Sustainability News and Resources

Remember when it was a counter culture thing?

There was a time when the words “organic farming” made most folks think of a counter culture stereotype. People with long hair, and maybe a sympathetic bone for communal doings.

The USDA has put up $750,000 for research to help set the stage for long-term organic farming efforts at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

The project will expand research on organic farming, allow more collaboration with growers and develop more information on producing organic food.

The project’s overall goals include setting up NU’s first certified organic research plots, incorporating organic farming concepts into UNL Extension and classroom education, and developing an ecological index of different farming methods.
Read full post about organic farming

Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 16: The Imphal Regional Centre of Organic Farming under National Centre of Organic Farming, Ghaziabad has invited applications for Service Providers.

Interested organisations/ bodies may apply, informed a DIPR release.

It also stated that Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme under the National Project on Organic Farming has been launched keeping in view the importance of organic farming.

Eligible organisations for the scheme included bio-fertilizer units, vermiculture hatcheries, fruit and vegetables waste compost units.

Details can be had from the Assistant Director, Regional Centre for Organic Farming, State Agriculture Farm, Mantripukhri, the release added.

There will be a one-day seminar on Gardening the Organic Way on Dec 4 at the YMCA in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.

Topics for the event, which includes an exhibition on organic fruits and vegetables, include an overview on organic farming, starting an organic garden, controlling pests and diseases without chemicals, composting and recycling household waste, commercial aspects of organic farming, and health benefits of organic farming.

Speakers are from the Malaysian Agriculture Research and

ENVIRONMENT: COLDIRETTI, BIODIESEL BEFORE AN EMERGENCY HAPPENS

(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Nov. 28 - With biodiesel emissions are halved and we save the planet. Coldiretti is gathering signatures in support of an initiative to produce one million tons of biofuels from crop production, which will reduce emissions of hydrocarbons by 80 pct and of subtle particles by 50 pct. Thus announced chairman of Coldiretti Paolo Bedoni at the opening of the UN Conference on climate change in Montreal. Recent Coldiretti studies have showed how an acre of cultivated land can capture between 0.75 and 1.85 tons of carbon dioxide, or 300-700 litres of diesel.

The initiative to produce a million tons of biodiesel, integrated in petrol stations at 5 pct can assure 10 million cars 20,000 km per year. The initiative is part of a project to reduce costs for business and make more resources available for Italian made goods. Coldiretti states that to fight pollution and expensive oil it is necessary to invest in alternative energies such as biofuels obtained from crops like sunflower and that the increase in oil prices makes these fuels more competitive, and therefore making it easier to reach the aims of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. (AGI) .

Fuel Quality Information

MGR writes “National Geographic is reporting that Japanese scientists have discovered a way to convert vegetable oil into biodiesel with a much less expensive catalyst (between 10 and 50 times cheaper) than what is currently used. From the article: ‘Any vegetable oil can become fuel, but not until its fatty acids are converted to chemical compounds known as esters. Currently the acids used to convert the fatty acids are prohibitively expensive. Michikazu Hara, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Yokohama, Japan, and his colleagues have used common, inexpensive sugars to form a recyclable solid acid that does the job on the cheap.’”
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