Stevia: A Sweet Solution to the Afghani Drug Trade

A Sweet Solution to the Afghani Drug Trade:
9/13/04
"Steviva President Thom King has proposed that the Afghani's convert their opium poppy fields to stevia. While stevia is grown around the world, King believes the growing conditions in the Southern part of Afghanistan are perfect for growing stevia and the extraction process which yields the super sweet stevioside is somewhat similar to the process which yields opium from poppies. King is willing to put his money where his mouth is and offer to purchase all the stevia and stevioside extract from the Afghani farmers at fair market value as long as the quality meets his companies strict standards. "

Sugar-powered car sends markets into frenzy

Sugar-powered car sends markets into frenzy | This is Money:
by Simon Watkins -- 1/29/2006
"Of the 1.7 million cars bought in Brazil last year, 54% were flex-fuel models. Cane sugar is an easy source of the ethanol fuel and is right on the doorstep for happy Brazilian drivers. "

Sugar Prices Boom, More Cane Seen Used for Biofuel

Planet Ark : Sugar Prices Boom, More Cane Seen Used for Biofuel:
1/31/2006
"LONDON - Sugar is a star among commodity markets, with prices at 25-year peaks and possibly heading higher as investors see potential to divert more cane to make biofuel. "

Calling all herb and flower buyers

This is a press release about my "Directory of Flower and Herb Buyers" on the Natural Food Network site.
NaturalFoodNet.com - Organic food, natural food, certified organic suppliers:
Feb 2006
"Missouri-based publisher Prairie Oak Publishing has a free opportunity for all North American companies that purchase flowers or herbs for use in their products. The company publishes a yearly Directory of Flower and Herb Buyers which connects buyers and sellers of ornamental, medicinal, culinary, and other botanicals grown or wildcrafted in North America. The directory informs growers and wildcrafters about contact information within each company along with what flower or herb the company needs. Prairie Oak is now accepting buyer listings for the Directory of Flower and Herb Buyers, 2006. Companies wanting to purchase all types of floral or herbal botanicals directly from growers and wildcrafters in large or small amounts should submit a free listing at www.herb-buyers.com. The submission deadline is March 6, 2006 and the directory will be available for $15.95 on March 31. For more information or a listing form, contact Jeffrey Goettemoeller at Prairie Oak Publishing in Maryville,"

Herb sweetens family business

Herb sweetens family business:
by Betty Beard -- The Arizona Republic -- 1/23/2006
"The Mays say it would take millions of dollars and several years to finance the tests that FDA requires to prove Stevia's safety as a sweetener. They say that many tests have been done and that Stevia products have been used for centuries in Paraguay and Brazil and are widely used in Japan."

Limit fertilizer to control costs, farmers urged

Journal Gazette | 01/12/2006 | Limit fertilizer to control costs, farmers urged:
by Jenni Glenn
"Farmers who save on fertilizer could reap higher profits, even if their harvest is reduced as a result, a Purdue University agronomy professor said Wednesday."

Peak Oil Expert Supports Localized Food Production

Japan Focus Article:
by Sandra Ward
"Then we encourage business leaders to start liberating their workforce and let workers work any place they would like to and pay them by productivity versus the system we have in place. Productivity improves as does worker satisfaction. Then we re-engineer how we grow and distribute food and get away from this ridiculous system we have today of creating ornamental food that looks good all year long but doesn't taste very good because it comes from too far away. Have you ever had blueberries from Chile? To have food taste good it has to be grown locally. We are going to end up going back to bottling and canning.

What?

Do you ever cook pasta? Do you cook tomato sauce? Have you ever used local tomatoes?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Tomatoes by can are fabulous tomatoes because they have been canned at the peak of the tomato season, and that process is still as good today as it was when I was growing up. Then we have to take a page out of Whole Foods, one of the most successful food models ever, by having a stringer system of organic farms within 20 miles of their stores. Organic farms are just victory gardens. Making all of those changes at the same time will leave our economies in better shape."

Stevia Sweetener Business plan wins prize worth over $100,000.00

Moot Corp Competition - McCombs School of Business - The University of Texas at Austin:
May, 2005
"A natural sweetener which is 300 times sweeter than sugar claimed the grand prize at the 22nd annual Global MOOT CORP Competition held at the University of Texas at Austin on Saturday, May 7, 2005. Idyll Life from Thammasat University in Thailand beat out 39 teams from the London Business School, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern and top MBA programs around the world to claim the Global Champion prize.
The Global Champion receives the opportunity to negotiate a $100,000 investment from the MOOT CORP...

Idyll Life has exclusive rights to the patented stevia seeds. Stevia sweetener is the only natural high intensity sweetener in the world market and has been used extensively in the Asian region for more than 30 years. The company has FDA approval and is ready to introduce Pure Lite, their first sweetener product. They are seeking funding to establish its first commercial plant to be located in Thailand. "

INFLUENCE OF STORAGE CONDITIONS ON STEVIA REBAUDIANA SEEDS

INFLUENCE OF THE CONDITIONS OF STORAGE ON THE SEED QUALITY OF STEVIA REBAUDIANA (BERTONI) BERTONI:
"Differences were observed between the fresh and dry weight of the normal seedlings, showing that the storing condition in the refrigerator, produced higher average values, at the same time presenting more vigorous seeds than those in the other treatment."

Simultaneous production of xylitol and ethanol from cellulosic biomass

Process for the simultaneous production of xylitol and ethanol - Patent 6846657:
1/25/2005
"It has now been found that xylitol and ethanol can be produced simultaneously by using the process of the invention wherein xylose is converted to xylitol, while the majority of the other hexoses present in the raw material are converted to ethanol. Thus the raw material is effectively utilized and two commercially very important products are obtained in a pure form and with a high yield. The process is simple and effective.

The process of the invention is characterized in that the hydrolyzed starting material is fermented with a yeast strain, the ethanol produced is recovered, a chromatographic separation is carried out on the remaining xylitol solution, and pure xylitol is crystallized. Xylose-containing substances are used as starting materials, which in accordance with the invention are fermented with a yeast strain that is capable of converting xylose to xylitol and most hexoses to ethanol. By fermentation, a xylitol-rich solution is obtained wherefrom xylitol is recovered in a simple way. Laborious and complex separation steps (such as the conventional ion exchange, demineralization, precipitations etc.) are not needed, but generally the xylitol can be purified in a single step chromatographically, whereafter it is crystallized to obtain pure xylitol. Ethanol is easy to remove from the fermentation solution for instance by evaporation. Thus the need for separating xylitol from the hexitols and other sugars produced in the hydrolysis and reduction steps is avoided. The hydrolysis performed in accordance with the invention also provides a solution to the problem of using pulp discarded as waste mass, in other processes, and thus in the process of the invention substantially the entire starting material is utilized. "

Energy Use and Sustainable Farming

Sustainable Table: The Issues: Fossil Fuel and Energy Use:
"Fortunately, a number of agricultural techniques can be used to decrease our dependence upon fossil fuel. One effective method is to reduce or eliminate tillage (plowing the soil); a Canadian study determined that implementation of a modified no-till system reduced the use of diesel fuel from 7.9 gallons to 1.1 gallons per hectare.12 Another study indicated that total CO 2 emissions generated by a no-till system were 92% lower than emissions from conventional tillage.13 Fossil fuel consumption could also be decreased by reducing fertilizer use, by using manure more efficiently, and by practicing certain types of crop rotation (for example, including legumes in crop rotation).14
Although these techniques are usually difficult to implement on huge mono-crop industrial farms, many sustainable farms already practice these energy-saving production methods. In fact, small-scale, less mechanized, more biodiverse organic farming operations have been shown to use 60% less fossil fuel per unit of food than conventional industrial farms.15"

$10.00 per acre fuel savings with no-till farming

Practices To Reduce High Tractor Fuel Costs:
9/13/2005 -- AgBIO, SOuth Dakota State University
"SDSU Extension Farm Machinery Specialist Dick Nicolai said one practice that minimizes fuel consumption is the no-till method that requires fewer passes over the land to till and plant crops.
'No-till farming has been used by some South Dakota farmers over the years but the current rising trend in fuel prices has encouraged more producers to look into these practices. Fuel savings vary for different producers who use the no-till method. Fuel savings of around $10/acre can be expected when compared to traditional farming practices,' Nicolai said."

Coping With High Diesel Prices

Coping With High Diesel Prices:
University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service
"For crops that require tillage, hitch two or more implements together to reduce the number of tillage passes required. For example, instead of disking once and then harrowing twice, hitching the harrow to the disc to perform the first harrow operation will eliminate one pass through the field and save an estimated $5.28 per acre for a 100-Hp tractor and 10-foot harrow.
Change from conventional tillage to no-till. Fuel cost for corn planted following plowing, discing, and cultivating is estimated at $14.17/acre. While fuel cost for no-till corn is estimated at only $9.14."

No-till, less fuel use

WCFCourier.com | The Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier Online!:
by Matthew Wilde -- 11/20/2005
"According to the Conservation Technology Information Center at Purdue University in Indiana, no-till farming saves 3.5 gallons of diesel an acre. On a 500-acre farm, paying current diesel prices, that is a savings of $3,920.
The center also claims fewer trips will save a farmers $5 per acre on machinery wear and maintenance costs. That's another $2,500 in savings for 500 acres."

Auto steer technology cuts wastes, saves time, fuel

Farm & Ranch Guide: Production News:
by Donna Farris -- 11/23/2005
"John Deere's GreenStar AutoTrac hands-free steering system is an option on new tractors, sprayers and combines, while the AutoTrac Universal Steering Kit is designed to set older tractors up with automatic guidance.

?It can be added to almost anything anymore,? Hellie said.

The average farmer steering on his own overlaps 10 percent in field pass-throughs, Hellie said. That overlap can be reduced to little or nothing with automatic steering.

?He's saving fuel, time, hours on the tractor, wear and tear on equipment and chemicals,? Hellie said. ?For the larger farmer, it will pay for itself in three or four years.?"

Organic farmers enjoy higher crop values, lower input costs

Farm & Ranch Guide: Regional News:
by Donna Farris -- 12/8/2005
"As the farmer of 240 acres, economics also led Steven Halter of Lamberton, Minn., to switch to organic farming in 1998.
'I always say that if I hadn't gone to organic when I did, I probably would have quit,' he said.
In a time when it seems farms must be large to be viable, 'it didn't seem to work out for me to be conventional,' he said.
He's found there are other benefits as well.
'It's better for the soil, better for ourselves and I enjoy it more,' he said."

New Strip Tillage Technique Saves Money on Tractor Fuel

9news.com | News | Farmers dig deep to save money on fuel:
12/10/2005
"The machine cuts a foot-deep groove into the soil where sugar beets will be planted next spring.
This method requires only two trips across the field, instead of the six or seven required by conventional farming techniques. This can save a typical farmer thousands of dollars in fuel costs.
'It's about doubled in the last year or so. It should be a tremendous savings in fuel,' Longmont Conservation District's Bill Haselbush says.
The main reason the Soil Conservation Service is promoting the idea, however, is to reduce soil erosion. Instead of turning the soil over with a plow and discing it until it's practically powder, this method leaves stubble in the field and that should help hold the soil in place."

Ethanol one bright spot in country's energy plight

semissourian.com: Story: Farm Bureau president: Ethanol one bright spot in country's energy plight:
by Scott Moyers -- 11/17/2005
"Finding ways to replenish the country's dwindling energy supply is perhaps the most pressing concern in agriculture today, according to Missouri Farm Bureau president Charles Kruse.
'We've backed ourselves into a corner,' Kruse said Thursday, speaking to students at Southeast Missouri State University. 'And it's not just a problem in the agricultural community. It's the whole country.'"