Organic Agriculture News
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`Go Paper. Grow Trees.` connects healthy forests with paper use
An awareness campaign entitled Go Paper. Grow Trees.™ gives consumers the facts on how using paper products makes a direct contribution to the health and growth of trees and the forests. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a majority of the 750 million acres of U.S. forests are privately owned. These private owners -- mostly family tree farmers ...
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Converted Organics is Growing Up: Company Announces the Acquisition of Vertical Farming Pioneer, TerraSphere Systems
BOSTON, Mass., Nov., 2010-- Converted Organics Inc., (Nasdaq:COIN) announced today that the Company has closed on the acquisition of 95% of the membership interests in TerraSphere Systems, LLC, a rapidly growing pioneer in the vertical farming market. Converted Organics Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire TerraSphere Systems, LLC on July 6, 2010. This acquisition was approved by Converted ...
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Sub-Saharan Africa news in brief: 4–17 November 2010
Below is a round up of news from or about Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 4–17 November 2010 Establish green technology fund, experts say Nigerian experts have called for a green technology fund to help tackle many environmental problems the country faces. At the end of the 4th National Stakeholders' Forum for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in Nigeria, participants ...
By SciDev.Net
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EPA region 7 to participate at national association of farm broadcasting trade talk event, Nov. 11 in Kansas City, Mo. (IA, KS, MO, NE)
EPA officials will attend the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk event at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, Nov. 11. Attendees will be available for news interviews in Booth 70. Interview topics include updates on air and water quality programs, concentrated animal feeding operations, nutrient management, pesticides and renewable fuels. ...
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Botswana gets Thailand`s help with mystery fish disease
A lack of laboratory equipment and technical expertise has left Botswana unable to find the cause of a fatal disease that is ravaging its largest and most important fishery. Fishing is the main source of protein and revenue for many people in the Okavango Delta in the north of the country. This makes fishing an important socio-economic activity in the area, according to Keta Mosepele, a senior ...
By SciDev.Net
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Botswana gets Thailand`s help with mystery fish disease
A lack of laboratory equipment and technical expertise has left Botswana unable to find the cause of a fatal disease that is ravaging its largest and most important fishery. Fishing is the main source of protein and revenue for many people in the Okavango Delta in the north of the country. This makes fishing an important socio-economic activity in the area, according to Keta Mosepele, a senior ...
By SciDev.Net
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Growing crops in the city
A case study published in the 2010 Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education by professors at Washington State University studies the challenges one organization faced in maintaining an urban market garden. The journal is published by the American Society of Agronomy. Since 1995, Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW) has employed young homeless individuals or those involved in the ...
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Scientists warn of livestock greenhouse gas boom
Soaring international production of livestock could release enough carbon into the atmosphere by 2050 to single-handedly exceed 'safe' levels of climate change, says a study. Scientists combined figures for livestock production in 2000 with Food and Agriculture Organization projections for population growth and meat consumption by 2050. They found that the livestock sector's emissions alone ...
By SciDev.Net
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Kraft foods, U.N. world food programme and KaBOOM! join forces to celebrate play and fight world hunger
Kraft Foods today launched a worldwide initiative to celebrate play and fight world hunger. Through an app on Kraft Foods' corporate Facebook site (www.facebook.com/kraftfoods), the company is encouraging consumers to upload photos of people at play. And for each photo provided, Kraft Foods will donate five meals (up to 500,000) to the United Nations World Food Programme's Fill the Cup campaign, ...
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Bonterra Vineyards launches Campaign for Urban farming in partnership with growing power
As one of the world's leading producers of wine made from organically grown grapes, Bonterra is partnering with Growing Power, an organization focused on providing communities with healthy foods, to raise awareness and funds for urban farming. The partnership begins with an online fundraising campaign where Bonterra will donate $20,000 to local urban farming organizations in as many as 10 cities ...
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New book explores history, future of international agriculture
For more than 100 years, scientists have made the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) a force for international change to improve agriculture. A new book, The International Dimension of the American Society of Agronomy: Past and Future, provides both a historical overview and a glimpse of the future of the world of agronomy. The contributions of science to agriculture over the last century are ...
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USDA Awards Nearly $1.8 Million in Conservation Innovation Grants to PA Projects
HARRISBURG, Pa.- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced the winning proposals for the 2010 Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG). "Among the 61 projects selected, six of them will directly benefit Pennsylvanians," announced Noel Soto, CIG program Coordinator for USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). CIG invests in innovative, on-the-ground conservation technologies ...
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Lack of science means jatropha biofuel `could fail poor`
Mass planting of jatropha as a biofuel crop could benefit poor areas as well as combating global warming, but only if a number of scientific and production issues are properly addressed, a review has warned. Growing jatropha for biofuel on degraded land unsuitable for food and cash crops could help improve the earnings of small farmers and counter poverty, reports the Food and Agriculture ...
By SciDev.Net
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Increasing the shelf-life of cassava
Crop scientists have identified several genetic mechanisms to improving the shelf-life of cassava roots. Long an unsolvable problem, the research has the potential to benefit the poorest of the poor, widening and strengthening the markets for cassava, reducing marketing costs, and losses along the marketing or value addition process. The research team, led by Hernán Ceballos at the ...
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NewPage presents new on paper podcast featuring Maria Rodale
NewPage Corporation announced today a new On Paper podcast series episode featuring Maria Rodale, chairman and CEO of Rodale Inc., the world"s leading multimedia company with a focus on health, wellness and the environment. As the author of four books, including the recently released Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, Rodale has won ...
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UN agency explores potential benefits of organic agriculture in Eastern Europe
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said this week it is partnering with an organic farming organization to examine the potential economic, employment and environmental benefits of greater investment in sustainable agriculture in the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia region. The study by UNEP, in partnership with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements ...
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UN agricultural agency aiding Peruvian alpaca farmers
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is rushing veterinary care to the rural population in the Peruvian Andes, where the Government has declared a state of emergency after two weeks of heavy rains. Livestock farmers in the central and southern regions of Apurimac, Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Puno and Cusco are in a serious crisis, according to FAO, as the rains threatened their ...
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In organic cover crops, more seeds means fewer weeds
Farmers cultivating organic produce often use winter cover crops to add soil organic matter, improve nutrient cycling and suppress weeds. Now these producers can optimize cover crop use by refining seeding strategies, thanks to work by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist. In moderate climates, suppressing weeds in winter cover crops is important because weeds that grow throughout ...
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Can GM crops feed the hungry?
Golden Rice burst into the public imagination a decade ago, in the form of a cover article in Time magazine that claimed the genetically modified (GM) rice could 'save a million kids a year'. The rice gets its golden hue from an excess of beta carotene, a precursor to vitamin A that could help half a million children who go blind each year from an often-fatal vitamin A deficiency. But ten ...
By SciDev.Net
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Seafood ecolabels under the spotlight in new WWF report
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) comes out on top in a new report commissioned by WWF that reveals poor performance among other assessed seafood ecolabelling schemes and calls for improvements across the board to strengthen their effectiveness. Accenture’s non-profit practice, Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) compared and ranked seven fishery certification schemes that use ecolabels ...
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