Australia-THE ability of microscopic plants to increase soil carbon and nitrogen levels

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
THE ability of microscopic plants to increase soil carbon and nitrogen levels may hold the secret for land managers in Australia's arid landscape to benefit from bio-sequestration, according to rangeland ecologist Wendy Williams of the University of Queensland. It is good news for producers who graze livestock on the arid or semi arid rangelands - regions with less than 500mm of rainfall - which form more than 70 percent of Australia's landscape. "Simple, microscopic plants grow on the soil surface of these areas, generally forming large masses or colonies which are visible on bare soil between plants or on rocks," Ms Williams said. "These single-celled micro-organisms were once called 'terrestrial blue green algae' and are now more correctly known as cyanobacteria, and well-managed grazing practices can encourage cyanobacterial soil crusts to thrive within their natural environment." Ms Williams explained that through the process of photosynthesis, cyanobacteria utilises carbon dioxide and converts it into biomass while replacing oxygen back into the atmosphere. They thrive in harsh...
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Bill Gates bets a billion on ag research

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Worth more than $40 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates could buy the world a Big Mac. But he’s more interested in helping fund a new green revolution, and he’s telling the world it should be “greener than the first.” Speaking at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, Gates outlined his vision in his first major address on agriculture, calling governments, researchers, environmentalists and others to “set aside old visions and join forces” to help millions of farmers. He also announced a $120 million package of agriculture-related grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to nine institutions around the world. “Environmentalists are standing in the way of feeding humanity through their opposition to biotechnology, farm chemicals and nitrogen fertilizer,” Gates said. Dennis T. Avery, director of the Center for Global Food Issues and a former agriculture analyst for the U.S. Department of State, said, “Gates could have said with equal truth that the same environmentalists, by demanding organic-only farming, are...
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Vertical city crops the farms of the future?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
HOW DO we feed a burgeoning human population without trashing our environment? Build vertical farms in city high-rise buildings, according to Dickson Despommier. Writing in the November edition of Scientific American, the Colombia University professor of public health and microbiology suggests that it will be less risky and more efficient to move some farming indoors, as close as possible to population centres. The technology is available to build “vertical farms” in city high-rise buildings that could use a mix of aeroponics, hydroponics and drip irrigation to grow four-season crops, Professor Despommier wrote. He calculates that a 30-storey high rise covering a city block would produce the equivalent of 970 ha of open farmland over the course of a year. In a tightly controlled environment, crops would not be subject to the pest, disease, moisture or temperature stresses that occur in the field. Because the “farms” would be in the heart of the population that consumes the produce, transport and fossil fuel use to deliver produce...
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Critics argue against biofuels

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
BIOFUELS produced from biomass feedstocks are, by definition, carbon neutral. Yet, in a newly published article in Science, frequent biofuel critics argue that this widely held scientific convention is erroneous. They argue that biofuels and other bio-based energies should be accountable for the biogenic tailpipe and smokestack CO2 emissions that are absorbed by growing feedstocks and carbon emissions that could result from land clearing. They say existing and proposed regulations create an accounting loophole that will lead to increased deforestation. But, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, the release of CO2 from recently living organisms has no overall effect on atmospheric CO2 levels and is therefore carbon neutral. In effect, biofuels recycle organic carbon. Conversely, accepted carbon accounting for fossil fuels such as petroleum does include tailpipe emissions from combustion. This is because the carbon in fossil fuels has been sequestered underground for millions of years rather than recently sequestered by growing organisms and cannot be naturally offset by feedstock uptake. The Renewable Fuels Association says that...
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Stern says go vegetarian to save planet

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
LORD Nicholas Stern, author of an influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change for the United Kingdom, has advocated vegetarianism as a way of tackling climate change. "Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases,” The Times of London reported Lord Stern as saying “It puts enormous pressure on the world's resources. A vegetarian diet is better." The author of the Stern Review, who is not a strict vegetarian himself, believes that the economics of tackling climate change will mean meat prices will rise substantially, forcing people to evolve toward a more vegetarian diet. The United Nations attributes 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions to meat production, including forest destruction for ranching and production of animal feeds. Predictably, UK vegetarians have welcomed Lord Stern’s comments, and UK farmers have in turn been angered. Lord Stern is a former chief economist of the World Bank and now the I G Patel Professor of Economics at the London...
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Australia – GM food guide out to name and shame

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
A FOOD guide revealing which companies are believed to be using undeclared genetically engineered (GM) ingredients will step into a breach left by the Government's failure to reform inadequate food labelling laws, the guide's publishers say. Greenpeace released its Truefood Guide yesterday, with Cadbury, Western Star, Kraft and Woolworths, along with the baby food producers Karicare and Nutricia, among the dozens of companies named because they either do not have a clear non-GM policy or have refused to reveal whether they use GM ingredients in their products. Nestle, Foster's and Schweppes are among the hundreds of companies listed which have instituted a ban on the use of GM ingredients. The guide comes as locally grown GM canola oil is about to enter the human food supply for the first time, making its way into a wide range of products from margarines and dairy products to breads and confectionery. Consumers will have no way of knowing whether they are eating food made from GM ingredients,...
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Australia – Dreyfus ramps up local grain buying

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
ONE of the world’s largest grain traders, Louis Dreyfus, has slowly started with a small team of regional representatives to acquire grain direct from the farmer, and this year will be active in a range of markets across Australia. Despite trading here since 1913, the company has been content to keep a low profile, mainly filling its needs through purchasing from the trade in the days of the single wheat export desk, rather than direct from the farmer. Today, Louis Dreyfus is an active buyer of wheat, barley, sorghum and canola, and has an accumulation network with offices in the Riverina, WA and Goondiwindi, Qld, with the head office in Melbourne. The focus will be on grain and oilseed accumulation, with the company looking at the export market. With this in mind, it has raised its profile in a bid to accumulate the grain for its customers. Speaking at a farmers' grain marketing meeting at Tungamah, Victoria, Louis Dreyfus' southern NSW/Victoria regional manager Bill Dudley,...
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Climate change is much ado over nothing

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
IF the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) goes ahead as planned, a carbon price of $30/t will produce a direct cost of $3000 every year for a family of four. That was the warning from Professor Bob Carter when he addressed a public forum at Bunbury on Monday. Prof Carter, who is an experienced geologist and environmental scientist from James Cook University in Queensland, said the reduction in global temperature would only amount to one thousandth of one degree Celsius by the year 2100, a "pretty poor return on the $270,000 these families will have paid by then". "In other words, the effect will not be measurable, a fitting verdict for a scheme that appears to be deliberately misnamed, just to confuse the public," Prof Carter said. "In the first place, the legislation should refer to carbon dioxide (CO2), not carbon, plus it is blatantly inaccurate to claim that carbon is a pollutant. "Doubling the CO2 in the atmosphere would increase wheat yields by 60...
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New rot resistant wheat could save farmers millions

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
CSIRO researchers have identified wheat and barley lines resistant to crown rot – a disease that costs Australian wheat and barley farmers $79 million in lost yield every year. Crown rot, which is a chronic problem throughout the Australian wheat belt, is caused by the fungus fusarium. Dr Chunji Liu and his CSIRO Plant Industry team in Brisbane are using sophisticated screening methods to scan more than 2400 wheat lines and 1000 barley lines from around the world to find the ones resistant the fungal disease. "The wheat and barley lines showing resistance to crown rot are now being used in pre-breeding programs to incorporate the resistance into adapted varieties for delivery to the wheat breeding companies," Dr Liu said. Crown rot infects many grasses and weeds found in wheat growing regions. However, minimum till cropping encourages fusarium which survives in cereal stubbles. Minimum till cropping minimises soil disturbance and retains plant stubble from previous crops in order to promote soil health and limit erosion. This means...
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Australia – Ready for a monster southern harvest

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
GRAINCORP is ready and waiting for what looms as a potentially monstrous southern zone harvest. Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI) production estimates have flagged a harvest as high as nine million tonnes. But the east coast bulk handler network has said it is ready and waiting. Manager of storage and logistics Bruce Griffin said that after its round of pre-harvest meetings, GrainCorp was confident it had sufficient storage in place. "We're spending dollars at key Victorian storages to expand our receival capacity," Mr Griffin said. Nor is the company perturbed about executing logistics for a range of exporters. Corporate affairs manager David Ginns said deregulation had nothing to do with the logistical nature of the business. "The tonnes were there no matter who was buying," Mr Ginns said. "Our tasks in receiving, storing and handling the grain will remain the same – the matter of dealing with an increased number of exporters is a different matter; at an operational level it won't make it any more difficult." Mr...
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