Monthly Archive for September, 2011

Listeria-canteloupe outbreak could get worse, health officials warn

Published on September 29, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes.


The listeria outbreak that has killed up to 16 people and sickened more than 70, could get worse according to health officials, who are still in the process of trying to determine where contaminated cantaloupes might have been shipped. As AP reported :

Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks.

So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses — including up to 16 deaths — in 18 states, making it the deadliest food outbreak in the United States in more than a decade.

The heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said consumers who have cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms in Colorado should throw them out. If they are not sure where the fruit is from, they shouldn’t eat it.

Neither the government nor Jensen Farms has supplied a list of retailers who may have sold the fruit. Officials say consumers should ask retailers about the origins of their cantaloupe. If they still aren’t sure, they should get rid of it.

“If it’s not Jensen Farms, it’s OK to eat,” said Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. “But if you can’t confirm it’s not Jensen Farms, then it’s best to throw it out.” Continue reading ‘Listeria-canteloupe outbreak could get worse, health officials warn’

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Know Your Land and Eat It Too

Published on September 25, 2011 in Ag Tourism and General Ag News and Notes.


IN YOUR FRIDGE / Farmers’ market managers, Pamela Boyer and Annie Suite have joined hands with local farmers to create Oahu Agri-Tours. There’s no fancy farmhouse or massive farm machinery; what you see is what you get. You’ll experience first-hand how farmers are committed to practicing clean, organic farming.

Poamoho Farms is one of the farms on tour, and guests learn how the fruit orchard uses natural pest management and fertilization methods. Tin Roof Ranch farmers Luann Casey and Gary Gunder butcher their chickens the day before selling them at the market.

Na Mea Kupono wetland taro farm practices old school taro farming methods that most locals don’t even know about. Here you can also watch a traditional poi-pounding demonstration.

At Mohala Farms you’ll see how simple and natural farming is still possible (and still exists). After a tour of their herb garden, guests enjoy farm-made treats in the hale. And if that simply isn’t enough to get you excited about organic farms, there’s of course, chocolate. Waialua Estate Cacao, a local chocolate and coffee farm that serves up world class chocolate and coffee, rivals that of our neighbor Island.

Yes, all the hype of organic produce at chain markets may sound a little cliché, and the truth is, it is simple and true to Hawaii’s history. Continue reading ‘Know Your Land and Eat It Too’

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Dig farm-fresh foods? Be part of growing interest on Maui

Published on September 25, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes.


Dig farm-fresh foods? Be part of growing interest on Maui
Maui County Farm Bureau’s on a mission to honor its future leaders, cook up tours, demos and contests for Agricultural Month in September
September 25, 2011
By CARLA TRACY – Dining Editor (carlatracy@mauinews.com) , The Maui News
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Mauians love his ripe, juicy Kula strawberries and his sweet, round Kula onions. He’s even launching a pumpkin patch in October, complete with a corn maze or labyrinth, for those in the Halloween state of mind.

But Chauncey Monden, 38, of Kula Country Farms, is not your typical farmer.

In fact, the average age of a Maui farmer is 62.5. Before they age more and retire, we’d better get the younger generation excited about that field, or Maui’s farming lifestyle may just go the way of the dinosaurs.

“It’s a hard life,” says Monden. “With weather, bugs, water bills, taxes, rocky soil, sloped ground, farmlands being sold off, houses encroaching, dust and competition with Mexican and other farmers, it’s tough.”

“There’s a lot of regulations that are difficult to comply with, then you have to market yourself. I don’t have all of the answers. I just know, you’ve got to love it.” Continue reading ‘Dig farm-fresh foods? Be part of growing interest on Maui’

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Chocolaty Facts

Published on September 21, 2011 in Cacao, Chocolate and General Ag News and Notes.


We all love chocolates, in all kinds and flavours. They’re there to comfort you when you’re sad, to satisfy your sweet tooth, to show the one you love how much you miss them and to give you a pat on the back when you truly deserve it. No matter how much we love chocolate, we still take it for granted, MSN News reports. We uncover it and start eating it so fast that we don’t sit and indulge the magical taste.

1. White chocolate isn’t really chocolate. Being made of butter and milk, it does not contain any chocolate liquor and so Under Federal Standards of Identity, “white chocolate” is just a misnomer.

2. The reason why chocolate literally melts in your mouth, is because the melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature.

3. Hawaii is the only US state that grows cacao beans to produce chocolate. Whereas American chocolate manufacturers use on average 1.5 billion pounds of milk, which is only exceeded by cheese and icecream.

4. Chocolate scientifically makes you happy. It contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is known to stimulate serotonin release (the happy hormone) acting as a natural anti-depressant.

5. Chocolate contains Theobromine, which suppresses coughing activity.

6. On average, a chocolate bar in the US contains eight insect pieces. “The Food Defect Action Levels”, a book published by the US Department of Health, lists unavoidable food defects allowed by FDA – like bug parts. That means that your chocolate may contain traces of nuts, and bugs. Continue reading ‘Chocolaty Facts’

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Endangered songbirds reintroduced to Laysan atoll – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

Published on September 19, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and endangered species.


Federal officials have taken two dozen endangered songbirds from Nihoa in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and moved them to Laysan 650 miles north in the hope they will establish a new population there and prevent the extinction of the species.

Nihoa Millerbirds are currently only found on Nihoa, where there is a population numbering between 500 and 700. A related subspecies once lived on Laysan but went extinct there after introduced rabbits destroyed the island’s vegetation.

Officials hope establishing a new population will reduce the chances a hurricane or disease outbreak at Nihoa will wipe out the species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its public and private partners moved the birds earlier this month. Officials said Monday the project took five years to plan and cost about $850,000.

Endangered songbirds reintroduced to Laysan atoll – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

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Colorado farmers worry that Listeria outbreak has ruined prime selling season

Published on September 18, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Vegtables.


DENVER — A multistate Listeria outbreak linked to a Colorado farm has the state’s melon farmers worried that their prime selling season has been ruined.

In Rocky Ford, farmer Greg Smith this week laid off his lone farm stand employee because he said customers all but vanished when news of the outbreak spread.

The outbreak has killed as many as four people. Colorado officials said Friday the contaminated melons were whole fruit from a Jensen Farms in the Rocky Ford region and have been recalled.

Angry at reporters and camera crews reporting on the tainted melons, Smith said, “You’ve basically put a .30-caliber bullet between our eyes.”

Mike Bartolo, a Rocky Ford-based vegetable crops specialist for Colorado State University, has been fielding questions from the two dozen or so farmers who make a living selling Rocky Ford cantaloupes. He said the Listeria outbreak is a major blow to the farmers, but it would have been worse if it occurred a few weeks ago.

“If this thing had happened at the beginning of the season, instead of the end, it would have been just devastating,” Bartolo said. “As it is, I think it’s too soon to know what will happen next year.”

Bartolo said the “Rocky Ford cantaloupes” name has no legal protection, such as the strict legal definition of a Vidalia onion, to prevent farmers outside the region from using the name. In fact, he said, Rocky Ford was a major melon-seed producer from the 1900s to 1940s, selling melon seeds nationwide under the name “Rocky Ford” or “Rocky Sweets,” so there may be cantaloupes from far away sold under the name.

Colorado Chief Medical Officer Chris Urbina said he understands the anger of other farmers who feel tarnished by the outbreak. Continue reading ‘Colorado farmers worry that Listeria outbreak has ruined prime selling season’

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Elwha Dam removal illustrates growing movement

Published on September 18, 2011 in Alternative Energy, General Ag News and Notes and Water.


The largest dam demolition in the nation’s history will begin Saturday when an excavator claws away at the concrete supports for Washington’s 108-foot Elwha River Dam, a ceremonial act of destruction that will signal not only the structure’s demise but the latest step in a broad shift in the way Americans are managing rivers.

Faced with aging infrastructure and declining fish stocks, communities are tearing down dams across the country in key waterways that can generate more economic benefits when they’re unfettered than when they’re controlled.

“What once seemed radical is now mainstream,” said American Rivers President Bob Irvin, whose group has advocated dam removal for environmental reasons. “All of these are experiments in how nature can restore itself, and the Elwha is the biggest example of that.”

The pace of removal has quickened, with 241 dams demolished between 2006 and 2010, more than a 40 percent increase over the previous five years. Many of them are in the East and Midwest, having powered everything, including textile mills and paper operations at the turn of the 20th century.

A drumbeat of litigation by tribes and environmental groups has pushed federal officials to dismantle some dams that otherwise would have remained in place. Although this has led to political fights in regions where dams matter the most, such as the Pacific Northwest, it has also forged historic compromises.

“The Elwha River restoration marks a new era of river restoration in which broad community support provides the bedrock for work to sustain our rivers and the communities that rely on them,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. Continue reading ‘Elwha Dam removal illustrates growing movement’

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Wind farm paid £1.2 million to produce no electricity

Published on September 17, 2011 in Alternative Energy, General Ag News and Notes, Sustainability and wind farm.


A wind farm has been paid £1.2 million not to produce electricity for eight-and-a-half hours.

By Edward Malnick and Robert Mendick

9:00PM BST 17 Sep 2011

Comments102 Comments

The amount is ten times greater than the wind farm’s owners would have received had they actually generated any electricity.

The disclosure exposes the bizarre workings of Britain’s electricity supply, prompting calls last night for an official investigation into the payments system.

The £1.2 million will go to a Norwegian company which owns 60 turbines in the Scottish Borders.

The National Grid asked the company, Fred Olsen Renewables, to shut down its Crystal Rig II wind farm last Saturday for a little over eight hours amid fears the electricity network would become overloaded.

The problem was caused by high winds buffeting the country in the wake of Hurricane Katia.

In total, 11 wind farms were closed down last week, receiving a total of £2.6 million. The money – detailed in calculations provided by National Grid – will be added on to household bills and paid for by consumers.

As Britain pushes for more and more wind farms, critics claim the size of the ‘constraint payments’ will grow accordingly – raising serious concern about the long-term suitability of wind power to meet Britain’s energy needs.

Crystal Rig received by far the largest single payment because the National Grid runs an auction, inviting energy companies to say how much they want in compensation for switching off.

Crystal Rig’s owners asked for £999 per megawatt hour of energy they would have produced had they been switched on. Incredibly, the figure Crystal Rig had bid was accepted by the National Grid. Continue reading ‘Wind farm paid £1.2 million to produce no electricity’

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Northeast farmers warn of Halloween pumpkin shortage after rains from Irene devastate crops

Published on September 17, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Pumkin.


NEW YORK — Northeastern states are facing a jack-o’-lantern shortage this Halloween after Hurricane Irene destroyed hundreds of pumpkin patches across the region, farmers say.

Wholesale prices have doubled in some places as farmers nurse their surviving pumpkin plants toward a late harvest. Some farmers are trying to buy pumpkins from other regions to cover orders.

Many area farms have fared well through the wet weather while some Northeastern states face a pumpkin shortage.

“I think there’s going to be an extreme shortage of pumpkins this year,” said Darcy Pray, owner of Pray’s Family Farms in Keeseville, in upstate New York. “I’ve tried buying from people down in the Pennsylvania area, I’ve tried locally here and I’ve tried reaching across the border to some farmers over in the Quebec area. There’s just none around.”

Hurricane Irene raked the Northeast in late August, bringing torrents of rain that overflowed rivers and flooded fields along the East Coast and into southern Canada. Pray saw his entire crop, about 15,000 to 20,000 pumpkins, washed into Lake Champlain.

But pumpkin farmers had been having a difficult year even before the storm. Heavy rains this spring meant many farms had to postpone planting for two or three weeks, setting back the fall harvest, said Jim Murray, owner of the Applejacks Orchard in Peru, N.Y.

A late harvest can be fatal to business because pumpkin sales plummet after Halloween on Oct. 31. Wholesalers need to get pumpkins on their way to stores by mid-September.

Another spate of rain about two weeks before Irene caused outbreaks of the phytophthora fungus —a type of water mold — in many fields, said Jim Stakey, owner of Stakey’s Pumpkin Farm in Aquebogue, on New York’s Long Island. Continue reading ‘Northeast farmers warn of Halloween pumpkin shortage after rains from Irene devastate crops’

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County seeks ‘best of the best’ vendors for March flower show

Published on September 6, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes.


WAILUKU – Maui County is seeking island vendors to participate in the Philadelphia International Flower Show, March 4 to 11.

An informational meeting is set for 8 a.m. Wednesday in the ninth-floor Mayor’s Lounge in the Kalana O Maui building. The list of participants must be completed by Oct. 1.

The show’s theme is “Hawai’i, Islands of Aloha.” Show organizers have offered vendors from all Hawaii counties the opportunity to participate in the event designed to

showcase local Hawaii-made products and cultural crafts. The Hawai’i Tourism Authority and Maui Visitors Bureau also will be participating to promote Hawaii and Maui County.

The Maui County Office of Economic Development announced it has purchased 10 booths at the Philadelphia flower show, the largest fresh flower and products show in North America. The nine-day event is expected to draw 300,000 people.

The office also is offering qualified Maui companies financial assistance.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for businesses to market the many fine local products and services we have here in Maui County,” said Mayor Alan Arakawa, adding that the county is seeking applicants that are “the best of the best we have to offer.”

Eligible products include Maui County-made food products, cultural crafts, Hawaiian music compact discs, fresh flowers or packaged nursery products, value-added soaps and lotions, fresh fruit and packaged coffee.

The county expects to pick a diverse group of vendors with a large amount of products ready to ship to Philadelphia in March. The requirements include that at least 51 percent of the value of the product must have been derived within Maui County, and the companies need to have a website with an active shopping cart.

For more information, call 270-7710.

County
seeks ‘best of the best’ vendors for March flower show – Mauinews.com |
News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor’s Information – The Maui News

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Dry again: drought back to stalk farmers

Published on September 4, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Water.


FOR bull breeder Tim Vincent it is a bitter irony that his beloved country can change from drought to flooding rains, and back again, in just a few short months.

His family’s 850ha property outside Gunnedah in northern NSW was like a “little bit of paradise” after last season’s early rains. Today its ragged hills and plains are thick with parched grass, the nutritional value of cardboard, he said.

Mr Vincent, who shares the property with his wife Margaret, their two children and his now-retired parents, has been hand-feeding most of the family’s 450 prime cattle for months.

“I didn’t expect, after we had fences washed out and cattle all over the road in December, that it would change back so quickly,” he said. “Spring is our growing season, but I can tell you there’s not much growing happening here now.”

Mrs Vincent agreed: “Everyone thought we would have at least one or two good years.” Rainfall gauges in nearby Gunnedah recorded barely 250mm in the year to date, compared with an annual average of more than 600mm.

The Bureau of Meteorology puts the chance of making up the difference between now and summer at perhaps 25 per cent.

Even though most dams in the area are almost full, an ugly ochre patch on the NSW Department of Primary Industries agricultural conditions map for last month marks drought in central-northern NSW. Parts of three districts were drought-declared last month, and five more downgraded from satisfactory to marginal.

A spokesman for NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said she was aware small pockets of the state had slipped into drought. “The minister has noted that there are small portions of NSW that have not received the rain that everywhere else has. But in a state as big as NSW you won’t get a good season (for) everyone.” Continue reading ‘Dry again: drought back to stalk farmers’

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Full Schedule: Grown on Maui in September

Published on September 3, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Maui Gold Pineapple.

Throughout September Maui farmers, ranchers, local food producers and friends of agriculture are teaming up to celebrate local food. We do this because we believe that agriculture matters on Maui.

Grown on Maui Chef Demos at Whole Foods Market
Maui every Monday in September, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
September 6 Tylun Pang, The Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui
September 12 Garret Fujieda, The Westin Maui Resort & Spa
September 19 Caroline Schaub O’o Farm
September 26 Ryan Luckey, Pineapple Grill at Kapalua Resort

Grown on Maui Flower Demos at Whole Foods Market
Maui every Tuesday in September, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
September 6 Sue Cuffe, Hana Fantasy Flowers
September 12 Carver Wilson, Maui Floral
September 19 Dan Judson, Orchids of Olinda
September 26 Maui Flower Growers Association

Wednesdays From 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. the Weed & Pot Club activities at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens will focus on Hawaiian food plant propagation and maintenance.

Monday-Friday Maui Pineapple Tour presents pineapple heritage tours at the newly established Hali’imaile Pineapple Plantation.

Tour Da Food: Experience the dishes that characterize Maui cuisine, learn about the traditions and people behind the plates, soak up a sense of place with intimate excursions to Maui’s off-the touristpath culinary treasures and come away with a deeper understanding of Maui’s multicultural community and history.

Every Tuesday – Ali’i Kula Lavender is offering $1 cups of tea and 50% off guided tours.

Eat Local Challenge 2011! – Maui residents and businesses participate in the statewide initiative organized by Kanu Hawai‘i. Continue reading ‘Full Schedule: Grown on Maui in September’

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Japan approves genetically modified papayas

Published on September 2, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes, Papaya and food safety.


Japanese consumers will likely be seeing genetically modified papayas on their grocery shelves beginning in December.

The Japanese government’s Consumer Affairs Agency on Thursday approved rainbow papayas for sale in that country.

The papayas had previously been approved by Japan’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; and Health, Labour and Welfare ministries. The strain was approved for sale in the U.S. in 1998 and in Canada in 2003.

The Japanese labeling approval was the last step to get the papayas introduced into Japan — there will be a three-month waiting period before the papayas are available.

“The approval by the Japanese government has been slow but thorough,” Delan Perry, the vice president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry, said. “They asked a lot of questions.”

It’s a process that’s taken 10 years.

“It’s an important approval as far as the technology,” said Perry, who is a papaya grower in Kapoho.

The papayas were engineered to resist papaya ring spot virus, which was discovered in the Puna area in 1992 and severely damaged crops there.

To create the resistance to the virus, scientists fused the DNA of the virus into the genetic makeup of a papaya, creating a new strain.

Dennis Gonsalves, the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service’s Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, said it’s similar to a vaccination in animals.

The rainbow’s introduction “controlled the virus in Hawaii,” Gonsalves said. “It essentially saved the industry in Hawaii.”

While Gonsalves — who worked with a group of fellow public sector scientists to create the genetically modified fruit — and others say the introduction of rainbow papayas was essential, some disagree. Continue reading ‘Japan approves genetically modified papayas’

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New flu virus infects two U.S. children, CDC reports – The Washington Post

Published on September 2, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Livestock.

Two U.S. children were infected with a previously unknown flu virus that apparently formed when a pig influenza virus picked up a gene from the strain that caused the swine flu pandemic in 2009, federal health officials reported Friday.

Both of the children recovered, however, and there is no evidence that the virus is spreading easily among people, meaning that it does not appear to pose a threat of becoming a significant public health concern, officials said.

“We want people to be aware of these things and we want physicians to be aware,” said Lyn Finelli, chief of surveillance and response at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Influenza Division. “But we don’t think that these cases in themselves are alarming.”

Both children are 2 years old, and both apparently were infected by exposure to pigs at county fairs. In one case, a boy in Indiana was apparently infected by a “caretaker” who had been showing pigs at a county fair a few days before the boy became ill, Finelli said. In the other, a girl in Pennsylvania appears to be have been infected when she went to a county fair and petting zoo, she said. No one else, including family members of the two children, appears to have become infected.

“We see four or five of these cases every year. They are commonly reported during times of state fairs and county fairs when there is more contact between people and pigs,” Finelli said. “These infections are similar to those that have been reported before.”

The Indiana boy developed a fever, cough, shortness of breath and diarrhea July 23. Because he had other chronic health problems, he was hospitalized the next day, but returned home three days later and completely recovered. Continue reading ‘New flu virus infects two U.S. children, CDC reports – The Washington Post’

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Faye Blackstone, rodeo trick rider, dies at 96

Published on September 1, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Livestock.


Faye Blackstone, a rodeo trick rider who was elected to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and was best known for her saddle-dangling signature move, the reverse fender drag, and who helped launch the career of country singer Reba McEntire, died Aug. 30 at a hospital in Bradenton, Fla.

She was 96 and had complications from cancer, said her great-niece Deanna Blackstone.

Mrs. Blackstone was 3 when she began riding horses on her family’s Nebraska ranch. She taught herself how to do tricks while riding her horse to school.

She and her late husband, Vic, a bow-legged bronc rider from Texas, married in 1937 on horseback in the center of a rodeo arena in Bladen, Neb. They performed on the rodeo circuit during the 1940s and ’50s. During that time, she also rode in a traveling show with Gene Autry and entertained crowds in New York’s Madison Square Garden and as far as Havana with her gymnastic feats.

Mrs. Blackstone could do headstands while her quarter horse galloped at full stride. She could drop down from the saddle, let her boots kick the arena dust and spin to the horse’s other side.

Diana Vela, the associate executive director of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, said that Mrs. Blackstone is credited with inventing three maneuvers: Continue reading ‘Faye Blackstone, rodeo trick rider, dies at 96′

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