Can the green movement save wool?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
CAN the green tag reinvigorate wool demand? That’s the question circulating around the industry as vertically integrated wool marketing company, The Merino Company (TMC), becomes the first wool licensee of the highly respected EU Eco-label ‘Flower’ and offers it to its retail clients. The environmentally conscience label first hit European retail shelves in 1992 and at the beginning of 2009 more than 750 companies world-wide had been awarded the label as marketing managers attempted to benefit from the shiny green dollars by helping consumers find more environmentally friendly products and services. Growth spiraled 18 months ago when around 230 new companies were added to the green store catalogue. To become a licensee the credentials are tough, but in one promotional week in Denmark licensee holders reported a 600 per cent lift in sales. It is this consumer response that Stefan Bernerius, manager of TMC yarns, says is why the Eco-label is a significant marketing tool. "We recognise the importance placed on high quality natural fibres that...
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Drought-tolerant GM corn by 2012: Monsanto

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
MONSANTO’S director of scientific affairs Harvey Glick has shrugged off suggestions genetic modification advances have stalled and has predicted a boom period for biotech products as the 'second generation' of traits becomes available to growers. "I think we are just at the beginning of an exciting period, with crops being rolled out with new traits, especially in soybeans and corn," Dr Glick said. Canada-based Dr Glick said that it was not just more of the same herbicide resistance traits either. "We are working on more nitrogen efficient and drought tolerant lines, as well as oilseeds with higher oil levels." He dismissed claims that many of the new traits being developed were being done by conventional breeding regardless of genetic modification. "It's not fair to say its just being done with conventional traits." And work is still being done on perfecting existing traits. "Take a look at Roundup Ready soybeans," he said. "Roundup Ready is one of the most widely planted traits, but we are not just taking...
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Prototype corn cob harvester impresses farmers

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Pre-commercial, prototype equipment for harvesting cobs for cellulosic ethanol production continues to improve. Several hundred farmers braved cold, wind and rain this week at Emmetsburg, Iowa, USA, to see the latest in pre-commercial equipment designed for harvesting corn cobs for cellulosic ethanol production. The event was the POET Project Liberty field day. Project Liberty is POET's effort to commercialise cellulosic ethanol. The project will be a 25 million-gallon-per year cellulosic ethanol plant located within the current grain ethanol plant. POET's pilot-scale plant in Scotland, South Dakota, is already producing cellulosic ethanol at a rate of approximately 20,000 gallons per year. "We feel this can be a brand new revenue stream for farmers," said Jeff Broin, POET chief executive. "It's a tremendous opportunity for farmers and rural America. "We had 800 farmers here last year and the equipment continues to improve." Corn cobs are the feedstock of choice for POET. But collecting corn cobs can be a challenge while trying to get the harvest done on time. That's why a number of...
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Wool, a naturally carbon friendly fibre

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
LIVE with wool and reduce your carbon footprint'. That's the theme of a new marketing alliance for wool announced today, highlighting the benefits of wool as the ideal fibre to help reduce global warming. Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) launched the program with the Wool Carbon Alliance, a group of Australian and international wool industry representatives working together. It's based on international research which says a household can significantly reduce its carbon emissions by living with wool: insulating with wool, wearing wool, walking, sleeping and sitting on wool. According to the alliance, wool is a planet-friendly fibre made from the simple combination of sunlight, water and grass. It is made of up to 50 per cent carbon, stored in a stable form. It is renewable, has the ability to biodegrade without harm to the environment and can be recycled. Furthermore, it takes significantly less energy to produce wool products than that required by man-made fibre products, and this ensures CO2 emissions are kept very low. Therefore, the...
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Antibiotic resistant bacteria here to stay

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
ANTIBIOTIC resistance is never going to go away, and resistance will prevail no matter how many drugs, money or resources are thrown at it, according to a new report by the American Academy of Microbiology. Instead of trying to eliminate antibiotic resistance, the academy concludes in its report that public health officials, clinicians and scientists must find effective ways to "cope" with antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are harmful to people and animals and to "control" the development of new types of resistance. The view that antibiotic resistance is simply an undesirable consequence of antibiotic abuse or misuse is "inaccurate," the academy said. In reality, the report states, the rate of antibiotic resistance emergence is related to all uses of these drugs, not just misuse. Likewise, the total amount of antibiotics used and the environment also play roles. It was indicated that the main driving factor behind resistance may actually be a lack of adequate hygiene and sanitation, which enables rapid proliferation and spread of...
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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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