In the biology department, an assistant professor sits in front of a continuous screen of green letters reminiscent of scenes from "The Matrix."
He is analyzing the gene sequences of wasps –wasps that are being used as an alternative to chemical pest controls in agriculture.
The wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, is being used as a form of chemical-free pest control "whose larvae parasitize various life stages of other arthropods such as insects, ticks and mites," according to a paper published Jan. 15 in "Science."
"In the 1950s, they didn’t know about these wasps, so they used chemicals," Christopher Smith, an SF State associate professor on the project, said. "Now, agriculture chemicals sterilize water systems and kill arthropods. Even household pesticides are a big problem –they reduce biodiversity in the ecosystem."
Parasitoids like the wasp are used nationally and are bred to attack pests that negatively affect agricultural crops.
"It’s where the frontier of science is at right now. When I was in grad school, there were no genomes," Smith said.
Smith is one of a team of researchers contributing to a larger study on the wasps. p>
His job is to receive the insect’s genome, then sequence and analyze the DNA he gets on the computer.
Continue reading ‘Golden Gate [X]press : Researchers abuzz for wasps as pesticides’
Archive for the 'Sustainability' Category
Students in Professor Jan Wampler’s class, Architecture Design Studio, spent eight days designing affordable dwellings for farmers in Hawaii
Hawaii Island is caught in a Catch 22 situation.
Although the island boasts a fertile landscape that can easily support a broad range of agriculture, 85-90 percent of food consumed is imported from the mainland. High real estate costs have been partially responsible for perpetuating this dependency, prohibiting many young families from owning and farming the land as their parents did. Some locals have even left Hawaii in search of work.
As part of a larger effort to revitalize Hawaii’s agricultural economy, MIT architecture students, led by Professor Jan Wampler, have partnered with the local non-profit Kohala Center and the Starseed Ranch to provide young farmers with land and housing.
Continue reading ‘Revitalizing the land of plenty with affordable housing | MIT news’
By KEVIN MCCULLEN
TRI-CITY HERALDRICHLAND, Wash. — Scientists in Eastern Washington are at the forefront of research into an ancient practice that shows promise as a clean fuel source, a way to improve soil condition and to capture carbon that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.
Researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the federal Department of Agriculture’s research station in Prosser and Washington State University have been integral figures in studies of biochar and its potential uses.
Biochar, a charcoal-like material, is produced when biomass – including wood, plant and animal waste – is burned in the absence of or under low oxygen conditions so the material doesn’t combust.
This process, called pyrolysis, thermally decomposes the waste into biochar, bio-oil and syngas. Biochar and bio-oil show commercial promise and syngas offers a power source that can run a pyrolyzer.
The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has estimated that if the United States were to pyrolyze 1.3 billion tons of various forms of biomass annually, it could replace 1.9 billion barrels of imported oil with bio-oil. That would represent about 25 percent of the annual oil consumption in this country. In addition, USDA estimates the country could sequester 153 million tons of carbon annually by adding biochar to soils.
Continue reading ‘E Wash scientists study biochar for energy’
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ — SG Biofuels, a sustainable plant oil company specializing in the development of Jatropha as a low-cost, sustainable source of oil, today announced the launch of JMax 100, a proprietary cultivar of Jatropha optimized for growing conditions in Guatemala with yields 100 percent greater than existing varieties.
JMax 100 is the first elite cultivar developed through the company’s JMax Jatropha Optimization Platform. The platform provides growers and plantation developers with access to the highest yielding and most profitable Jatropha in the world, the sequenced genome and advanced biotech and synthetic biology tools to develop cultivars specifically optimized for their unique growing conditions.
"The yields and profitability of JMax100 and the JMax platform far exceed what is currently available through existing varieties of Jatropha," said Kirk Haney, President and Chief Executive Officer of SG Biofuels. "In Guatemala, we have utilized the world’s largest library of Jatropha genetic material and our advanced genetic program to enable exponential increases in productivity and profitability, and establish Jatropha as a large-scale sustainable energy crop."
Continue reading ‘SG Biofuels Launches World’s First Elite Jatropha Cultivar’
On Thursday, the Land Use Commission will hold another public hearing on Castle & Cooke’s plans to build a new “community” on 768 acres between Waipio and Mililani. The Koa Ridge project, which includes two schools, a medical complex, a 150-room hotel and nearly half a million square feet of commercial space, relies on the LUC’s approval, and on its willingness to take the land out of agricultural zoning.The Sierra Club and other environmental and agricultural advocates say that Koa Ridge would deprive Oahu of some of its very best agricultural land and that the project contributes to urban sprawl.
We didn’t have a reporter at the first hearing last month. The Advertiser reported that public testimony showed strong support for the project, with only one person speaking out in opposition. According to that report, most area residents who testified expressed hope that Koa Ridge might keep housing costs down for middle class families.
That’s an important goal, but doesn’t it seem like there are other ways to achieve it? At a time when so much energy is going into rethinking agricultural production and making farming viable on this island again, taking prime ag land out of production–forever–seems like a step in the wrong direction.
State Land Use Commission Meeting, 235 S. Beretania St, Thu 2/18, 9am, 587-3822
Editor’s note » Honolulu Weekly
ECONOMIC DIVERSITY IS KEY TO HC&S’ SURVIVAL
It’s the last one standing, clinging to an antiquated "plantation" era, which is long gone. Current news has focused on many issues, but the most important one may be the ability of this company and its workers to diversify.
Visionary co-partners could provide capital and technology, while HC&S provides land, leases and the work force. Ideas for diversity could be some of the following:
- Eliminate the middlemen and process locally the many varieties of confectionery and food sugars utilized throughout the world.
- Eco-agricultural tourism; this is a huge, virtually untapped market for Maui visitors. Co-develop a plantation-era camp with the new Hali’imaile Pineapple owners, complete with country stores, bakery and museum. An immersion package would spotlight sugar and pineapple history, production, fields, museum and products.
- Grow bamboo to manufacture construction products, high-end flooring, furniture and cabinetry, all produced in a local factory with Maui workers.
- Develop least-productive lands into revenue-producing energy farms. Solar, wind and solar thermal energy would be harvested and space for future algae biofuels secured. Additional lands could provide light industrial tracts for local businesses to lease.
- Become a Pacific region leader in agricultural food production. Vertical farming could be accomplished in glass, multistory hydroponic greenhouses with rotating produce beds. Units would be tied into the energy farms and water produced by atmospheric water generators.
HC&S is teetering on a fiscal precipice. The question is, are they willing and able to do something about it?
Mike Cummings
Waiehu
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor’s Information – The Maui News
LANAI CITY — With a high cost of living and a tiny economy of limited job prospects, survival on Lanai has never been easy.
But now that all major new construction has stopped and the island’s largest employer has laid off or furloughed 20 percent of its work force and cut hours for the employees that remain, more families have been pushed to the edge.
Continue reading ‘Lanaians looking for a means of survival – The Maui News’
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff WriterPierre Omidyar, who invested in Maui Land & Pineapple Co. stock when the company was being pushed in a greener direction, is now supporting a for-profit/charitable combination that is taking over ML&P’s Kapalua Farms, one of the largest organic farms in the state.
Since ML&P also closed its Maui Pineapple Co. subsidiary, then leased much of its land and equipment to the upstart Haliimaile Pineapple Co. this month, the handover takes ML&P completely out of agriculture.
On Friday, Ulupono Sustainable Agriculture Development LLC, a subsidiary of the Ulupono Initiative, announced it would be assuming operations of Kapalua Farms, which not only supplies vegetables and eggs to ML&P’s Kapalua Resort but also conducts research into new methods of producing food on Maui. Ulupono Initiative is a Hawaii-focused social investment organization founded in June with backing from Omidyar and his wife, Pam. He was a founder of eBay, and they now live in Hawaii.
Warren Haruki, chairman and interim chief executive officer of ML&P, said, "We are pleased to partner with Ulupono Sustainable Agriculture Development as they assume operations of Kapalua Farms. Our desire was to find an operational partner that would be able to continue organic farming operations and to maintain Kapalua Farms as a community resource, employer and provider."
Continue reading ‘ML&P stock investor taking over Kapalua Farms’
UNDER THE SUN
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 03, 2010
Growing food is better then picking up cigarette buts at the resort.
CLICK for a larger imageNow comes a study suggesting that early Hawaiian agriculture was vast and substantially more complex than previously known, implying that what was grown fed a population of perhaps a million people, which is about the present occupancy of Hawaii.
Samuel M. Gon III was clearly excited by the findings of a team of researchers and scientists from noted institutions.
"If a million mouths could be fed back then, this points to a future where we can wean our reliance on food from the outside world," said Gon, who as senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii participated in the study.
Continue reading ‘The demand is there for locally grown food – Starbulletin’
By Justin Nobel
YAP, Federated States of Micronesia (Alertnet) – Giant tides inundated the remote atolls of Micronesia last December, scouring beaches, damaging homes and inundating banana and taro crops. The President of the Federated States of Micronesia, Emanuel Mori, declared a nationwide state of emergency and relief rice was shipped in.
But on several atolls in Yap, one of Micronesia’s four states, taro planted in elevated concrete pits survived.
"This is a way to save the people here," said Stephen Mara, an agriculture teacher at a high school in Yap.
Devastating tides, called "king tides," are one way sea level rise will manifest itself across the western Pacific in the coming decades, said Charles Fletcher, a University of Hawaii coastal geologist and co-author of a recent report on food security and climate risks in Micronesia.
Long before Pacific islands drown, as politicians and the media often predict, the islands may become uninhabitable from a lack of food. Fletcher, in particular, doesn’t think life on the atolls can last without constant humanitarian aid. But concrete may provide a respite, at least temporarily.
Continue reading ‘Reuters AlertNet – Micronesia atoll grows taro in concrete to hold off sea surges’
Click Here to View Video
September 15, 2009 – Hilo, Hawaii Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi took a moment last Friday to talk about the challenges facing the Big Island economy, and how it will impact next year’s county budget.According to a news release, Kenoi told his county staff on Monday at a meeting to kick off budget preparations that "deep and painful budget cuts will be necessary to carry the county through the next fiscal year". The county says its facing a $44.8 million hole in next fiscal year’s budget, which combines $33.8 million less in projected revenues and $11 million more in projected expenses.
“We’ve never faced what we face today,” said Mayor Kenoi in Monday’s media release. “Which means we’ve got to take steps that we never took before,” to make government more efficient and reduce county spending. Continue reading ‘VIDEO: Hawaii Mayor talks about upcoming "painful" budget – Big Island Video News’
The bill that Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong proposed with regards to county council scrutiny with the sale of the Hamakua lands is apparently postponed.
If I had 8 million dollars, I would buy all those lands myself. 1/3 of them to be pastoral/agricultural lots donated to DHHL, and lease the rest of them leased out to prospective agricultural-minded tenants. The idea is creating businesses on this island that will help our island economy, and create self-sustainability. Maybe I would dedicate a small portion of them to be a windfarm and perhaps one or two 15 home subdivisions, and a small commerce/town center (they can call it Kekuawela Village)
Upon my death, the lands would honor out their leases and then placed into a trust that will be used to fund an institute of Higher Learning dedicated to health sciences, business, and agriculture. The college will be called “Hamakua College” with admission preference to residents of the Big Island.
Hermatypic Coral Maui-Click for larger imageDestroyed by rising carbon levels, acidity, pollution, algae, bleaching and El Niño, coral reefs require a dramatic change in our carbon policy to have any chance of survivalAnimal, vegetable and mineral, a pristine tropical coral reef is one of the natural wonders of the world. Bathed in clear, warm water and thick with a psychedelic display of fish, sharks, crustaceans and other sea life, the colourful coral ramparts that rise from the sand are known as the rainforests of the oceans.
And with good reason. Reefs and rainforests have more in common than their beauty and bewildering biodiversity. Both have stood for millions of years, and yet both are poised to disappear.
Continue reading ‘Why coral reefs face a catastrophic future – guardian.co.uk’
Mobile ‘biochar’ machine to work the fields
An ancient technique to fertilize soil by creating charcoal from plant waste is being revived to tackle some of today’s environmental problems.
The latest company to pursue manmade charcoal, called biochar, is Biochar Systems, which has developed a biochar-making machine that can be pulled by a pickup truck. Two customers–a North Carolina farm and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management–will be begin testing the units this fall.
The unit, called the Biochar 1000, is designed to convert woody biomass, such as agricultural or forestry waste, into biochar, a black, porous, and fine-grained charcoal that can be used as a fertilizer. It uses pyrolysis–slowly burning biomass in a low-oxygen chamber–to treat 1,000 pounds of biomass per hour, yielding 250 pounds of biochar.
The Biochar 1000 converts agricultural wastes to charcoal, which is then added to soil, a process that enriches soil and removes carbon from air. (Credit: EcoTechnologies Group)
There still isn’t a well established market for selling biochar, but there’s growing interest among researchers in the process as a way to cut greenhouse gas concentrations. The United Nations has proposed classifying biochar as a carbon credit for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
Continue reading ‘Mobile ‘biochar’ machine to work the fields | Green Tech – CNET News’
PLAN WILL HAVE MAJOR IMPACT ON WEST MAUI
I would like to express my gratitude to those who took time off from work and family to attend the Maui Planning Commission’s Maui Island Plan meeting at Lahaina Civic Center. However, I am once again disappointed by the Planning Commission’s lack of planning regarding community involvement.
This meeting was not announced in the Lahaina News at all, and did not appear in The Maui News until the Sunday edition. A Sunday announcement for a meeting on a Tuesday is not enough notice, and 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon on the second day of school adds still further insult to the injury.
Correct me if I am wrong, but to replace agriculture in West Maui is a decision that will drastically change the lives of everyone who lives, works or plays in West Maui. Furthermore, it is my impression that the man on the street does not fully understand the impact of what he is signing off on by not attending.
As a member of the West Maui community, I would like to set up another meeting. Not one organized by the Planning Commission or special interests, but one organized by the residents and for the residents who will be affected most. This will be a meeting to formulate a plan for the next step in this process: the County Council’s deliberations on the proposed Maui Island Plan. If you would like to be involved, call me at 385-1649 or e-mail votemaui@hotmail.com.
If you feel that you are being bypassed, you are not alone.
RAMON K. MADDEN, Honokowai
Hanalei Click for Larger Image
On the average the entire State only produces somewhere between 4.4 to 5.8 percent of our food supply. Specialists at the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agricultural have pointed out that if we doubled our production of local food we would be avoiding $120 million in imports and creating more than 3,000 jobs. Farm related business income would increase, they predict, by about $64 million, and of course, other economic benefits would occur. Similar estimates regarding the benefits of increasing local food production have been suggested by Governor Lingle and also by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.
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