Earth’s carrying capacity is an inescapable fact

Published on November 5, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

Physicists understand the mathematics of exponential growth. They, along with the rest of us often ignore its consequences, including the first law of sustainability: “Neither population growth nor consumption can be sustained indefinitely.”

Sustainability is a buzzword about environmental balance, recycling, energy and food production. It is a simple concept that brings a sense of environmental virtue if we feel that we are living “sustainably.” We know what it is but maybe can’t quite define it.

The report “Our Common Future” — also known as the Brundtland report (1987) from the World Commission on Environment and Development of the United Nations — defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” This definition of sustainability says nothing specifically about the environment, but a clean environment better meets those needs, and it is not only we humans that have needs.

Sustainability is related to carrying capacity, which is the maximum load that a given environment can support without detrimental effects. Continue reading ‘Earth’s carrying capacity is an inescapable fact’

Young Chinese farmers sowing seeds for organic revolution

Published on November 1, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes, Organic Ag and Sustainability.

By William Wan Washington Post Foreign Service

IN CHONGMING ISLAND, CHINA The small-scale farmer is a dying breed in China, made up mostly of the elderly left behind in the mass exodus of migrant workers to much higher-paying jobs in industrial cities.

But on an island called Chongming, a two-hour drive east of Shanghai, a group of young urban professionals has begun to buck the trend. They are giving up high-paying salaries in the city and applying their business and Internet savvy to once-abandoned properties. They are trying to teach customers concepts such as eating local and sustainability. And they are spearheading a fledgling movement that has long existed in the Western world but is only beginning to emerge in modern China: green living.

“What we are trying to create is like a dream for us,” said Chen Shuaijun, a young banker who, with his wife, has rented eight acres on Chongming.

“But it is simply bizarre to everyone else,” he added, with a sigh. Continue reading ‘Young Chinese farmers sowing seeds for organic revolution’

In the Garden – Reining In a Runaway Yard

Published on October 27, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

PAGE DICKEY, 70, and her husband, Bosco Schell, 76, were soaking up the sun on their terrace here one afternoon a few weeks ago — floppy hats in place against the rays — explaining how they were simplifying their garden. Sort of.

“The first step is to replace perennials with shrubs and ground covers,” Ms. Dickey said, sipping her coffee after a hearty lunch of her homemade minestrone, whose onions, leeks, garlic and chard came straight from the garden. “We need an overall plan: more green architecture and less plants.”

Mr. Schell, a retired book editor, grew up in Hungary, where his family had a walled kitchen garden. He had peeled the Empires and Mutsus gathered from the orchard here for the fresh applesauce we had eaten, dribbled with cream.

“We talk about simplifying, but the whole joy of gardening is being creative,” he said. “And creativity usually means adding. You go to a nursery and you say, ‘Oh! That’s the perfect plant for us!’ ” (Like the little potted strawberry bush, named Venus, that they fell in love with at a plant sale, and then wandered around with for days, seeking a place for it.)

“Instead of simplifying, we’re complicating,” he added with a chuckle. Mr. Schell, who fled Budapest at 11, when the Germans invaded, can’t bear to throw away any plant; he makes more from seeds and cuttings, to give away or donate to plant sales at the local library.

As Ms. Dickey writes in “Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden,” to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in February, “A husband is all very well, but a husband in the garden is a mixed blessing.” Continue reading ‘In the Garden – Reining In a Runaway Yard’

Sustainability — reviewing our progress

Published on October 24, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

by Diana Duff
Special To West Hawaii Today

Sunday, October 24, 2010 7:19 AM HST
Sustainability has become a kind of tired buzzword. Businesses are clambering to be labeled “green.” Political pressure to be Earth-friendly has caused changes that sometimes result in increased effort and higher prices, but most of us are still participating in endeavors toward zero waste.

Every little step toward a more sustainable lifestyle is good, but with all the buzz it’s easy to lose the impetus to continue reducing your ecological footprint. It may be time to check your progress. Continue reading ‘Sustainability — reviewing our progress’

Go from plantation to diversification at Hamakua Alive!

Published on October 17, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

By Carol Yurth

Enjoy a relaxed day of fun, food and celebration

Hamakua Alive! is this Saturday. This year’s theme is “From Plantation to Diversification.” Join in a relaxed day of fun, food and celebration from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the corner of the turnoff from the Belt Highway to Mamane Street in Honokaa.

Come experience the agricultural diversity found along the Hamakua Coast. This year’s festival has been expanded to include the Hamakua Farmers Market and local crafts. There will be tastings where chefs are paired with farmer/producers and prepare the foods grown in the area onsite. The tasting will be available to the general public for a minimal fee — usually just $2-$3 a plate or bowl! (Everything served with earth-friendly, compostable serveware).

Join the cooking contest with recipes using a large percentage of ingredients grown on Hawaii Island.

The Hawaii Island School Garden Network will have booths for agricultural education and locally grown products. There will be live Hawaiian music with Cyril Pahinui and John Keawe and kids’ games and entertainment. To find out more, visit http://www.hamakuaalive.com. Continue reading ‘Go from plantation to diversification at Hamakua Alive!’

Sustainability earns honors

Published on October 11, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

HAIKU – Lloyd Fischel lives with thousands of golden tilapia in his backyard.

Although he could make a business off of harvesting the fish, he keeps the critters in their two large fishponds for educating students and the community about science and how to be sustainable.

“I think the message is anybody can grow fish or vegetables in a small yard for little cost,” Fischel said.

In the past six years he has been pushing that message as hundreds of students have visited his 2-acre Haiku property.

For his efforts, Lanikai Farms last month received a Heroes of Agriculture, Food and Environment award from the 2010 Hawaii Agriculture Conference “Celebrating Change” on Oahu.

Fischel was one of 10 groups of Mauians receiving awards. (See box). Fischel, who works with his partner, Karen Klemme, placed in the Food Business or School Doing Business With Excellence category. The conference was hosted by the Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaii.

While Fischel, who is also president of the Maui Farmers Union, said he was humbled by the award and pointed to the achievements of the other winners, he feels he has a good program he wants to bring to the public. Continue reading ‘Sustainability earns honors’

Solar farm set to begin operating on Kauai by year’s end

Published on October 11, 2010 in Alternative Energy, General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

A 1.21 megawatt solar power farm that will feed electricity into the Kauai electrical grid is on track to be completed by the end of this year, according the company developing the project.

The photovoltaic system being built in Kapaa for the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative would be about the same size as the La Ola Solar Farm on Lanai, which is currently the state’s largest.

The solar farm will help the KIUC as it does its part to meet the state’s objective to generate more of its electricity from renewable sources. KIUC announced last week that it plans to break ground next year on a 3-megawatt photovoltaic system in Koloa on the southern side of the island.

The Kapaa solar project is being developed by REC Solar, which has installed smaller systems across the state, including ones at three Costco stores, a Longs Drug Store, Kauai Community College and Tony Auto Group.

Solar farm set to begin operating on Kauai by year’s end – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

The Garden provides plenty at Common Ground

Published on October 9, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes, Sustainability and Vegtables.

It’s an uncommon dining experience: you turn mauka off the highway in Kilauea, there are no advertisements, no string of cars looking for parking, no delivery trucks dropping off packaged food. No, it feels more like you have stumbled upon a 60-acre farm that happens to have a tranquil, open-air restaurant, where bananas and coconuts hang from the doors. A few feet beyond the tables are herb gardens. Beyond that is a massive garden, with rows and rows of vegetables. “You can sit down and look at where your food is coming from,” said Jay Sklar, chef and food-services director.

The Garden restaurant at Common Ground — a resource center for the community with many projects focused on sustainability — is leading the way to show what is possible for restaurants who embrace the “farm-to-fork” concept. When Common Ground — formerly Guava Kai Plantation — began the farming process over two years ago, the old guava trees, which were no longer able to produce fruit, were cut and chipped into a nitrogen-rich compost to make the soil healthy. They now continue to make their own compost with various materials on site, and mix it with oxygenated water in order to make a “tea” they spray on the crops. Sklar said they use no petro chemicals, and the practice of permaculture is used, meaning the landscaping is edible and plants are strategically placed in order to naturally benefit each other. Continue reading ‘The Garden provides plenty at Common Ground’

Koa Ridge project needs traffic, farm mitigations

Published on September 26, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

In this sluggish economy, and amid all the clamoring for jobs and housing, the state’s decision to reclassify 576 acres of prime agricultural land to make way for the mammoth Koa Ridge development probably could have been anticipated.

But that doesn’t make Thursday’s decision by the Land Use Commission any less consequential. It would connect the patches of development sprawl between Waipahu and Mililani, adding 3,500 homes to the suburban mix.

The impact on rush-hour traffic, according to developers Castle & Cooke Homes would be relatively moderate. Traffic studies indicate that the subdivision would add only five minutes to commuting time. Convincing all the Central Oahu drivers who now do battle at the H-1/H-2 interchange of that assertion will be a tough sell, as the project proceeds for rezoning and further permit approvals from the city.

The LUC will meet Oct. 15 to issue its written order, which is expected to set conditions. That should provide an opening for the commission to offset some of the impact on traffic and the loss of farm land, two of the principal negatives posed by such a large development in an already congested corridor.

Commissioners should take the opportunity to insist on a link of some sort with the city’s planned fixed-rail system that will come through to the south. The provision of a busway or other accommodation is far easier if developers plan for them at the front end.

As for the continued whittling of Oahu’s agricultural district: It would be wise for the state to insist on the protection of agricultural parcels to compensate for the loss of the Koa Ridge site. Continue reading ‘Koa Ridge project needs traffic, farm mitigations’

Hawaii’s farm future: Fertile fields?

Published on September 26, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

Introduction

In 2008, a report from the University of Hawaii-Manoa and the state Department of Agriculture estimated that between 85 percent and 90 percent of the state’s food was imported every year and concluded that there wasn’t much anyone could do to change the situation.

” … Even though Hawaii can conceivably grow anything that we consume, the quest to achieve 100% food self-sufficiency is impractical, unattainable and perhaps impossible, as it imposes too high a cost for society,” the researchers said.

Hawaii’s relatively small farms could never match the output or efficiency of the vast mechanized farms on the mainland, the report said. Island products would always be more expensive to grow and buy.

Still, the report was more a call to arms than a dark prophecy.

Pointing out that Hawaii’s geographic isolation left its food supply vulnerable to disruptions caused by forces and events beyond control, such as fuel costs, shipping strikes and farm production fluctuations, the report said it was of vital importance that the state not overlook the value of a small but thriving home-grown market.

A healthy agricultural base not only serves as a buffer against outside forces, it provides residents with fresher, tastier, healthier food and could put millions of dollars back into the island economy, the report said.

“I think we are at the crossroads,” says Dr. Matthew Loke, administrator of the state’s Agricultural Development Division and a co-author of the 2008 report with Dr. PingSun Leung of UH-Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. “Whether we can seize those opportunities or not, that’s our challenge.” Continue reading ‘Hawaii’s farm future: Fertile fields?’

Vertical Wind Turbine Spurring Interest

Published on September 24, 2010 in Alternative Energy, General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

HONOLULU — It has been three years in the planning and now it is finally in place. The vertical axis wind turbine is close to being operational.

Nick Dizon of NIDON Clean Energy recently installed the carbon fiber clad turbine on a warehouse in Iwilei.

“It’s our effort to show that wind can work in Hawaii,” said Dizon.

Dizon is working with Siu Electric to test the U.S. designed turbine at the company’s 500 Alakawa offices.

The turbine was recently featured on Good Morning America. It is manufactured by a company called Urban Green Energy out of New York. The turbine on the warehouse is a four kilowatt system. The theory is the system could be ideal for urban small wind corridors. It needs at least 7 mph winds. The turbine is quiet and has with no exposed metal for rusting. It also has a relatively small footprint. Continue reading ‘Vertical Wind Turbine Spurring Interest’

Cannabis Business University Launches First Medical Marijuana Educational Seminar in Hawaii Setting the Standard for Education, Regulation, Compliance and Wellness

Published on September 23, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

Sep 23, 2010 04:20 ET

HONOLULU, HI–(Marketwire – September 23, 2010) – Cannabis Business University’s President, Clifford J Perry, is proud to announce the successful launch of the Medical Marijuana Educational Series in Hawaii.

“We appreciate the people that attended the all-day event to learn about the medicinal and agricultural benefits of Cannabis and Hemp and to engage and participate in the process of determining the regulation and compliance issues that face the State of Hawaii.” Continue reading ‘Cannabis Business University Launches First Medical Marijuana Educational Seminar in Hawaii Setting the Standard for Education, Regulation, Compliance and Wellness’

The Eat Local Challenge draws awareness to Hawaii’s food system and sustainability issues

Published on September 22, 2010 in Disaster Preparedness, General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

By Joleen Oshiro

If your idea of “eat local” is a paper plate buckling with hamburger steak, two scoops rice, mac salad and extra gravy, reconsider the term.

In this era of sustainability, “eat local” carries the weight of conscience, referring to consumption of locally grown and produced food. By that definition, there are few plate lunches to be found.

So what replaces them? And why?

ON THE NET:
» www.kanuhawaii.org

There are many places to start and many perspectives to consider. For Hawaii farmers, the issue lies in their struggle to stay viable while we import more than 75 percent of our food, sending more than $3 billion out of state each year. For consumers, it’s about knowing where their food comes from, how it was grown, how nutritious it is. For the state, the concern is over food security. If a catastrophic disaster hits the isles and disables airports and harbors, how will everyone get fed, and for how long?

When it’s laid out this way, it’s clear that beefing up the local food supply is in order. But shifting the situation requires tackling some big issues, one of which is changing consumer habits – not an easy thing.

But here’s one way to start: Kanu Hawaii’s Eat Local Challenge, in which regular folks attempt to eat local for a week, beginning Sunday.

CLICK HERE for complete Article

At Mexican seed center, search is on for crops that can handle more extreme weather

Published on September 20, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

EL BATAN, MEXICO – More than 500 years after Spanish priests brought wheat seeds to Mexico to make wafers for the Catholic Mass, those seeds may bring a new kind of salvation to farmers hit by global warming.

Scientists working in the farming hills outside Mexico City found the ancient wheat varieties have particular drought- and heat-resistant traits, including longer roots that suck up water and a capacity to store more nutrients in their stalks.

They are crossing the plants with other strains developed at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in El Batan to grow types of wheat that can fight off the ill effects of rising temperatures around the world.

“It’s like putting money in the bank to use, in this case, for a not rainy day,” scientist Matthew Reynolds said of the resilient Mexican wheats his team collected.

Seed breeders say they are the first line of defense protecting farmers from climate change, widely expected to cause average global temperatures to rise between 1 and 3 degrees over the next 50 years. As a result, intensified drought, together with more intense and unpredictable rainfall, could hit crop yields and lead to food shortages and spikes in commodity prices. Continue reading ‘At Mexican seed center, search is on for crops that can handle more extreme weather’

Sequencing of cacao genome will help US chocolate industry, subsistence farmers – ScienceNewsline

Published on September 15, 2010 in Cacao, Chocolate, General Ag News and Notes and Sustainability.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their partners have announced the preliminary release of the sequenced genome of the cacao tree, an achievement that will help sustain the supply of high-quality cocoa to the $17 billion U.S. chocolate industry and protect the livelihoods of small farmers around the world by speeding up development, through traditional breeding techniques, of trees better equipped to resist the droughts, diseases and pests that threaten this vital agricultural crop.

The effort is the result of a partnership between USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS); Mars, Inc., of McLean, Va., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of chocolate-related products; scientists at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown , N.Y.; and researchers from the Clemson University Genomics Institute, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Washington State University, Indiana University, the National Center for Genome Resources, and PIPRA (Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture) at the University of California-Davis.

Team leaders from USDA included molecular biologist David Kuhn and geneticist Raymond Schnell, both at the ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Fla., and ARS computational biologist Brian Scheffler at the Jamie Whitten Delta States Research Center in Stoneville, Miss. ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of USDA. This research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security, and USDA’s commitment to agricultural sustainability. Continue reading ‘Sequencing of cacao genome will help US chocolate industry, subsistence farmers – ScienceNewsline’

Chefs celebrate local meats at Taste of Hawaiian Range

Published on August 25, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes, Livestock and Sustainability.

Meat lovers are invited to “graze” at Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island on Sept. 10.

Locally raised lamb, mutton, goat, pork and beef will be prepared at 30 food stations manned by premier Hawaii chefs. They will serve up dishes using a variety of meat cuts — everything from beef tongue to oxtail.

Also on display will be educational exhibits relating to agriculture and sustainability. Continue reading ‘Chefs celebrate local meats at Taste of Hawaiian Range’