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.
Recovery Act Funds Will Help Improve Infrastructure Across Rural America
Hawaii: Na Kupaa O Kuhio (Kakaina) – $541,000 direct loan and $377,800 grant Na Kupaa O Kuhio (Piilani) – $471,000 direct loan and $339,000 grant
WASHINGTON, August, 25, 2009 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of $175.8 million in water and environmental projects that are being funded immediately through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The projects will help provide safe drinking water and improved wastewater treatment for rural communities in 27 states. To date, USDA has announced $1.47 billion for water and environmental project loans and grants through ARRA, benefiting communities throughout the country.
“The Recovery Act water and wastewater projects we are announcing today support the Obama administration’s goal of rebuilding and revitalizing the nation’s rural infrastructure,” Vilsack said. “This funding will provide reliable drinking water and sanitary waste disposal while creating and saving jobs in rural America.”
Hawaii’s agricultural work force totaled 6,100 in July, according to a new report.
The work force reported for the week of July 12-18 was unchanged compared with the survey week in April, but down 2 percent from last July, the National Agricultural Statistics Service Hawaii Field Office said Monday.
Pineapple and sugar cane workers totaled 900, down 22 percent from the same period a year ago, the result of layoffs at Maui Land & Pineapple and Gay & Robinson on Kauai.
Maui Land & Pineapple laid off 204 workers in July 2008, and Gay & Robinson ended its sugar cane operations in September 2008.
Hawaii’s total farm work force — which includes self-employed farm operators and unpaid workers such as family members and others working 15 hours or more per week — totaled 10,400 workers for the survey week, down 1 percent from a year ago.
The average wage paid to all hired workers during the survey week was estimated at $13.97 per hour, 5 percent higher than a year ago.
Hawaii farms employing one to nine workers paid an average of $12.50 per hour. The combined average wage for field and livestock workers was $11.40 an hour.
Honolulu-based Indulge Hawaii has unveiled a new RTD iced tea that is sweetened with stevia, a first according to the company.
Called Plantation Iced Tea No Sugar Added, the drink is described as "a blend of brewed tea, pineapple juice and tropical flavors," in a news release. Indulge Hawaii President Byron Goo said the tea used is an Indian black tea. He did not elaborate on the brewing process.
Touted as a low-calorie beverage with just 10 calories per serving, Plantation Iced Tea is sweetened with Good & Sweet Reb-A, which maker Blue California describes as a "natural sweetener purified from stevia leaves."
"It’s thrilling to say we’re an innovation company," Goo said. "Now, we’re first to make a bottled iced tea using a brand new all natural, zero calorie sweetener derived from stevia.” Goo told WTN that Blue California had confirmed the claim.
Indulge Hawaii is a food and beverage brand that focuses on Hawaiian ingredients. The company’s stated goal is to use natural and organic ingredients whenever possible, support sustainable agricultural practices and make its community a better place to live.
The genus Stevia consists of 240 species of plants native to South America, Central America, and Mexico, with several species found as far north as Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.Human use of the sweet species S. rebaudiana originated in South America. The leaves of the stevia plant have 30–45 times the sweetness of sucrose (ordinary table sugar). The leaves can be eaten fresh, or put in teas and foods.
Ho’opili is a 12,000 house project by DR Horton that will fill the entire area makai of the freeway between Waipahu and Kapolei, the area now occupied by Aloun Farms and Jefts Farms. To get an idea of the size of Ho’opili, one could put all of Waikiki, Ala Moana shopping center, and downtown Honolulu into its 1555 acres.
These are “prime” agricultural soils, classified as A and B soils by the UH Land Study. How special are A and B lands? There is not one acre of A land on the entire Big Island. Molokai has a small amount of A land, but no B soils. There are no A or B soils at all on Lanai, Kaho’olawe, or Ni’ihau.
Much of Oahu’s A and B lands have already been covered over by Mililani, Waipio, Waikele, Village Park, Royal Kunia, ‘Ewa, and Kapolei. We must save what is left.
I have been quoted as saying that this is the best farmland in the state. I stand corrected by Dr. Goro Uehara, Professor of Soil Science at the University of Hawaii who has studied soils in many different countries. He says this is the best farmland in the world.
Wall Street is as far as you can get from the 8-acre Steelgrass Farm in Kauai where the main attraction is chocolate, but the trickle-down impacts have made for bittersweet returns.
"We just got turned down for a loan again," said Tony Lydgate, who helped his children, Emily and Will, purchase Steelgrass Farm in the 1990s. "Our revenues are in the low six figures, but we can’t even get a $20,000 line of credit."
The Lydgates, who have about half of all the cacao trees on Kauai, offer tours to supplement their farming income. Still, they need more capital to establish an agricultural cooperative that harvests cacao for commercial distribution.
"We can’t expand at the speed that we would like, too," Lydgate said.
The Lydgates are not alone. As the economy has slumped, more farmers in Hawaii and elsewhere have found that the crop of loans available to them has withered.
Statehood & Business: Hawaii Statehood 50 Years By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer
POSTED: August 23, 2009
In 1959, plantation agriculture was big business in Hawaii. The plantations were branching out into tourism, but sugar and pineapple – and coffee in Kona – dominated.
In August, with the days of the territory numbered, a typical issue of The Maui News advertised a total of half a dozen help wanted ads. The plantations didn’t advertise for help; they had their own labor recruitment system.
It dwarfed the nonplantation labor system. In August 1959, pineapple plantations hired 1,100 Maui youngsters on school vacations, most of them to work in noisy, hot canneries.
The jobs were much sought after. Damien Farias, owner of Maui Toyota, recalls waiting for three days on a labor bench for a chance to work at a cannery on Oahu when he was in school.
Statehood was expected to give a boost to agriculture. The summary of Hawaii agricultural history published by the state Department of Agriculture says that "with statehood, federal funds became available for the development and growth of Hawaii’s agricultural industries with funding for programs such as farm credit, natural resources and statistical services."
Harvesting going well on Maui Click for Larger ImageHONOLULU – The National Agricultural Statistics Service is forecasting that sugar cane production in Hawaii will slip slightly this year.
It expects the state to produce 1.46 million tons of sugar cane in 2009. That would be a 2 percent decline from the 1.49 million tons produced last year.
The service says Hawaii is expected to harvest 21,700 acres of sugar cane this year. That would be down from 22,800 acres harvested in 2008.
However, yield is forecast to reach 67.2 tons per acre, up 2.6 percent from 65.5 tons per acre last year.
Hawaii farmers find that loans are fewer, smaller and more difficult to obtain in this economic slump
