BlackburnNews.com – Researchers Make Headway Against Bee Brood Disease

Ray Baynton on December 18, 2014 8:43am

While some are focussing on the impact of neo-nics on bees, University of Guelph researchers are making progress against another pollinator disease.Professor Rob Merrill says American Foulbrood disease is the most widespread and destructive of bee brood diseases.His team has found a toxin released by the pathogen that causes the disease and developed a lead-based inhibitor to work against it.Professor Merrill says their idea is to disarm the bacteria, without killing it.They feel that way the bacteria won’t feel the pressure to mutate.

via BlackburnNews.com – Researchers Make Headway Against Bee Brood Disease.

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Australian organic regulator pushes for GM-tainted crops to retain certification – Farming UK World news- Farming UK World news

Australian organic regulator pushes for GM-tainted crops to retain certification

One of the bodies that regulates Australian organic standards is pushing to allow crops that are accidentally contaminated with genetically modified material to retain their organic certification, in a move that would bring Australia in line with European regulators.

Under current Australian organic standards, products lose organic certification if they contain any level of GM material.

That’s what happened to Western Australian farmer Steve Marsh, who took his neighbour Mark Baxter to the WA supreme court claiming GM pollen from Baxter’s farm caused him to lose organic certification on part of his property. Marsh lost the case and has lodged an appeal.

But regulator Australian Certified Organic (ACO)

via Australian organic regulator pushes for GM-tainted crops to retain certification – Farming UK World news- Farming UK World news.

Urban gardening lessons for kids, aided by Times Union Hope Fund

Young people get excited about Hope Fund-supported programs like 15-LOVE

By Paul Grondahl

Albany

The kids at 15-LOVE like to play ping-pong in the basement game room at the program’s offices on Washington Avenue.

But they’ll gladly yield the table come harvest time in late-summer…

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Urban-gardening-lessons-for-kids-aided-by-Times-5955525.php

Mind your food: Do you know where your dinner comes from?

Food justice activist Mwanajuma Extavour speaks with Fatimah Jackson-Best about why it’s important to know the source of your food.

(Image: Photl)

“To know your food is to know yourself. After the Almighty, what is more important to life than food?” Mwanajuma Extavour expresses these sentiments to me as we sit down to…

Read more: http://www.aquila-style.com/lifestyle/food-health/mind-your-food/90042/

Kvale leads successful harvest at U of M Morris

Submitted by Jenna Ray

University of Minnesota Morris editor/writer

University of Minnesota, Morris students gathered more than 654 pounds of produce from the campus vegetable garden this harvest season at the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center. Led by Garden to Dining Services liaison Peter Kvale of Duluth, the harvest represents another success in Morris’ effort to increase….

Read more: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/3633278-kvale-leads-successful-harvest-u-m-morris

Digester project near Tulare would turn organic waste into renewable transportation fuel

From The Bakersfield Californian:

BY JOHN COX The Bakersfield Californian jcox@bakersfield.com

Food processors, dairies and others in Kern County may soon have a new place to send their organic waste — and with it, a new source of renewable, compressed natural gas.

This month, two state agencies awarded grants totaling $8 million to help fund construction of a $25-million biogas digester outside Tulare believed to be the first commercial-scale project…

Read more: http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/local/x1524580875/Digester-project-near-Tulare-would-turn-organic-waste-into-renewable-transportation-fuel

Turning waste water into fuel

From Sowetan Live:

MATAGALPA, Nicaragua – That morning cup of coffee gives many of us a needed boost, but Central American coffee farmers have found a new source of energy in their beans: turning agricultural waste water into biogas.

An often overlooked by-product of the world’s favourite stimulant, the water used to process raw coffee beans is usually dumped back into the environment untreated. In Central America, locals call it “honey water” because of its sweet taste and yellowish colour.

Extremely polluting, it is high in methane gas – a leading contributor to global warming produced, in this case, by the fermentation of the coffee tree’s berries.

Across Nicaragua, the 1.3million sacks of coffee produced annually generate pollution equivalent to about 20000 cars. Now a pilot project at 19 farms in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras is treating that water, separating out the methane and using it to fuel electric generators.

“Look how high that flame is,” said Sarahi Pastran as she…

Read more: http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2014/12/13/turning-waste-water-into-fuel