Agricultural Production and Climate Chage

ANDREW MARSHALL

04 Dec, 2014 03:00 AM

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The world has not yet fully understood the food dimensions of climate change

Science author and former rural journalist Julian Cribb.

TODAY'S broadacre farmers may not like the idea, but the human diet is on course to shift from a focus on meat and grain products to seafood and vegetables in the next 50 years.

Farming is also likely to increase in high-rise buildings (or 'agritecture') within the world's emerging mega cities, and even on giant floating horticulture and aquaculture greenhouse platforms dotted around our coastline.

We won't have much choice, according to science author and former rural journalist Julian Cribb.

The planet is running out of fresh water, farmland, fertiliser and fossil fuels, and mankind will need to get much better at recycling agricultural inputs and growing food more efficiently.

"By the latter part of this century there may be 11 billion mouths to feed, but rainfall in the world's great grain bowls is becoming less reliable and lakes rivers and aquifers are drying up," he said.

Global warming by just two degrees in average temperatures would cut grain yields as much as 45 per cent in India alone. Five degrees could halve current global food production capacity.

"The world has not yet fully understood the food dimensions of climate change," Mr Cribb said.

"It will drive geopolitics, migration and warfare and gradually shift our diet away from one that is predominantly meat and grains to predominantly seafood and vegetables."

At last month's Rabobank sponsored F20 Summit on food security solutions in Sydney, Mr Cribb told attendees that mega cities and energy industries were also devouring more and more of the farmer's water resources, yet farms were expected to double their output from half as much water.

On average, humans used 1240 tonnes of water a year.

About 75pc of this use was in the form of food, much of which was discarded by western consumers or wasted in the paddock, or became part of an "industrialised diet" responsible for diet-related diseases claiming about two thirds of all ailment-related deaths.

To feed emerging mega city populations like the 120 million filling China's sprawling Guangzhou-Shenzen apartment towers by 2050 - and to make life more livable for the 7 billion people forecast to be occupying the world's cities - urban agriculture and horticulture was taking on a new importance.

Global impact on cities

Plans on drawing boards already ranged from high-tech glass skyscrapers producing horticulture crops, fish and even poultry, through to a renaissance in balcony and community gardens.

Vertical greenhouse 'farms' and city office or hospital roof-top gardens (pictured, below) would bring new green life, food, birds and biodiversity and help moderate temperature extremes in the "soulless concrete and glass 'urbanscapes' of today".

Metropolitan waste and water would be recycled to grow these city crops, utilising valuable nutrients currently being flushed away, while easing the demand on limited fertiliser and water resources.

"With the right investment, urban horticulture and farms can supply half the world's food by 2050, bringing immense relief to the stress now imposed on our farming soils, water, biodiversity and rural communities," said Canberra-based Mr Cribb.

Aquaponic farms producing crops and fish fed on recycled nutrients, algae and vegetable matter were already "sprouting" in Norway, Iceland, North America and even New Zealand and Australia.

A 4000-hectare vertical farm was proposed right in the heart of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, one already operated in Singapore, and an "aeroponic" farm planned to grow hundred of tonnes of leafy greens in New Jersey, US.

At Cobbitty south-west of Sydney, Blue Farms was producing fresh fish and herb crops in controlled glasshouse environments, using fish waste to feed plants grown in aquaponic conditions on giant conveyor belts.

In Norway, seven hectares of greenhouses produced 2200 tonnes of organic tomatoes and capsicums every seven months.

To meet the fresh food needs of seaboard mega cities like Shanghai, Tokyo and Mumbai, Mr Cribb said giant floating greenhouses were also being designed.

By 2050 aquaculture production would grow three-fold from the current 67m tonnes of fish and water plants (including algae) produced annually to help feed the 550m tonnes of animal and fish protein likely to be demanded.

Jellyfish, seaweed, sea cucumbers and a host of edible Australian native plants (6100 are known to exist) could become part of our diet, just as tomatoes and potatoes from the Americas had created profound culinary changes in the past 400 years.

"The food we eat a century from now and how we produce and consume it will be as strange to us today as the foods our ancestors grew centuries ago."

The algae revolution

Feeding the world with more meat, grain, seafood and horticultural crops won't be possible without a revolutionary change in the energy resources used to power extra agricultural production.

That revolutionary ingredient is likely to be algae, according to Julian Cribb.

"In future huge algae farms on land, at sea and in salt lakes will produce food for people, feed for fish and other livestock, fuel for transport, pharmaceuticals, plastics, textiles and chemicals," he forecast.

Nourished by the flood of organic waste from the world's increasing urban populations, algae production plants, such as South Australia's Muradel site at Whyalla, offered a green renewable solution to the problem of global oil scarcity.

Last month Muradel launched a $11 million demonstration plant in its first step towards a commercial site with potential to produce 80m litres of 'green' crude oil a year.

Theoretically, algal-type water plants were capable of supplying the world's entire fuel needs from an area covering just 57 million hectares, said Mr Cribb, whose science and technology writing career has spanned National Farmer magazine, metropolitan newspapers and six years as a media director with the CSIRO.

He said 30 countries were already investing in what could becomes the world's biggest crop.

Algae was resilient to climate change and could be farmed in tanks, on wasteland ponds, or in floating rafts at sea where it did not compete for space with other crops.

The world's 72,000 species of water plants included many which also contained nutrients for a healthy human or livestock diet, including omega three oils and beta-carotene.

"Algae can be made into delicious, healthy and sustainable foods as readily as any land-based crop and would also insure our food system never ran short of energy," Mr Cribb said.

He also wants Australia to move fast to accelerate research algal biofuels, coupled with a national investment plan to take advantage of the opportunity.

The world's food supply was not just currently dangerously dependent on fossil fuels to grow crops and livestock, but also to transport, chill and cook the food our farmers produce.

"Each year we're eating the diesel from 66 barrels of oil, but the number of new cars is also growing at seven times the rate of new oil reserves being discovered," he said.

"There will be huge impacts on the price and supply of food as fresh energy shocks occur."

On the other hand, algae culture had the potential to make sunlight-rich Australia self sufficient in energy production, generating an extra $50m annually in new revenue and jobs - particularly in the bush.

reproduced from: 

http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/future-farming-is-growing-on-us/2718663.aspx?storypage=0

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This is a critical issue and we all should be aware of how this is developing.

But getting support for new concepts is a frustrating business, with governments and support organisations not supporting funding of the development of these new concepts, especially here in Australia.  And we have first hand knowledge of that lack of support.

The comments on the original story are amazing - read them yourself.  Some very strong vehement almost anti-progress stuff with a personal attack bias.  Quite amazing!!

Crops - Critical Role in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Each year, the planet balances its budget. 

The carbon dioxide absorbed by plants in the spring and summer as they convert solar energy into food is released back to the atmosphere in autumn and winter, in the northern hemisphere. Levels of the greenhouse gas fall, only to rise again, as summer crops in the south take up more CO2.

But the budget has gotten bigger. Over the last five decades, the magnitude of this rise and fall has grown nearly 50 percent in the Northern Hemisphere, as the amount of the greenhouse gas taken in and released has increased. Now, new research shows that humans and their crops have a lot to do with it, highlighting the profound impact people have on the Earth’s atmosphere.

In a study published Wednesday, Nov. 19, in Nature, scientists at Boston University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and McGill University show that a steep rise in the productivity of crops grown for food accounts for as much as 25 percent of the increase in this carbon dioxide (CO2) seasonality.

It’s not that crops are adding more CO2 to the atmosphere; rather, if crops are like a sponge for CO2, the sponge has simply gotten bigger and can hold and release more of the gas.

With global food productivity expected to double over the next 50 years, the researchers say the findings should be used to improve climate models and better understand the atmospheric CO2 buffering capacity of ecosystems, particularly as climate change may continue to perturb the greenhouse gas budget.

We need to remember that plants are a critical feature in the CO2 balance.  Grow more of them!!

There is more here - [ where this info came from] - http://www.news.wisc.edu/23298

Sunflowers - an iconic crop

Use e-Invoicing for Improved Efficiency

E-Invoicing is more than the sending and/or receipt of tax compliant invoices in an electronic format. It can deliver plenty of benefits for you and your customers.

One significant pain point that I often come across in manufacturing organisations is the use of paper based invoicing. Paper invoices are a barrier to efficient Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable (AR).

As an example, how often do invoices arrive as part of the delivery paperwork into a busy store or goods receiving department and are then expected to magically make its way through various departments depending on a business workflow and arrive on an AP team members' desk for processing.

Frequently this does not happen and so valuable time is wasted by both AP and AR chasing payments, replacing invoices, managing late payment cash flow issues and generally having a negative impact on an otherwise healthy and productive supplier/customer relationship.

It's not just manufacturing. Of the current estimated 500 billion Invoices being transmitted currently worldwide there is estimation that only 8% of them are electronic or e-invoices. However, this ration is changing rapidly and the number is estimated to grow at a level of about 20% per annum over the next few years. This can vary country to country dependant on the development status.

The growth we have seen to date in the utilisation of E-invoicing and Automated AP has really been driven by Government and big business where the traditional cost of the running AP automation and demanding e-invoicing has kept it out of the reach of all but the largest organisations.

This is beginning to change and the functionality and benefits are coming into the reach of the small and medium market in all business types with a range and type of providers growing!

One of the key drivers of demand for this growth is the considerable cost benefit. The cost of issuing and receiving E-Invoices and utilising automated Accounts Payable processes can be 60-80% less than those of manual and paper based processes.

E-Invoicing

E-Invoicing, at its most simple, is the sending and/or receipt of tax compliant invoices in an electronic format. In a more complex requirement it is the sending and/or receiving of invoices in a format manageable by another process. i.e. a company has an automated Account Payable process and requires their vendor invoicing to be issued in a very specific format for automatically reading the data within. This is not new to some industries.

Taking a look at the schematic it is at once obvious to appreciate the operational and cost benefit to be gained by both the supplier and their customers. Consider the conventional paper based invoice issuing process compared to e-invoicing.

The actual non-value-add touch points of each invoice become practically zero and the speed of interaction becomes almost immediate.

Accounts payable efficiency

Aside from improving relationships with your vendors and freeing up the team for value add activities, for buyers there are a great many advantages to be gained through e-invoicing. Costs are reduced and efficiency improved by eliminating sorting, registering and manual data entry cutting down on process time and errors. Payment cycles are better controlled allowing for on-time payment, avoidance of late payment fees and ensuring the opportunity to capture contractually negotiated discounts.

Accounts receivable efficiency

In manufacturing cash flow is king and while not all customers can be made to pay on time, as a supplier you need to make it easy for them and remove all roadblocks.

E-Invoicing eliminates the delays that result from mailing, routing, sorting and re-keying paper documents. Your invoice arrives at the right place immediately ready for processing. On top of the time saving and direct communication, invoice delivery costs are reduced through savings in print, postage, materials processing and storage.

There is a reduction in lost invoices which remove duplicate invoice requirements and difficult customer management calls. With accuracy increased for your customer there will be a reduction in errors and rejected invoices.

Over hundreds and thousands of invoices each year there is substantial time to be regained for value add activity. Every business has different requirements on size, scope and complexity but on a fun­damental level and as a starting point I believe every business should look to issue and ask to receive their invoices in electronic format even it is just a system generated and emailed pdf.

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This was originally written by Scott Harkin of ProcNet, but has a lot of sensible considerations and should be applicable to many businesses. Even our small business now sends all invoices as pdf format invoices and the NT government insists on e-invoices from all contractors, coupled with total electronic payments direct to accounts, once invoices are processed.

Why not your business too?

 

Deep Carbon Cuts - Pathway to US Lower Greenhouse Emissions

Recently the Yale Environment 360 blog recently reported that the United States can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, using existing or near-commercial technologies, according to researchers with the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project.

The study analyzed scenarios with four types of decarbonised electricity: renewable energy, nuclear energy, fossil fuel with carbon capture and storage, and a mixed case. The scenarios achieved reductions of 83 percent below 2005 levels and 80 percent below 1990 levels, according to the study, which was released ahead of next month’s climate talks in Lima, Peru, and negotiations in Paris in December 2015.

The energy efficiency of buildings, transportation, and industry would need to increase through the use of smart materials and energy-efficient designs, and vehicles will need to be fueled with electricity generated from wind, solar, or nuclear, as opposed to coal, the researchers said. They project the net costs would be on the order of 1 percent of gross domestic product per year.

The 80-percent reduction by 2050 is a long-standing goal of the Obama administration, in line with the global commitment to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius. “One important conclusion is that investment opportunities in clean technologies will arise during the natural rollover and replacement of infrastructure,” said lead author Jim Williams. “The plan calls for non-disruptive, sustained infrastructure transitions that can deeply decarbonise the U.S. by 2050, and enhance its competitive position in the process.”

This is a significant move and one that seems a highly logical pathway to successful outcomes.  

There is more emphasis on energy efficiency, especially retro fitting to buildings, an area that has not greatly been explored in Australia.

While the study outcomes have not yet been included in US government policy, it does seem to point to a solid and logical route for progressing the gains required.

What is the program for Australia?  We seem to be stuck on 5% reduction by 2020, yet more is possible.  It also seems that individuals are also doing more outside of government policies - notably with the development of household PV systems around Australia. The transport fuel issue is a big problem in Australia with vast distances and a small population, but gas would seem to be part of the mix in this case.

I do not yet see a lot of confidence among people with the current direct action program of the federal government, that it could achieve the scale of reductions needed to get to 80% below 2005 levels, especially while most electricity seems to be generated by coal.  However, if these plants were replaced [ even if through old age] by gas or new thorium nuclear plants then much greater reductions might be achievable.  With both India and China developing thorium reactors - that could be an option within 15 years or so.

World Toilet Day - 2014

It seems simple for those in western society...........the use of a decent toilet.  It is NOT that way for many in developing countries, and particularly in India.  Simple sanitation and hand washing associated with it is a critical issue in developing areas and reducing simple illnesses.

Today marks the second annual UN World Toilet Day, an important opportunity to promote global efforts to achieve universal access to sanitation by 2030. 

With a focus on equality and dignity, this year, World Toilet Day aims to highlight sanitation as a global development priority, especially for women and girls who must compromise their dignity and put their safety at risk when lack of access to sanitation forces them to defecate in the open.

Sanitation impacts multiple sectors of development, but the connection with gender equality is particularly important.

As outlined in a blog by World Bank Group Senior Director for Gender Caren Grown and Senior Director for Water Junaid Ahmad, advancing equality for women in developing countries is not only the right thing to do, it makes good economic sense. 

The relationship between gender equality and sanitation and water services is reciprocal. Just as investing in sanitation and water services benefits gender equity, improvements in gender equity can meanwhile advance improved sanitation and water services.

Ending poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity - the World Bank Group’s twin corporate goals - is possible only if we continue pressing to fully understand such obstacles to gender equity and service delivery.

Irrigating A New Area of Zoysia Sown by Seed

It is absolutely critical to adequately irrigate a newly sown area of zoysia seed.  Because the seed needs light to germinate, it is sown close to the surface.

The problem with that in warm weather is that the surface normally dries out quickly. You need to use a few tips and tricks to ensure that adequate moisture is available to keep the germination process ticking along, then there is the need for water to sustain the small seedlings, once the seed germinates.

Warmer weather tends to promote faster germination, with 7-10 days often enough to see seedlings in warm conditions, but up to 21 days if cooler.  Remember, a ground temperature of 18 - 20C is about the bottom of the range to even get reasonable germination.  If below this........wait a little longer.

In the sub tropics and tropics, it is possible to sow year round but growth will be slow in cooler months and waiting until the cooler weather is past is often the best idea, as growth really picks up once the days are longer, soil is warmer and night temperatures rise to around 18 -20C.

But the water regime and surface management are very important.

Adding a very light [ I stress light cover] of thin mulch such as sugar cane bagasse or a thin even cover of compost to the soil surface will both help hold moisture close to the surface as well as preventing rapid loss of moisture and acting as a protection barrier if there is heavy rain.  The latter is almost inevitable in the tropics........and you need to plan for it.

Generally it is necessary to also irrigate several times during daylight hours to keep the surface moist....not wringing wet, just moist.  You can use pop up sprinklers -run for a few minutes only.  Unfortunately the output from sprinklers covers quite a range so time cannot be given.  Remember a moist surface, not wringing wet.

Some systems allow many starts each day, but many only allow two or three.  Ideally you need a good irrigation early in the morning and 2 or 3 short bursts during the day, with a modest spray later in the early evening.  Many areas have evaporation rates of 7- 10mm each day if the weather is hot.  Most of that needs to be replaced each day while the area is in the early stages.

Better than using pop up sprinklers is to use small, low pressure, low volume sprinklers used in horticulture  and landscape applications.  These operate on 12mm or 19mm pvc lines and deliver 1-2mm per hour, depending on the pressure.  You also need a pressure reduction valve and inline filter to be most effective.  Several brands are available, with Challenger mk2 a recommended type supplied through Philmac resellers..  These sprinklers have the water distributed evenly across the wetted diameter of the sprinkler, and the droplet impact is low.  They come in a range of diameters [ up to about 12m].  Also, droplets are larger and less prone to wind influence.  Costs for each sprinkler is less than $5 approximately.

These can be operated for an hour or so several times during the day [ through a normal irrigation controller and solenoid valve] to add a modest amount to the surface, refreshing the dampness on the surface.  If operated for longer periods, they are suitable to fully irrigate the area, as they tend to be very efficient sprinklers as well.

Once the area is about 3-4 weeks old, irrigation can be reduced and adjusted to using several days per week [ rather than every day]  and also altering the duration of each irrigation to adequately wet the area, to help create a deep root system.  That bit of drying out between waterings helps promote roots searching for water deeper in the profile to develop a resilient turf area.

Once established, zoysia turf is quite water efficient and tends to be drought tolerant, requiring less water than many other turf grasses of high quality.

Overwatering promotes weeds, especially sedges eg nutgrass and Mullumbimby couch.  Best to be a bit light on with the water on established areas of zoysia!

From the left - dripline, pressure reduction valve, filter , connection to water supply

Enjoy your zoysia turf.  Remember......the payoff is less mowing!

Water Use Drops in USA to Level of 45 Years Ago

The latest figures on water use in the United States show that conservation efforts are having an impact.

A new report published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reveals that the volume of water used across the country has reached its lowest recorded level in nearly 45 years.

About 355 billion gallons of water per day (Bgal/d) were withdrawn for use in the entire United States during 2010. That's a decrease of 13 percent from 2005 when about 410 Bgal/d were withdrawn.

The news was welcomed by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

"Reaching this 45-year low shows the positive trends in conservation that stem from improvements in water-use technologies and management," commented Mike Connor, deputy secretary of the Interior.
Connor pointed out the reduction comes at a time when the U.S. population is continuing to grow, and demonstrates that people are learning to be more water conscious and helping to sustain the limited freshwater resources in the country.

Water withdrawn for thermoelectric power represented the largest use nationally in 2010. The other leading uses were irrigation, public supply and self-supplied industrial water. Withdrawals declined in each of these categories, USGS said.

Thermoelectric power recorded a 20 percent decrease from five years earlier as a result of more efficient cooling-system technologies, declines in withdrawals to protect aquatic habitat and environments, power plant closures and a reduction in the use of coal to fuel power plants.

Looking at industrial withdrawals, the 12 percent decrease since 2005 was put down to factors such as greater efficiencies in industrial processes, more emphasis on water reuse and recycling, and the 2008 U.S. recession, which resulted in lower industrial production in major water-using industries.

Overall, more than half of the total water withdrawals in the United States were accounted for by 12 states: California, Texas, Idaho, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, New York, Alabama and Ohio.

Some great developments in water management - but a long way to go still.

Cannot Stop the Advance of GM Technology

Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA) chair Ken Matthews says some Australian governments are “gutless” when it comes to giving farmers access to genetically modified (GM) crops.

The former secretary of both the Australian agriculture and transport departments made the no-nonsense observation in a detailed outline of global and domestic attitudes on biotechnology at the National Farmers' Federation Congress in Canberra last week.  

Mr Matthews summed up by saying Australia suffers from not having a more objective, science-based discussion about agricultural biotechnology.  “It’s really important that Australia has practicing farmers speak up for agricultural biotechnology because it’s practicing farmers that will be persuasive.”  The ongoing anti-GM campaign is one of the “big risks” facing the technology’s development, he said.

“There is a great suspicion of science and scientists in public debate in Australia and there has been a very effective campaign by NGOs (non-government organisations) which has influenced public opinion.

“As a result, what worries me is that environmentally responsible farmers - who tend in many other areas to be leaders of farm opinion - can often be ambivalent about GM.  “The pro-GM constituency among farmers is therefore not as strong as it could be in Australia.”

Governments need to lead

Mr Matthews said attitudes held by the general public, consumers, environmentalists and media were also central problems in the GM debate.

But his strongest criticism was reserved for various governments that refuse to allow GM crops to be cultivated, despite overwhelming scientific evidence.

“Some governments in Australia are – and I use this word carefully – gutless,” he said.

“There are total bans on GM in South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT,” he said.

“There are moratoriums in WA and NSW but there are certainly exemptions for that. In my view they (total bans) aren’t rationally based; they aren’t properly founded in science.

“Those moratoria need to be ended and we need to avoid further mandatory labelling requirements, unless they can be justified.”

Hinting at the recent high profile legal case involving neighbouring organic and GM farmers, Steve Marsh and Mike Baxter in Kojonup WA, Mr Matthews said the problem with reconciling organic standards and GM crops also “needs to be tackled”.

He said there were three inescapable truths about biotechnology: the first being that it provides a critical opportunity to lift the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Australian agriculture over the next 20 years.

Secondly, he said biotechnology was critical to meeting rapidly rising global food needs. 

And thirdly, biotechnology will inevitably continue to attract “suspicion and opposition” in some community sectors, slowing its development.

Mr Matthews said that opposition was based on four key concerns: food safety; environmental damage; “agrochemical industry domination” and “a roundup of ethical and religious issues”.

However, he said science delivered a very clear message about the safety of GM technology.

GM safety scientifically proven

Mr Matthews said more than 100 of the world’s independent science oversight bodies, including “very authoritative and credible organisations” in the US and Europe, shared a consensus that GM crops are “as safe as conventional varieties - and often safer because of the extensive approval process they need to go through”.  “The scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of GM safety, assuming that we continue with the sound regulatory processes that we have,” he said.  “There have now been 3 trillion meals (consumed) involving or including GM and there’s been not one recorded case of harm.  “There have been 70 billion animals which have been feeding on GM feed of some sort, and not one recorded case of harm.”

Mr Matthews said a recent European review of over 1700 scientific studies around the world about environmental impacts of GM concluded that there was little or no evidence GM crops caused negative environmental impacts.

“To me, as a student of public policy, it’s really interesting that the environment movement is very keen for science to be heard in the climate change debate - but where the science is very clear, no one seems to want to know about biotechnology,” he said.

Mr Matthews faced a question from the floor at the NFF Congress from NSW Farmers executive councillor Gai Marshall, referring to the controversial Seralini rat study on GM corn, which purported to find the GM feed caused tumour growth. Ms Marshall said she wasn’t against growing GM but wanted to see greater traceability.

Mr Matthews said the Seralini piece of science had been retracted. “It has been rejected, it has been withdrawn,” he said.  “The peer review, the second time around, found it totally discredited.”

A solution to global food security?

Mr Matthews said the problems GM could solve were “unprecedented in history”.

He said there are huge farm business opportunities from potential GM products like self-fertilising plants that could “revolutionise agriculture and certainly would decouple agriculture from the oil industry”.

GM crops also had a key role to play in aiding the future food demand task as the world’s population grows from 7.2 billion now to 9.6 billion by 2050, with decreasing land and water to develop globally - 800 million people already go to bed hungry each night and 1 billion people are chronically undernourished, he said.

“In the meantime, if I can be a bit provocative, there are some pretty comfortable western based NGOs which continue to oppose and to slow down biotechnology, on non-scientific, without evidence grounds,” he said.

Mr Matthews said a striking example of that argument was the fact 250 million children are currently suffering from vitamin A deficiency but GM food crops with existing solutions “are having trouble getting mobilised”.  “Norman Borlaug, said to be the father of the green revolution, said once that if the naysayers do stop agricultural GM they might actually precipitate those famines and crises they’ve been predicting for years,” he said.

Mr Matthews said the technology’s uptake was unprecedented, with 79 per cent of global soybean area and 70pc of global cotton area now GM.  “Growers are certainly not changing their mind and going back after they trial GM,” he said.

“Over the last 200 years there have been several waves of innovation in agriculture such as mechanisation, conventional plant breeding, chemical fertilisers and chemical herbicides.

“But none of them has been adopted as rapidly as GM seeds and I can tell you that animal-based GM is coming up very fast behind them.  “One eighth of global farm land is now GM, so this is a sort of mega bus that will not be stoppable.”


Mr Matthews said GM offers varieties with production benefits like faster growth rates and yields, drought tolerance, pesticide reduction and nutrient efficiency.

He said exciting work is also happening to generate varieties with consumer and health benefits like foods with fewer saturated fats, zero allergens, increased dietary fibre, reduced natural toxins, higher protein levels, built in vaccines, cholesterol management, and vitamin A.

“Benefits do flow to big biotech companies but perversely the regulatory costs - as a consequence of pressure from the opponents of GM - now make approvals just out of reach for anyone but the big firms,” he said.  “As an example, a single new GM trait may now cost $139 million, including $35 million just for the approvals part of that, and around the world it takes five-and-a-half years on average to gain a single new approval.

“Are those costs and time problems squeezing out public good innovations such as environmental public health innovations or small market GM innovations?”

Need to build trust

Mr Matthews said Australia grew GM canola and GM cotton and had great strengths in the area, with a world class regulatory system and plant breeding expertise.

But he said a three-part plan was needed to help overcome the slow progress of biotechnology development.

He said a constituency of biotechnology supporters was needed to build understanding of the potential benefits to farmers, consumers, the environment and society as a whole.  “We need to build community confidence and trust in Australia’s regulatory arrangements,” he said.  “We do need to be respectful of ethical concerns about biotechnology, but at the same time we need to give voice to the beneficiaries, and I think of those kids in Africa.

“When people are talking grandly about ethical concerns about biotechnology I worry about starving kids in Africa.  “We need to focus research more on benefits to consumers, to the environment, to society and we need to find some champions.” 

[ based on an article in the online edition of Qld Country Life 4 Nov 2014]

Caring For Your Zoysia Lawn in Hot Weather

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has today announced the next three months across the East and North of Australia will be drier and warmer than normal.

That means a strong likelihood of your turf areas needing more irrigation than usual.  Your turf might be stressed.  How can you best handle the issues that arise?

Adequate potassium fertiliser is a wise option.  Potassium boosts stress response in plants as it helps develop better structural tissues, including cell walls, and aids plants in overcoming or being resistant to water stress, as well as the related heat stresses, even in those varieties with superior heat adaptation.

Use a fertiliser mix with adequate potassium, applied soon, or add up to 1-2 kg / 100 sq  m of potassium sulfate or even potassium nitrate as the fertiliser. You may need to look more widely for these but they are around. Slow release NPK mixes tend to use one or other of these products, but you want a potash content of around 10-15% in the mix.  Avoid muriate of potash which is potassium chloride, as it can add saltiness to your turf area.  Muriate of potash is readily available, and can be cheap, but it a short term gain that can add to long term problems.

And what about the perennial issue of mowing?

There is a tendency to mow the lawn shorter in warm weather……..as if you might be able to avoid an extra cut by doing that.

Reality is you are best to actually cut the lawn less frequently and slightly higher, when there is hot, dry, stressing weather!  Long leaf that is uncut means less water loss from the cut edges and better soil cover from the leaves that helps control soil temperature and lower water loss from both evaporation and transpiration.  When weather turns and some decent rain arrives, then you could mow at a lower height………but not too low unless you have a very strong need for a “golf green” appearance, and the mower is suitable.

Zoysia is well adapted to hot weather, and can easily adapt to mowing heights between 15 – 60mm.  It is suggested that heights of 35 – 45mm [possibly slightly more] are suitable when the weather is hot and dry.  Switch to a lower cut height [around 20-25mm] once more regular rain is imminent.  Always remember that you do not want to remove more than one third of the sward height at any one mowing.

It is better to manage your turf and even avoid too much mowing.  You can achieve a good quality zoysia turf with maybe 50% of the water demand [ currently up to 50% of the 6-8mm a day of evapo-transpiration in Darwin] applied on every second or third day] especially if the turf has good soil cover.  Would you prefer mowing weekly or every three or four weeks?  It can be done to manage water, fertiliser and mow frequency to achieve a good turf that is functional and looks good, and is mown at 4 week intervals [ but check for weeds too].

You want your turf to develop a deep strong root system that can access water from up to around 150mm [ or more] deep in the soil profile, and not the shallow 25mm deep roots promoted by short watering that only superficially wets the profile to 25 – 40mm.  

Infrequently mown zoysia as a median strip in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Longer, less frequent irrigation is definitely superior and aids developing a robust root system that can be functionally efficient in scavenging water.

Biosecurity - Fruit Flies - Taxonomy Improves- Species Combined

Media release: What’s in a name? Everything - if you’re a fruit fly

29 October, 2014

A global research effort has finally resolved a major biosecurity issue: four of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests are actually one and the same.

For twenty years some of the world’s most damaging pest fruit flies have been almost impossible to distinguish from each other. The ability to identify pests is central to quarantine, trade, pest management and basic research.

In 2009 a coordinated research effort got underway to definitively answer this question by resolving the differences, if any, between five of the most destructive fruit flies: the Oriental fruit fly, the Philippine fruit fly, the Invasive fruit fly, the Carambola fruit fly, and the Asian Papaya fruit fly. These species cause incalculable damage to horticultural industries and food security across Asia, Africa, the Pacific and parts of South America.

The Philippine fruit fly was formally recognised as the same species as the Asian Papaya fruit fly in 2013. The latest study goes further, conclusively demonstrating that they are also the same biological species as the Oriental and Invasive fruit flies. 

These four species have now been combined under the single name: Bactrocera dorsalis, the Oriental fruit fly. The closely-related Carambola fruit fly remains distinct.

Professor Tony Clarke, Chair of Fruit Fly Biology and Management from the Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre (PBCRC) and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), believes the integrated multidisciplinary nature of the project leaves little doubt the species are identical.

“More than 40 researchers from 20 countries examined evidence across a range of disciplines, using morphological, molecular, cytogenetic, behavioural and chemoecological data to present a compelling case for this taxonomic change,” he said. “This outcome has major implications for global plant biosecurity, especially for developing countries in Africa and Asia,” said Professor Clarke. “For example, Invasive (now Oriental) fruit fly has devastated African fruit production with crop losses exceeding 80 per cent, widespread trade restrictions with refusal of shipments into Europe and Japan, and significant economic and social impacts to farming communities.”

Keeping exotic fruit fly out is a major concern for Australian biosecurity agencies. While an outbreak of Papaya fruit fly near Cairns in the mid-1990s inflicted $A100 million in eradication and industry costs, current estimates rate the Oriental fruit fly as the biggest threat to Australian plant biosecurity, with the total cost to the nation of an invasion estimated at $A1 billion. 

Combining the four species will mean a major reassessment of Australia’s exotic fruit fly risk.

“Globally, accepting these four pests as a single species will lead to improved international cooperation in pest management, more effective quarantine measures, reduced barriers to international trade, the wider application of established post-harvest treatments, improved fundamental research and, most importantly, enhanced food security for some of the world’s poorest nations,” said Professor Clarke.

The paper, B. papayae, B. invadens, and B. dorsalis synonymy, is published today in the journal Systematic Entomology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/syen.12113/abstract and is a collaboration between 33 research organisations in 20 countries, supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

More information and interviews: Tony Steeper, PBCRC Communications Manager, 0417 697 470, t.steeper@pbcrc.com.au

Media release: What’s in a name? Everything - if you’re a fruit fly - Plant Biosecurity CRC

Media release: What’s in a name? Everything - if you’re a fruit fly - Plant Biosecurity CRC

More Factory Vegetable Production - from Toshiba now

Toshiba has converted one of its former semiconductor plants in Yokosuka, Japan into a vegetable farm with the aim of producing 3 million bags of vegetables a year.

Shipment of the first crop of vegetables from the clean room farm is scheduled for the end of October 2014.

Toshiba’s says its closed-type plant factory uses state-of-the-art technology to raise crops and operates under almost aseptic conditions. Crops being grown in the idle semiconductor factory include leaf lettuce, baby leaf greens, spinach, mizuna and herbs.

The diversification into agriculture could bring in 300 million yen [ 3 million A$ approx] of income for Toshiba in vegetable sales.

Toshiba is utilising the existing cleanroom infrastructure in its plant factories to grow the vegetables in close to sterile conditions. By minimising the presence and thus the damage caused by germs, Toshiba says its crops have an extended period of freshness and shelf life.

The factory is equipped with a wide range of technologies and know-how from across the Toshiba Group, including fluorescent lighting with an output wavelength optimised for vegetable growth; air-conditioning systems that maintain constant temperature and moisture level; remote monitoring systems to track growth; and sterilisation systems for packing materials.

Toshiba is also using a production management system based on that used for its semiconductor device production.

While this is some new news, similar efforts are also underway in Singapore as well as other parts of Japan to grow vegetables indoors.

Will this approach to technology continue to be a major new direction for vegetable production particularly where and is more limited, or there are potential issues with a need for clean production?

Could this be used for a range of crops including melons and smaller fruited crops such as zucchinis?   An interesting conundrum given the current disease issues facing the crop in some parts of the world, including Australia? 

US Drought - Cause Explained

There seems to now be an explanation about the cause of the drought that has affected the western states of the USA over the past year or so.

The phenomenon was also present in some earlier droughts in the area including all the big ones recorded by western civilisation in the region.

The same atmospheric phenomenon that emerged during the winter of 1933 to 1934 [ the biggest drought ever recorded] is also present today. This high-pressure ridge over the West Coast deflects storms holding much-needed rain to the north, and may be causing the current drought crippling California, the researchers said.

More information is here -http://news.yahoo.com/another-dust-bowl-california-drought-resembles-worst-millennium-114117098.html;_ylt=A0LEV0M9f0RU5UAAXqtXNyoA

This does not solve the drought but may provide some ideas in prediction for future events.  It does not seem to be going away - at all.

The drought has had some devastating effects on irrigated and dryland agriculture in the whole western region, with implications extending across the world as well.  So much of the specialist crops grown in the west of the USA flow into world food and commodity supplies - almonds, pistachios, pecans, dates, cotton, melons, onions, even lucerne / alfalfa.  Even causing major effects on urban communities [ although many do use a lot of water and could reduce use a lot].  A sort of reminder to Australians who suffered through a 10 year drought across southern Australia.

It is still a significant issue in the USA, with more in the story below here.  Much of the SW is expected to get worse over the next period.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/08/01/downright-dismal-images-of-the-western-drought-a-record-setter-in-california/

More Beef Exported than Used in Australia - McDonalds

FAST food giant, McDonald’s, now exports more Australian beef than it uses in its 930 local restaurants.  quite amazing if you think about it

Andrew Gregory, chief executive officer of McDonald's Australia, said the company now exported 41 million kilograms of Australian beef a year, mainly for company use in the United States, South Korea and Japan.

On Tuesday McDonald’s released its new Rump Steak Range which uses rump strips in its ranges of wraps and salads.  Mr Gregory said high-quality, locally-sourced produce was one of the key ingredients in the company’s Australian success story.

He told the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) Congress in Canberra that the company had listened to its customers who wanted more transparency about what was in McDonald’s food and where and how it was produced - and they were interested in animal welfare and sustainability. Mr Gregory said the company wanted to buy its beef from sustainable production systems but was committed to working with producers to accurately define what “sustainable” meant.

McDonald’s had now set out to dispel some of the myths about its foods, including fears its milk shakes contained pig fat and the apple filling in its pies contained chokos.  McDonald’s had opened new online and digital communication channels including the mobile app, Track My Macca’s, and the online tool, Our Food, Your Questions, so customers could ask tough questions about the food they were eating and get information about where it was grown.

Mr Gregory said the company was continuing to innovate, including a new concept in the Sydney suburb of Castle Hill where customers could custom make their own hamburgers using 19 ingredients.

McDonald’s employs 100,000 people across Australia, many of them young workers, as well as many in the mature age group. 

[ adapted from an article in Qld Countrylife on line] 

Waste Tyres - Not Necessarily Anymore

We have been associated with some technology to use end of life tyres in civil construction.  It works very well and is described at www.ecoflex.com.au .

But more is happening in this space with a lot of success using tyres in steel making.

UNSW collaborated with industry partner OneSteel to develop ‘green steel’ technology, wherein old tyres and plastics provide a source of carbon to replace a significant proportion of the non-renewable coke used to make steel in electric arc furnaces.

The ‘green steel’ technology invented at UNSW has now achieved a major milestone, with its use in Australia preventing more than two million waste rubber tyres from ending up in landfill. The discarded tyres were used by OneSteel, an Arrium company to manufacture steel at its Sydney and Melbourne facilities.

UNSW Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla collaborated closely with OneSteel to develop the polymer injection technology.

Professor Sahajwalla, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT@UNSW) in the Faculty of Science said they were thrilled to have surpassed the two-million tyre milestone. The achievement demonstrates the benefits of collaborations between researchers and industry.

Under an agreement with UNSW’s commercialisation company, NewSouth Innovations, OneSteel has sub-licensed the technology to companies in Thailand, South Korea and the United Kingdom and has plans to further commercialise it around the globe.

Daniel Miles, Manager Steelmaking Solutions at OneSteel observes that close collaboration between OneSteel and UNSW has turned an innovative idea into a manufacturing reality. He explains that polymer injection technology is not only good for the environment, but also offers financial benefits for the steel manufacturer in terms of reduced electricity consumption, lower carbon injectant costs as well as yield and productivity improvements.

Professor Sahajwalla is now working towards her goal of a 100 per cent recyclable car, developing high-temperature technology that can turn waste glass and plastic into valuable metallic alloys – an approach that could also be used to transform electronic waste.

Professor Sahajwalla was awarded $2.2 million earlier this year by the Federal Government to establish a ‘green manufacturing’ research hub at UNSW, with industry partners including Arrium, Brickworks Building Products, Jaylon Industries and Tersum Energy.

In August, Professor Sahajwalla was awarded a prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowship worth $2.37 million.

This work is absolutely awesome and demonstrates how innovative thinking can solve BIG problems!

Home of Bauxite .......and Aluminium

One of the locations seen while on holiday was the second most beautiful village in France.  Mont St Michel in Normandy is No1, and this les Baux en Provence, in southern France, No2.



Quite nice too...........but  lo and behold, it is also famous for another important reason.



Think of the name  - Les Baux.  Near this village in around 1821 a local found a new mineral rock - and it now bears the name bauxite.!!!



Especially relevant to a person from north Australia - with both Gove in the NT and Weipa in Queensland on opposite sides of the Gulf of Carpentaria, between them producing a large chunk of the world's bauxite today.



Read the inscription - pretty easy, even though in French.

Story of Bauxite

Bauxite from near Les Baux

Village narrow laneway

A Long Holiday

Everyone needs one at times........and yes, your regular blogger has been on holidays on the other side of the world where regular blogging was just a tad tricky.

Back online now..........