on Guam will never be seen again. They are gone forever because of one invasive animal.

Christmas opens the door for more invasive animals to show up on Guam.

Last week employees at Cost-U-Lessfound a tree frog that wasn’t supposed to be on Guam hiding in a Christmas tree. The poor little frog didn’t know he was doing anything wrong. He was just hiding.

His presence on the Christmas tree brings up a very real threat to Guam’s environment. Any time a new animal enters the ecosystem, it has an impact.

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December 7, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Feds Invest $564M in Advanced Biomass Projects

This project will integrate existing technology from Ensyn and UOP to produce green gasoline, diesel , and jet fuel from agricultural residue, woody biomass, dedicated energy crops, and algae.
This project will integrate existing technology from Ensyn and UOP to produce green gasoline, diesel , and jet fuel from agricultural residue, woody biomass, dedicated energy crops, and algae.

To help build the foundation of a biomass industry in the United States, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture have selected 19 biorefinery projects in 15 states to receive up to $564 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These projects were chosen to speed up the construction and operation of pilot, demonstration, and commercial-scale facilities for advanced biofuels, biopower and bioproducts using biomass feedstocks.

Of the $564 million, up to $483 million will go to 14 pilot-scale and 4 demonstration-scale biorefinery projects across the country. The remaining $81 million will focus on accelerating the construction of a biorefinery project previously awarded funding. These projects will be matched with more than $700 million in private and non-federal cost-share funds, for total project investments of almost $1.3 billion, according to the energy department.

Here’s a sampling of some of the projects.

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December 5, 2009 Uncategorized Post a Comment

The Amazing Maze of US Health Care–Where is the Humanity?

Amazing seems a most appropriate word to describe the financing and delivery of health care services in the United States of America.
James L. McGee, CEBS--On Health Care Reform

Where is the Humanity?

December 5th, 2009

In a recent report on National Public Radio (NPR) about a gang  rape in Rcihmond, CA, one person asked the question. “Where has all the humanity gone?”

The same question  can be asked in the current debate on national health care reform.

Is this our big tent?
Is this our big tent? Photo by JL McGee

Where has all the humanity gone?

We are talking about Americans here

The politicians are wiling to deny undocumented immigrants access to the proposed Health Insurance Exchange.  But that is not enough for some.  They are afraid that hospitals will use federal funds to treat undocumented immigrants in the emergency rooms.

Aren’t some of these very same conservatives, also Christians?  Aren’t they familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan?  In case they forget, the moral of that story is doing good to your enemies.  Oh that’s right, Christian values don’t apply to government, because government funds are involved.  Unless, of course, its abortion.  Then then “Christian” values apply because government funds are involved.

By the way, since most countries in the world have some form of national health insurance, what about sending the bill for undocumented immigrants back to the country of origin?

It is easy to pick on immigrants, because most of us don’t know immigrants,  But there are lots of people that will be affected by health reform that we do know.

Please Click Here to Read the Complete Article by Jim McGee » The Amazing Maze of US Health Care

December 2, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Fruits of Their Labor | The Molokai Dispatch

molokai-dispatch-new

Coffees of Hawaii expands coffee into a tea.

If you have ever tasted the generic Pinesol-tasting lemon tea found in hotel rooms, a new tea to Molokai will leave you feeling spoiled.

Coffees of Hawaii has created their first original tea, made from the fruit of their coffee plants and blended with flowers and herbs. This kind of tea is called a tisane (pronounced ti-zane), an herbal fusion of different flowers and herbs. This particular infusion is only produced on Molokai, and uses only Hawaiian-grown products – most of which is found on Friendly Isle.

By adding different flowers or plants to the tea, such as lemongrass, the tisane takes on a richer flavor and additional health benefits. So for example, unlike your basic lemon tea, Coffees’ lemongrass tea is full and tart, complimenting the sweetness of the fruit base. It’s a warm wave of earthy lemon that spreads throughout the body, a welcome sensation for any occasion.

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