Aquaponics and Agroferstry News

below are some of the links I have been reading recently about aquaponics and agroforestry:

-John Robb: One Way to Make Aquaponics Easier

-SFGate: Aquaponics: Water plus fish poop grows plants (about the Aquafarm)

-IOL: Farming fish and plants side by side

-TimesFreePress: Aquaponics farms to be made in the Chattanooga region

-Resilience: Small Scale Aquaponics – From Fish Poop to Seafood Dinner

-Boulder County Business Report: Fresh fish: Bernsteins hooked on growing aquaponics business [about The Aquaponics Source]

-IBM's Smartplanet: Can aquaponics feed the German capital?

-Resilience.org: Small Scale Aquaponics – From Fish Poop to Seafood Dinner

-Resilience.org: Agroforestry: The Art of Farming With Trees

-WI Public Radio: Aquaponics Advocates Ramp Up Efforts To Raise Yellow Perch

-Gizmag: Aqualibrium uses fish to grow plants, and plants to grow fish

-MichTech: From Sustainability Demo to Fish Taco: Aquaponics at Michigan Tech

-USDA: Hooked on Aquaponics

-USDA: Agforesrty: USDA Reports to America [pdf]

-Thomson/Reuters Foundation: Agroforestry can transform rural economies - climate experts

-Treehugger: Aqualibrium Garden: modular aquaponics for growing food in apartments

-3P: How Aquaponics Makes Commercial Urban Agriculture Possible

-Inter-Faith Food Shuttle: Ef-FISH-ient Food: Mohan and Ben’s Aquaponics Adventure

-Sustainable Business Oregon: Aquaponics company launches hyper-local food in Bend -> about Volcano Veggies

-TheDay (CT): Stonington High graduate developing aquaponics farm -> about Fish Your Food, aquaponics in a shipping container

Bio News

Some recent news about putting biology to work in areas I get excited about. Biofuels (specifically biobutanol) and aquaponics (aquaculture + hydroponics).

(Biofuels)
DesMoinesRegister: Ethanol plants may shift to biobutanol

GCC: Study finds biomass-to-liquids fuels could be economically competitive at current price levels

SciAm: First Dedicated Biorefinery Could Wean Hawaii Off Imported Oil

Record-Eagle: Teacher to launch biodiesel fuel plant

(Aquaponics)
UpNorthLive: Grand Traverse Academy Starts Aquaponics

HuffPost: A Tour Of Chicago's Amazing Vertical Farm

The Plant is a fish hatchery, hydroponic garden, commercial kitchen, and brewery for both beer and kombucha tea. Perhaps best of all, the waste from one part of farm serves as raw material for another, making it a net-zero energy system...

 The Plant (official site)

Down With Cows

Dear Coasties - you're welcome.

I've been a long time fan of bison as a beef replacement. See:
Stupid Cows

Now foodies on the Cosasts are taking it up as the latest food trend according to the NYT:
Plains Giants Have Foothold on Tables

What happened, producers and retailers say, is that the buffalo, the great ruminant of the Plains — once endangered, now raised on ranches by the tens of thousands — has thundered into an era of growing buyer concern about where food comes from, what an animal dined on and how it all affects the planet.

Trendsetting consumers and restaurants on the East and West Coasts caught on. Grass-fed, sustainable and locally grown, obscure concepts to most people 15 years ago or so when the buffalo meat market first emerged, became buzzwords of the foodie culture.

Organic Farming Assistance

See TH: Obama Offers Farmers $50 Million to Go Organic

Local And Organic Is Not Sustainable

To feed the world's people you need industrial agriculture. It is a matter of scale.

Must reading for people who think the local food movement will solve all of our agricultural problems.

MJ: Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008

Consider what it would take to make our farm system entirely organic. The only reason industrial organic agriculture can get away with replenishing its soils with manure or by planting nitrogen-fixing cover crops is that the industry is so tiny—making up less than 3 percent of the US food supply (and just 5.3 percent even in gung-ho green cultures like Austria's). If we wanted to rid the world of synthetic fertilizer use—and assuming dietary habits remain constant—the extra land we'd need for cover crops or forage (to feed the animals to make the manure) would more than double, possibly triple, the current area of farmland, according to Vaclav Smil, an environmental scientist at the University of Manitoba. Such an expansion, Smil notes, "would require complete elimination of all tropical rainforests, conversion of a large part of tropical and subtropical grasslands to cropland, and the return of a substantial share of the labor force to field farming—making this clearly only a theoretical notion."

Petition To Have An Official White House Farmer

The impetus: Farmer in Chief

The story: Web site sows support for White House farmer

The web site: White House Farmer

Carbon Capture Farming

Idle Farmlands Could Become Profitable Carbon Storage Banks

"Our research shows that we're surprisingly close to the tipping point where tree plantations on large areas of idle farmlands would be profitable," said Froese. "If chip prices increase because of increased demand for wood fiber from a number of bioenergy projects being developed in Michigan, this alone could be sufficient."

Sneaky Ground Cover

Plant Edible Ground Cover

For fruiting ground cover, try planting a mix of lingonberries, strawberries, American cranberry, Creeping Oregon grape (tart but edible) and wintergreen. With the wintergreen you can use both the leaves and the berries that appear during the winter.

If you want to stick with herbs your best bets are sage, mint, oregano, chamomile and thyme. All of these grow low to the ground and are good spreaders.

Hops

American farmers are seeing more success with hops with production growing in New York and Michigan.

See:
NYT - Think the 1800s, Then Pour Yourself a Cold One

MyNorth - On Tap Tonight! Old Mission Hops Flavor New Right Brain Ale

...the newly formed Old Mission Hops Exchange planted the first crop of hops in Northern Michigan in at least 75 years.

Another Economic Option For Farmers And Land Owners

Via PhysOrg: Farmers get money for capturing carbon

Interested parties can join here:
Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program

However, the web site indicates there are no more offset enrollment "pools" available for 2008 and Spring, 2009 will be the earliest anyone can join.

If a farmer were to install some windmills, get paid for sequestering carbon, and continue farming; then the business of farming becomes much more diverse and appealing to more people.

Mule Power

Via breitbart -
High gas prices drive farmer to switch to mules

The accompanying video is must-see:
Farmer Saves $70 a Day by Trading Tractor For Mule Power (he actually gets higher quality hay from the mules because they don't crush the stalks)

Ideas Whose Time Has Come

Victory Gardens:
ABC - Suburbanites Turn Green Yards Into Cash With Minifarms
NYT - Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market
SFGate - Bring back the WWII-era victory garden

Electric Bikes:
Treehugger - Schwinn's Electric Bikes Now Available



Wind Power:
Traverse - Mr. Smiley's Windmill Wars
CSMonitor - 'Small wind' power plants are blowing strong

Lifestyle:
T.O.D. - The Four Day Work Week: Sixteen Reasons Why This Might Be an Idea Whose Time Has Come

Reason #1; the impact a 4 day work week could have on crude oil imports.
Reason #2 The 4 Day Work Week would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants.
Reason #3 The 4 Day Work Week would reduce workers exposure to pollutants.
Reason #4 The 4 Day Work Week would mean less traffic congestion.
Reason #5 The 4 Day Work Week would reduce money spent on new road construction and existing road maintenance.
Reason #6 The 4 Day Work Week would result in a reduction in personal expenses.
Reason #7 The 4 Day Work Week would mean fewer auto accidents each year.
Reason #8 The 4 Day Work Week would mean less time spent in VSC or Voluntary Solitary Confinement
Reason #9 The 4 Day Work Week would mean a reduction in absenteeism
Reason #10 The 4 Day Work Week would increase productivity
Reason #11 The 4 Day Work Week would give us more time for family
Reason #12 The 4 Day Work Week would decrease labor costs
Reason #13 The 4 Day Work Week would decrease operational costs
Reason #14 The 4 Day Work Week would mean a reduction in the cost of childcare
Reason #15 The 4 Day Work Week would provide time for a transition into the informal economy
Reason #16 The 4 Day Work Week feels great!

A Tuna Without Species Guilt?

Via SeriousEats - Kona Kampachi: The Wonder Fish

Unlike most fish farms, the Kona Kampachi are bred "offshore"—in deeper waters, farther away from land—limiting their exposure to pollution to decrease the potential of contracting disease or contamination. Since they're not genetically modified, any fish that escape also won't impact the native population.

Malthusian

Coal, butter, rye, petrol... A once-in-awhile shortage of one commodity is an understandable market condition. Runs on several commodities simultaneously looks like a trend. This is why many experts consider this time to be different. It may be a painful decade as people are weaned off petroleum. Malthus' chickens are coming home to roost (to borrow a phrase from the news). See:

Japan tackling butter shortage amid higher raw milk prices, demand in Asia
Officials were hoping the shortage would subside with a planned price hike of the product by 8 percent to 10 percent beginning early May.

A Run on Rice in Asian Communities
...California rice farmers have begun planting this year’s crop of half a million acres, the high prices may prove only enough to cover their increased costs of fuel and fertilizer, industry officials say.

Bakers feeling pinch of short supplies
Rye flour stocks have been depleted in the United States, and by June or July there will be no more U.S. rye flour to purchase

Food price rise could last another two years
Products with the steepest retail price jumps were a 5-pound bag of flour, up 69 cents to $2.39; cheddar cheese, up 61 cents to $4.71 a pound; corn oil, up 58 cents to $3.01 a 32-ounce bottle; and dozen large eggs, up 55 cents to $2.16.

China Short Of Coal: 12-Day Reserve And Counting

Drivers are told not to panic buy as strike at oil refinery starts to bite
As the Forties pipeline - which supplies one third of the United Kingdom's oil and gas - began shutting down for the first time in its history yesterday, queues formed on forecourts in Scotland and northern England. Some petrol stations rationed supplies, while others were forced to close after running dry.

Gas and crude oil prices at GasBuddy.com:


Perhaps this summer will be the summer of hoarding as irrational conditions continue?

Past shortages and Malthusian predictions have been innovated out of, but what was happening is that the Population vs. Production graph was reset to expire at some other time in the future. This time climate change makes it different. In the end, nature wins. The energy shortages are being caused by the peaking of easily recoverable oil and it appears that a lot of the food shortages are rooted in an unprecedented drought in Australia.

Eating For Conservation

IHT - To save a species, serve it for dinner

Fascinating article about Gary Paul Nabhan who has written a book about North America's most endangered food traditions.

No One Likes The 2008 Farm Bill

CS Monitor - Farm bill: making America fat and polluted, one subsidy at a time

Opinion On The Proposed 2008 Farm Bill

LA Times - We'll reap what we sow

What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300-billion farm bill is signed into law? Federally subsidized feed -- corn, soybeans and cottonseed -- for animal factory farms that spread disease, greenhouse gases and dangerous working conditions wherever they set up shop. (Farm bill "environmental quality" programs will even pay up to $450,000 for the construction of lined "lagoons" to be filled with lethal concentrations of manure.) The continuation of America's obesity campaign, which ensures the cheapest and most widely available foods are made up of such high-calorie ingredients as high-fructose corn syrup, refined flours, saturated fats and unhealthy meat and dairy products. And more federally backed exports of California's water -- in the form of cotton and rice, mostly sold overseas.

But here's the one that's really hard to stomach. More than $4 billion in permanent disaster assistance to growers in the Northern Plains. The brainchild of Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, this is essentially a trust fund to guarantee income to farmers plowing up prairies and grasslands -- lands prone to drought and erosion -- to plant corn and wheat. Many observers fear a second Dust Bowl.

Locavore Is Word Of The Year

Oxford’s Word of the Year, and Runners-Up

Heritage Turkeys

NY Times - Preservation’s Progress

Buy the turkeys at Heritage Foods USA.

Growing Potatoes And Broccoli In Greenland

CS Monitor - In Greenland, potatoes thrive as seal hunting wanes