Do You Burn Wood?

"Proposed regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would significantly reduce the amount of particle pollution allowed from the smokestacks of new residential wood-powered heaters.

Wood-burning stoves are a staple in rural homes in many states, a cheap heating source for low-income residents and others wanting to lessen their reliance on gas or electric furnaces. Outdoor models often cost several thousand dollars, but indoor stoves can cost as little as a few hundred dollars and sometimes double as fashionable centerpieces in homes.

Some manufacturers contend the EPA's proposed standards are so stringent that the higher production costs would either force them out of business or raise prices so high that many consumers could no longer afford their products.

"There's not a stove in the United States that can pass the test right now — this is the death knoll of any wood burning," Reg Kelly, the founder of Earth Outdoor Furnaces in Mountain Grove, told Missouri lawmakers during a recent hearing.

More than three dozen Missouri lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill that would symbolically fight back against the EPA by declaring that "All Missourians have a right to heat their homes and businesses using wood-burning furnaces, stoves, fireplaces and heaters."  I think that can be said for rest of us, too.

Too much government control?

Ed

Tree Loss

The harvesting of trees has been a topic of interest since at least 1800, when mechanization starting helping man clear land for crop production.  A new online tool has been released that let's us see where the most harvesting is occurring today.

"Global Forest Watch (GFW) is backed by Google and over 40 business and campaigning groups.

It uses information from hundreds of millions of satellite images as well as data from people on the ground.

Businesses have welcomed the new database as it could help them prove that their products are sustainable.

Despite greater awareness around of the world of the impacts of deforestation, the scale of forest loss since 2000 has been significant - Data from Google and the University of Maryland says the world lost 230 million hectares of trees between 2000 and 2012.

Forest campaigners say this is the equivalent of 50 football fields of trees being cut down, every minute of every day over the past 12 years. "

It was said a squirrel could once run from tree to tree from the Ohio River to Lake Erie.  That is probably not true today if it ever was, but Ohio is one state that has increased in tree numbers since so many were cut from 1850-1950 or so.  That is a topic in itself.

Technology can be used for the good of man or not, it's up to us to make that decision.

Ed

Hawaiian Farms

The land mass is so small but desirable to own in Hawaii because of its tropical climate.  Tourism is the number one source of income in Hawaii so any farming done has to be very high in value to pay the taxes and pay the expenses required to operate on that land.

One farm we visited was Kumu Farms on Maui.  This farm is a main tourist spot for visitors on the islands.  It is beautifully laid out but must produce crops of value the visitors can see, taste and experience.

I remember the roasting of coffee on that farm, one of their popular attractions.  Our group was surprised to learn that a dark roast coffee has been roasted longer and takes more of the caffeine out of it in the roasting process.

They had a tour guide driving a little green locomotive pulling lots of green tram cars for a tour around the farm.  Every crop on the island is demonstrated growing, but papaya is one of the main crops they've learned to grow and sell and process for distribution.  Most mainlanders don't eat papaya but it has come into our market places recently like kiwi and other exotic fruit.

They claim this fruit has more vitamin C than oranges, more potassium than bananas, three times the fiber of apples yet 55 calories per cup.  This has helped papaya grow in acres and become another food source for people and income source for tropical places that can raise papaya.

Our next visit was the Monsanto seed facility and we learned there that the Rainbow brand Papaya we saw at this farm is genetically modified to resist the ringspot virus that wiped out much of papaya production when it was "tamed."

If you visit Hawaii, I would suggest a visit to this farm, Kona Joe's Coffee and Akatsuka Orchid Gardens.  Ask or pay for the farm tour, they are excellent.

Ed

Seed Chipping

I learned more about the evolution of genetically modified seed on our trip to the islands.  "Seed chipping" has sped up the evolution of trait reproduction, which is important to corn, soybean and other genetically modified crops.

Seed chipping allows the breeder to pulverize seed chips from the desired traits of breeding plants for quick duplication.  It is a process of plant cloning to me, but I am not a plant breeder.  This process is patented by Monsanto and lawsuits have occurred since their invention as other companies, even the Chinese have tried to duplicate the process or stolen the traits from seed breeders.

Here is a layman's explanation of seed chipping by Popular Science magazine.

"Seed Chipping

Our seed chippers, designed by Monsanto engineers, allow us to determine the genetics of a seed without destroying the seed itself. The chipper sorts and rotates a seed so a tiny tissue sample can be shaved off to be analyzed. If that seed contains the genetic traits we desire, the seed is still viable, so a breeder can plant it in a field test and use it in the breeding process to create more seeds of its kind.

Using technologies and scientific knowledge of today and applying it to the age-old practice of breeding allows us to find the best-of-the-best germplasm, or genetics, and get high-performing seeds to farmers’ fields – faster. Compared to conventional breeding, our breeding program today is doubling the rate of improvement in key genetic characteristics such as yield and important agronomic traits, which can help agriculture become more sustainable."   

I hope you enjoyed this short explanation of a very high tech process being used to bring new traits to farmers.

Ed

Our Tour At Monsanto On Maui

A group of 30 farm couples led by John and Jan Roach of Roach Ag Marketing, toured the Monsato seed facility on Maui, Hawaii.  We were met at the gate by the site manager, David Stolfuz.  He was raised on a farm in southeast Iowa and has worked his way up in the company.

We had a 3 part rotation of viewing slides inside their training room facility to going outside to talk to their operations manager and back inside for a talk by a female scientist with a summary and question answer time.

They emphasized the fact that GMO is in high demand.  John had shared with us the fact that we added a billion people to our population in the last 13 years and we expect that happen again in 12 more years.  That is a big thing to comprehend.  It had shared that data with us in a 2 hour session a few days before our trip to Monsanto.  It makes sense to me.

David had a good slide on the change on the islands since I graduated High School.  There was 195,000 acres of sugar cane then and only 20,000 or so acres left today.  Sugar production has went elsewhere.  There were 65,000 acres of pineapple thanks to Thomas Dole but only 7500 acres today.  Seed corn has increased from zero to 7,100 acres my notes say but there seemed to be more than that.  That doesn't sound like much corn but those acres reproduce seed stocks as quick as 20,000 or more acres in Iowa.  The difference is the climate.

Since seed production is so labor intensive, the trait companies are important employers on the islands for the regular people.  Still the streets are full of homeless at night and we heard about the gift of one way flight's for such people from Chicago to Honolulu.  We also heard that Hawaii did the same favor back, all on the tax payer's dollar.

The high tech trait insertion and bar coding never got explained much but the one breeder did say they were using the same technique as they did early on with bacteria like you find in the soil for gene insertion.  That is where some think the flaw is in GMO, the interference of the gene by contamination.

It was a good tour and I learned a lot just watching the group interact and ask questions.  It's clear that anti GMO people are the trait companies main problem.  The fences and security helped point that out.

If you farm and visit the islands, I would recommend you try to visit one or more of the trait companies.  The Monsanto and Pioneer tour was in detail but much different.

Ed Winkle

Who Will Farm?

"OTTAWA - A report released by Statistics Canada says the number of farms in Canada is dropping, while their size is growing along with the age of the people running them.

The agency, which looked at the makeup of the industry based on data from the 2011 agricultural census, says there were 205,730 farms in 2011 — a decline of more than 74,000 since 1991.
Its report released Tuesday also says the average farm area increased from 80 hectares to 315 hectares.

Report author and agriculture analyst Martin Beaulieu said one reason for larger farms is that they are being consolidated as older operators retire.

"Unless there's (a) big reverse in terms of the younger farmers going into agriculture, these trends are more than likely to continue," Beaulieu said in a phone interview from Ottawa.

The report, entitled "Canadian Agriculture at a Glance," says the number of farm operators fell from 390,875 to 293,925 — a 24.8 per cent drop between 1991 and 2011.

Over the same period, the average age of farmers increased from 47.5 to 54 years. The data shows more than half of all farms in 2011 had operators over the age of 55 — up from less than 38 per cent in 1991.

There were also fewer farmers under the age of 40. Statistics Canada said less than one out of 10 farms were run by someone under 40, whereas two decades earlier it was about one in four."

Our group to Hawaii had two farm couples who had no children to take over their farm operation.

This data is similar most everywhere, especially in the United States.  It takes so much money to start farming.  Many sons and daughters of established farmers don't want to or can't make a go in farming.

Knowing the children in this picture, I doubt any of them will farm.

Who will farm?

Ed Winkle

Drought In Brazil

"Did you know that the drought in Brazil is so bad that some neighborhoods are only being allowed to get water once every three days?  At this point, 142 Brazilian cities are rationing water and there does not appear to be much hope that this crippling drought is going to end any time soon.  Unfortunately, most Americans seem to be absolutely clueless about all of this. 

In response to my recent article about how the unprecedented drought that is plaguing California right now could affect our food supply, one individual left a comment stating “if Califirnia can’t supply South America will. We got NAFTA.”  Apart from the fact that this person could not even spell “California” correctly, we also see a complete ignorance of what is going on in the rest of the planet.  The truth is that the largest country in South America (Brazil) is also experiencing an absolutely devastating drought at the moment.  They are going to have a very hard time just taking care of their own people for the foreseeable future.

And this horrendous drought in Brazil could potentially have a huge impact on the total global food supply.  As a recent RT article detailed, Brazil is the leading exporter in the world in a number of very important food categories."

I bring this up because the unknown in South America has pushed old crop soybeans past $13.40, which most considered as the key resistance point.  Many of us speculated that the bear news that the $13.40 would hold was wrong.  We are being rewarded by better soybean prices today.

That made 2013 a little sweeter for the Winkle family, we were able to get a little better price for our soybeans.  Soybeans has been our main cash crop since we moved here in 2004 and we have produced over a million dollars of them.

So far, this hasn't helped new crop soybean prices much but it has helped a little.  The big unknown is how many are needed and how much we can produce around the world this year.  South America has overtaken the U.S. has the world soybean producer but we are still the major number 2, almost equal to them.

Weather will continue to affect markets, maybe even more than in the past.  Grain has never been more important in feeding this record population around the globe.

A drought in Martinsville affects me and my neighbors but a drought in Brazil affects us all.

Ed

Food Shortage?

A farmer friend sent me an article that is hinting at a coming food shortage.  "Did you know that the U.S. state that produces the most vegetables is going through the worst drought it has ever experienced and that the size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been since 1951? 

Just the other day, a CBS News article boldly declared that "food prices soar as incomes stand still", but the truth is that this is only just the beginning.  If the drought that has been devastating farmers and ranchers out west continues, we are going to see prices for meat, fruits and vegetables soar into the stratosphere. 

Already, the federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.  Sadly, experts are telling us that things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). 

One expert recently told National Geographic that throughout history it has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

This drought has gotten so bad that it is starting to get national attention.  Barack Obama visited the Fresno region on Friday, and he declared that "this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where it's going to be a challenging situation for some time to come."

According to NBC News, businesses across the region are shutting down, large numbers of workers are leaving to search for other work, and things are already so bad that it "calls to mind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s"..."

There is a lot of hype there but some truth, too.  We talked about the drought in the west recently.  I can see where our fresh veggies are going to go up in price at the grocery.  That makes our gardening skills even more important this year!

The young guys have been asking where is the opportunity, and I see plenty of it if you want to think smart and work hard!  We took the picture a few days ago in Hawaii where some people are doing just that.

What do you think?

Ed Winkle

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Is the United States about to experience a severe food shortage, with prices of basic foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables skyrocketing? Based on recent agricultural and climate assessments, that is not only what we can expect – but what is already happening right now. Here are some excerpts of the frightful statistics and scenarios researched by Michael Snyder, in his article: 15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start Soaring:

“The state of California, which produces the most vegetables in the U.S, is going through its worst drought ever, with 91.6% of the state experiencing severe to exceptional drought. 2013 was its worst year ever and there has been no improvement so far in 2014. According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast.”

Snyder highlights some notable consequences:

- The size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has ever been since 1951.

- The federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.

- Things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). It has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades.  In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years.  So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/192.html#zKZRFsVYjcyk2oz4.99

Farmed And Dangerous?

"In the boardrooms of Madison Avenue, they call it “values branding”: a marketing strategy in which a company tries to instill a feeling of righteousness in the customers who buy its products.
But what kind of values would inspire a corporation to wage a smear campaign against America’s farmers?

That’s the question I asked after learning about the latest ploy of Chipotle Mexican Grill: a series of four 30-minute videos, scheduled to debut next week on Hulu, the online television service. Called “Farmed and Dangerous,” it is, in the words of the New York Times, “a full-throated attack on ‘industrial agriculture,’ complete with a Dr. Strangelove-like scientist inventing eight-winged chickens.”  Apparently the show also features exploding cows.

Maybe it’s funny, if you enjoy that sort of thing. Like a Super Bowl commercial with a laugh-out-loud gag, however, the point is not simply to earn a chuckle. Chipotle wants to boost its sales. “Farmed and Dangerous” is an expensive scheme to suggest that the act of buying burritos and tacos at Chipotle is morally superior to the act of buying them elsewhere."

I don't consider myself very dangerous but I am fully farmed!  This latest debate from Chipotle is stirring an uneasy feeling in my fellow farmers.

Personally, I don't see Chipotle's efforts acting morally superior to other brands.  However, their marketing scheme is making people think and that makes many people uneasy.

The average farmer bought into GMO's, hook, line and sinker.  However, some of us did not.  That causes uneasiness right there.

Round Up Ready was an easy way to kill weeds.  Bacillus Thurengensis or Bt traits enabled thousands of farmers to control European Corn Borer without insecticide.  Those events have failed in a very short time, yet they are still the easiest products to purchase or use, even if they don't work as well as they first did.

We might be at a turning point again as to what is the most cost effective way to raise a crop.  Many farmers are turning back to non GMO seed and chemicals they used before the traits came out.

Chipotle might be reminding us where we were 20 years ago and we might be back there again.

That causes an uneasy feeling in many people.

Ed Winkle

I Miss That Old Farm Of Yesterday

I've played this song several times this morning.  It's from the Gibson Brothers of Upstate New York.  The words in this song sounds a lot like our family growing up in Sardinia and I bet it reflects the bringing up of many of us of that age.

Sunday morning we met Leon Sullenberger and wife Sharon from Upstate New York at the Hawaii Yacht Club on Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii.  Yes, he is a distant descendant of the same family that produced Sully Sollenberger who famously saved a lot of lives by safely landing a defunct jet on the Hudson River years ago.

It is always good to meet someone in person you've known by words for so long.  I started reading Halewai's post's on NewAgTalk a long time ago, probably soon after he started posting there.  I have been blessed to meet so many "Ag Talker's" since it's inception in 2000.  My blogs talk about the farms we have camped on over the years since that time.

The farmer or his wife would show us the water tap and electrical outlet and we would hook up and camp right on their farm!  We have seen the fifty states and Canadian provinces and camped in many of them just that way.

In our meeting Sunday morning, we learned that it just so happens that Leon's wife Sharon is from a town in Upstate New York where many of LuAnn's family came from, mostly her dad's side.  They asked if she knew the Gibson Brother's Band from there and she did not.  Leon sent me that link above this morning and it reminded me of my raising on a farm in Brown County Ohio with my sister Linda who was also on this trip to Hawaii.

Linda has three grandsons and they are being brought up just like we were on that old farm on Brown County.  We learned to break calves to a halter and parade them around, just like I just saw Bryceton Vollborn do on Facebook a few minutes ago.

Today I remember when I was a little older than Bryceton and learning to break a calf on "that old farm of yesterday."

Ed Winkle

GMO In Hawaii

Last week, our group of 30 farm couples from the Midwest toured the Monsanto seed facility on Maui.  Land is so valuable in Hawaii that any operation there has to generate a lot more income than the mainland to survive.  If it doesn't, that land goes into the hands of the very few who can afford to own it, the government or the very rich.  We are talking prices of $20,000 per acre on up from the few people I talked to.

Their number one source of income is tourism, followed by the military.  There are several different military bases on the islands and every tour goes into detail what happened there before December 7, 1941 and what has happened since.  That is a study in itself and Pearl Harbor has thousands of visitors per day.

Every farm couple on the tour came back with a new appreciation for the GMO topic.  Every seed operation I talked to said that dealing with people was their number one problem.  Agronomy wise they only have to deal with thrips and a couple of plant diseases.  Those are small compared to dealing with the non GMO voice on the islands.

That voice seems to come from people with too much time and money on their hands and not enough information.  The only thing they "know" is that "GMO is an unknown," so it must be bad.  GMO is legal and the all of the trait companies have a presence on the islands.  That seems to be because they can turn 2-4 seed germplasm crops over in one calendar years there, about as good as anywhere in the world.

Somewhere in my luggage I have pages of notes I took last week after touring these seed operations and talking to people who work there or don't work there.  I will try to write more detail about the seed operations as we were able to meet several employees and get their take on the whole situation.

The seed companies generate a lot of revenue for the islands by making a profit on the products they sell to us on the mainland.  Hawaii seems to be a key source of testing and producing germplasm that will be sold here in the states.  The U.S. and world view and understanding of GMO in general seems to be a major problem.

Ed Winkle

President's Day, 2014

We just returned home from our trip to Hawaii to study agriculture once more.  The roads from Columbus, Ohio to Martinsville were good until we got halfway home, then we saw first hand what our family and friends have been putting up with since we left two weeks ago.

This trip we got to meet with Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer, Dow and Syngenta people.  We saw the most prosperous to the most struggling operations just like we have on the mainland.

Thanks to Chimel for subbing in once more to keep my daily blog going.

More later,

Ed Winkle

Insect farming and entomophagy

Well it’s not just insects, I should call it bug or critter farming, as it’s also worms, maybe spiders like tarantulas although they are not farmed for food or feed yet, and several other geni in the plate, if not in the bottle, like the tequila worm.

Entomophagy, not anthropophagy, dummy! (The Fly)

The first usage of bug farming that interested me was not as food, even though I was aware of it, but as feed, as a source of protein for poultry. Some grubs like black soldier have up to 40% protein, some caterpillars have about 55% protein and 17% fat, some hymenoptera up to 77% protein, it seems like a great idea to raise your own feed, and lots of it, in a very small volume.

Bugs as feed

Livestock such as poultry, pigs, cattle can use insects in their diet either raw or dried and ground as a protein replacement or supplement, especially in times of increasingly costly feed, but mostly poultry seems to be the prime candidate for bugs as feed. Fish farming is also developing fast, and could come second. Aquaculture integrates hydroponics and fish farming, but the fish still requires external feed, maybe insects could be integrated in that cycle too, and use vegetal waste as feed instead of commercial feed for fish. Then insects would be feed, not just bait. Just an idea.

A classical critter used for feed and compost is the earthworm, which is not an insect. Next is probably the mealworm, easy to raise and also a human food. Hens and pheasants go crazy for ant eggs but that’s probably harder to raise. Maggots make a great feed too, and will eat any animal waste such as fat or even leather, which is a great (smelly) way to dispose of these wastes at low cost, but they could introduce some sanitary problems. It might be OK for poultry feed though, or the mealworms could be pasteurized. Insects are a great way to valorize large quantities of toxic waste such as lagoons of pig manure. I was also wondering about other possible sources of self-serving proteins for chickens, like maybe tadpoles, which seem to always hatch in large quantities. Hens go mad also for mice, but I wouldn’t want to raise any, too many of them already without farming them. Maybe some small lizards or geckos? Chickens like them too!

The black soldier fly seems to be a better candidate for farming insects as feed (or even as food in this case): The female lays about 600 eggs, most of which will turn into large fat larvae, eating any vegetal waste or crop residue to get there. Here’s a video of farming it for feed. The insect seems to be a favorite on Youtube.

To farm bugs for feed, the system should require a minimum of intervention. For poultry, it should ideally have an automatic dispenser where chickens can grab a grub by themselves. For further processing, like drying the bugs into a protein meal, a way to clean the insect from frass (excrements) and vegetal residue should be designed. .In both cases, a knowledge of insect behavior is required to make the harvesting easier. For instance, knowing if the insect will naturally climb up a branch or burrow in the ground to pupate, and take advantage of the fact to install traps.

In addition to livestock and fish, insects can also be used as food for pets, including cats and dogs. Pet food is mostly corn, grain, fat and flavorings. See this video about pet food: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heid2rsVpE8

Bugs as food

But of course, bugs are great for food too, although I never went past shrimps and snails, if that counts. And if you don’t want to have a full scale insect farm crawling around everywhere, there are futuristically designed grub pods for the kitchen. Just open the neat larvae collection drawer when you feel like having some for breakfast. Tiny-farms.com is preparing a similar open source bug farm, which you can build from free plans, or purchase as a DIY kit or already assembled.

There are over 1,900 species of edible insects eaten by 2 billion people according to the U.N. so there is no doubt you can find one to your taste bug, sorry, bud. As for meat conversion efficiency, insects such as crickets require 1 unit of low cost vegetal feed to produce 1 unit of edible meat. Poultry about 2 units of feed, pork 4, beef 9. Insects also produce about 10 times less greenhouse gas and ammonia than beef, and require much less water, compared to the 22 tonnes of water required for 1 kg of beef meat. Bugs are cold blooded and therefore do not expense energy to just keep warm, they can transform their feed into protein more efficiently. Imagine if Man had domesticated the cricket thousands of years ago, it would now be the size of a small chicken and have fatty legs that we wouldn’t need to remove before eating it...

For more information, here’s the latest 201 page FAO ebook on edible insects, another 69 page FAO ebook on edible insects in Thailand, and the (small) wikipedia page on insect farming. Check this great infographic on beetlemania too. Great blog and book on entomophagy on GirlMeetsBug.com.

I remember from Middle East books the locust of the Bible and the roasted cricket preserved in honey (another insect product) from the One Thousand and One Nights (I think.)

If you are in Montréal, Québec at the end of August, you can try many insects for yourself at the Eating Innovation Conference.

Farming insects also makes more sense than harvesting them from the wild, because you never know what plants and toxins they may have consumed or what substances they may have been exposed to. I always thought that my grandfather gave flour to the snails we harvested just to fatten them, but it was actually to give them time to be purged of all potential toxins too. Even so, bugs can harbor dangerous bacteria, so pasteurization via a quick boiling is probably safer. I am told that live tapeworm is not so good for your health… Pasteurization alone cannot remove toxins such as arsenic, that the Australian bogong moth transports for instance between fields treated with arsenic-based pesticides up to a thousand kilometers away, where it migrates. Arsenic can now be found in the soil where it congregates by the hundreds of thousands. A controlled environment is another argument for farming insects.

One way to overcome the Western “disgust” for insects as food is to make the insect not recognizable. There is for instance wheat flour mixed with ground dried mealworms. You just bake with it and have a protein-rich pastry. Meatballs and burgers of freshly ground insects already exist. The real fun will start when insects are part of the school menus though!

The future challenge is of course not so much convincing more people to eat insects as the population grows as convincing the people who already eat insects that beef is bad for them, so Westerners can keep eating meat. And insect farmers are also unlikely to see PETA and HSUS protest and ask for cage-free bugs.  ;)

Honey, pollen and propolis also come from the honeybee, and let’s not forget the Natural Red 4 or E120 red food coloring known as carmine, which is actually crushed and processed cochineal bugs. Nothing beats a drip of honey on a toast of escargot caviar...

Bugs as foe

Another usage of bugs is biological control of pests, for instance the ladybug predator of aphids, or other predators to fight the greenhouse whitefly for vegetable growers, and many other predators that either eat or parasite the target pest. Another way is to raise sterile insects, for instance the male of a pest to prevent its population from spreading. The same technique is used to fight malaria, by releasing sterile male mosquitoes. A good population of dragonflies would help controlling mosquito population too: Its larva is the ultimate predator of mosquitoes, it even hunts small fish, pikes are small fry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-k-iG9d1go

Bugs as friend

And of course, some bugs are essential to human activities. Some farming areas have become biological deserts and need to import hives of pollinators. For instance the almond farms of California, where there is not a single plant in sight for hundreds of acres but almond trees. They would have no crop at all if anything happened to the honeybees or to the bee farmer they contracted for the job. The first Turkish fig trees grown in California never bore any fruit until they established a population of the miniature fly that pollinates this variety of figs.

Bugs as foul

Insect frass (excrement) also sells for good money as a fertilizer at about $5 a pound.

Bugs as fabric

Lastly, there is silk from the huge silkworm (maybe a good way to get rid of the mulberry weed in the U.S.) By the way, carmine was also used in the textile industry before the cheaper artificial dyes. Imagine that, carmine silk batik requires 3 different insects, the cochineal bug, the silkworm and the honeybee.

Bugs as (fill in)

There are probably other uses of insects I forgot (any suggestion?), and many that we haven’t discovered yet. I don’t suppose we manufacture formic acid from “formicas” (ants) anymore, but there are probably countless useful substances that could be extracted from insects, for medicinal, industrial or other purposes.

So, when do you start your bug farm?

Chimel.

Wheat and bread

Just a few interesting news and facts about wheat and bread:

• Monsanto acquired Agradis Inc. last year and partnered with the Danish Novozymes to offer enzyme and microbial solutions (Bacillus subtilis and B. stearothermophilus) for wheat, specifically meant to degrade starch after baking and to make for a more tender bread. It is probably a spray or seed treatment, not a GM wheat, but I could not figure it out. The Canadian bakery Weston already offers this type of tender bread, which allows wheat or multigrain bread to have both the nutrients of whole grain and the same texture as white Wonder bread.
  http://news.monsanto.com/press-release/corporate/monsanto-and-novozymes-team-provide-sustainable-bioagricultural-solutions

pagnotte di Altamura

• 2 years ago, some French bakeries started using 100% durum (hard) wheat to bake baguette. Hard wheat is, well, hard, and requires twice as much power to mill (under 200 microns) as the soft wheat traditionally used for bread. Durum wheat is used mostly for pasta and semolina or couscous. A 14% gluten variety is currently being used. The result is a baguette that keeps longer. Which in my opinion was totally unnecessary, the whole point of purchasing a baguette is to eat it all on the way between the bakery and home…
  The dough requires more water, as much water as flour, compared to the usual 60-65% of water for soft wheat flour. Some traditional Italian bread still uses twice milled durum wheat flour (pane di Altamura, Puglia.)

• Every day, one billion persons eat yeast from the French Lesaffre (Red Star), which is used to bake one bread out of three worldwide, in 280 countries.

Boring historical statistics about the cost of bread in Paris, France:

In 1800, bread cost 0.45 cents of a French franc / kg and the average worker salary is 2 francs per day, which can purchase 16 baguettes.

In 1850, bread cost 0.40 cents / kg and the average worker salary is 3 francs per day, which can purchase 28 baguettes.

In 1900 (10 hour workday,) bread cost 0.50 cents / kg and the average worker salary is 5 francs per day, which can purchase 40 baguettes. 1919 introduced the 8 hour workday 6 days a week, 1936 introduced the 40 hour week.

In 1950 (inflation,) bread cost 35 francs / kg and the minimal salary is 90 francs per day, which can purchase 10 baguettes.

In 1970, the minimal salary is 493 francs a month, or 1,040 baguettes at 0.57 francs each. One baguette cost 10.45 minutes of work.

In 1980, the minimal salary is 2392 francs a month, or 1,432 baguettes at 1.67 francs each. One baguette cost 7.26 minutes of work.

In 1990, the minimal salary is 5.286 francs a month, or 1,683 baguettes at 3.14 francs each. One baguette cost 6.28 minutes of work.

In 1997, the minimal salary is 6.664 francs a month, or 1,678 baguettes at 3.97 francs each.

In 1998, one baguette cost 6.04 minutes of work.

In 2000 (35 hour week,) bread cost 2.80 euros / kg and the minimal salary is 45 euros per day, which can purchase 64 baguettes.

In 2008, the minimal salary is 1309 euros a month, or 1,636 baguettes at 0.80 euros each.

In 2010, bread cost 4 euros / kg and the minimal salary is 65 euros per day, which can purchase 65 baguettes. One baguette cost 5.85 minutes of work.

In 2011, the minimal salary is 1365,03 euros a month, or 1,436 baguettes at 0.90 euros each.

Out of these €0.90, 19% is for the ingredients, 53% for salaries and charges, 11% misc costs (taxes, packaging, transportation, ROI), 11% for energy and rent, 6% profit.

The price of bread used to be regulated until 1978, it has been a free market since then.

If regulated, the baguette (about half a pound in bakeries, 250 grams in stores) would cost €1,25 in 2011 instead of €0.90. (€1 = FF6.56)