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28 Innovative Livestock Farmers Who are Shaping the Future of Protein – Food Tank

Posted: April 3, 2020 at 2:51 am


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It is estimated that there were 1 billion cattle and 767 million pigs worldwide in 2019. And there were 996 million chickens in 2018. The number of chickens alone is three times larger than the global human population. Animal source foods like meat, eggs, milk, yoghurt, and cheese comprise an important part of our daily diets, and the consumption is expected to continue to grow.

Industrial-scale farming systems enable mass production of cheap animal foods at low cost. However, poorly managed livestock systems have raised various environmental and health concerns. Factory farms, in which 99 percent of farmed animals in the United States are estimated to live, produce tremendous amounts of animal waste that can contain contaminants such as plant nutrients, pathogens, antibiotics, and other chemicals.

But many innovative livestock farmers around the world are driving change by moving away from conventional farming. Instead of raising animals in confinement systems, the farmers provide animals with access to the outdoors and facilities to express their natural behaviorsfor pigs to root and for chickens to peck. On pasture-based farms, animals are raised on grassland all year round, and the paddocks are rotated to prevent overgrazing. Farmers who produce 100 percent grass-fed beef raise and finish their cattle on grassland, letting the ruminants eat what they are designed to eat for their entire life.

According Allan Savory, a Zimbabwean ecologist and rancher, mimicking nature using livestock is the only option for us to reverse desertification and climate change. According to Savory and other proponents of regenerative agriculture, carefully planned rotational cattle grazing can allow grassland to rest and grow, and this process accelerates the storage of atmospheric carbon into the soil and plants.

Many farmers on this list have switched from industrial to sustainable livestock production systems showing they can protect the environment, promote animal welfare, and improve incomes. And the farmers also try to go beyond their own farms to spread the innovations and empower other farmers, community members, and consumers.

To celebrate their work, Food Tank highlights 28 innovative livestock farmers who are shaping the future of livestock production.

1. Aloha House (Philippines): Keith Mikkelson

Keith Mikkelson is the Executive Director of Aloha House, a ranch and an organic farm in Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. The food produced on the farm caters to the local community and Aloha Orphanage housed on the farm. Mikkelson raises cattle, goats, hogs, and chickens on his small-scale, diverse farm in the tropics, and these animals are part of the natural farming process. Mikkelson makes use of animal power, manure, and other animal byproducts to grow vegetables, make fertilizers, and turn other wastes like forage crop residues into useful materials including biochar. He has shared his knowledge and experiences in livestock-farm integration, feed production, and cost-saving strategies through his writings and lectures.

2. Bean Hollow Grassfed (United States): Betsy Dietel and Mike Sands

Bean Hollow Grassfed is a family owned farm in Flint Hill, Virginia. Mike Sands and Betsy Dietel operate the farm, and their son Will Sands and his spouse Giada Bertonelli joined the team in 2018. The farm works to bolster biodiversity on the farm. The farm puts their cattle and sheep together to work symbiotically. These two species prefer to graze on different vegetation and can work together to control diseases and parasites. Multi-species grazing can also increase productivity and improve pasture. The farm does not sell its products online to promote local food purchase. The family encourages people to visit the farm in person to pick up the food and learn how it is produced.

3. Belcampo (United States): Anya Fernald

Anya Fernald is the Co-founder and CEO of Belcampo Meat Co, an organic and animal welfare certified farm in Northern California. Belcampo grows cattle, pigs, broilers, and layers, and the farm has built its own alternative meat supply chain from the farm to retail shops and restaurants. This vertically integrated chain can enhance transparency and traceability. Animals are butchered and processed on a small scale at the Belcampos whole animal butchery designed by Temple Grandin, an American animal behavior and welfare expert. In addition, at the Belcampos retail shop, customers are given opportunities to talk to their butchers and learn about the meat they are purchasing. Through this process, Belcampo is trying to link customers to butchers.

4. Big Picture Beef (United States): Ridge Shinn

Ridge Shinn launched Big Picture Beef in 2016 in Hardwick, Massachusetts to provide the Northeast United States with locally grown 100 percent grass-fed beef. Shinn partners with local family farms to assist them to produce beef sustainably and ensure a more stable income through expanded sales channels. The partner farmers raise their cattle according to the Big Picture Beefs protocol. Then, the farmers transfer their stocks to the Big Picture Beefs finishing farms where graziers fatten the cattle for market using regenerative grazing techniques. It ensures that the cattle have never eaten corn and grains at a conventional feedlot.

5. Browns Ranch (United States): Gabe Brown

Gabe Brown raises cattle, sheep, hogs, and broiler and layer chickens at his Browns Ranch in Bismarck, North Dakota. Brown uses different cropping strategies and no-till farming techniques to protect and improve the quality of soil. He has unified cash crops, cover crops, and his cattle in an integrated crop-livestock system. Various cover crops and cash crop residues after harvest serve to feed cattle, which are managed according to Allan Savorys Holistic Management principles. In turn, the cattle improve soil health through grazing and manure. Brown has written a book on regenerative agriculture and is a partner of Understanding Ag, a regenerative agricultural consulting firm.

6. Central Grazing Company (United States): ReGina Cruse and Jacqueline Smith

In 2015, ReGina Cruse and Jacqueline Smith founded the Central Grazing Company in Lawrence, Kansas to grow sheep on pasture for meat and leather. Smith started to produce leather items, when she learned about the complexity of the leather supply chain, which involves multiple rounds of selling and buying until products finally reach consumers. The farm collaborates closely with local businesses to process hides in order to support local economies and build a more traceable supply chain. Cruse and Smith guarantee fair pricing to their partners including smallholder farmers, which provides financial incentives to keep up their work.

7. Centre Songhai (Benin): Godfrey Nzamujo

Centre Songhai was founded by Godfrey Nzamujo in 1985 in Proto-Novo, Benin. It is a zero-waste farm which integrates plant, animal, and fish production components. The farm recycles all by-products or wastes produced from one production component to use it in another component. For example, livestock manure is converted into compost for plant production and biogas for cooking and lighting. The Centre also trains young people to make them capable of implementing the Songhai model throughout the African continent for food security and sustainable development. The Songhai model has been replicated in many African countries, including Nigeria and Uganda amongst others.

8. Chews Agriculture (Singapore): Edvin Lim

Edvin Lim is the director of Chews Agriculture in Singapore, one of the first Southeast Asian egg producers that joined the Certified Humane program in 2019. In 2014, Chews started investing in the facility and techniques required to raise laying hens in a more livable environment in which they can express their natural behaviors. To establish a more sustainable farming operation, Chews will provide poultry waste to an engineering services provider called Acropower for electricity generation. In return, Acropower will provide cheaper electricity to the farm. In addition, Chews has gained a sustainability-linked loan from DBS, an initiative by the Singaporean multinational bank to encourage enterprises to implement sustainable business practices. The farm will adhere to the Humane Farm Animal Care standards to secure lower interest rates; in addition, the farm plans to use the loan to build a new, more spacious cage-free facility.

9. Ecofarms (Brazil): Bruno Andrade

Ecofarms is operated by Bruno Andrade in Brazil, one of three ranchers who created Pecuaria Neutra to promote the production of greenhouse gas neutral livestock. He is the fourth generation of rancher in his family, but he has shifted to a more sustainable livestock production. The beef he produces is branded as Gran Beef, and it is certified by Rainforest Alliance, which has a set of sustainable livestock production standards. Working with Pecuaria Neutras Neutral Livestock Project, Andrade works to preserve the woodland that covers more than 40 percent of his farm and plant more trees.

10. Enonkishu Conservancy (Kenya): Lippa and Tarquin Wood

Based on principles of Holistic Management, Enonkishu Conservancy in Kenya strives to manage the Kenyan rangeland more sustainably and find a balance among livestock production, wildlife conservation, and Maasai communities livelihood and heritage. The Woods founded Mara Training Centre to provide training for the community to develop various skills in sustainable rangeland management, soil and water regeneration, and value chain development.

11. Fazenda Triqueda (Brazil): Leonardo Resende

Leonardo Resende operates Fazenda Triquesda in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Resende raises Brangus in a silvopasture, which integrates livestock with forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and to preserve water and soil. Resende co-founded Pecuaria Neutra and implemented the Neutral Livestock Project to promote regenerative livestock management practices and silvopastoral livestock production systems. The organizations certification programs examine soil health and greenhouse gas emissions from cattle, particularly enteric methane.

12. Fordhall Farm (United Kingdom): Ben Hollins

Fordhall Farm is a community-owned farm operated by a tenant farmer Ben Hollins in Shropshire, England. More than 8,000 memberslandlordspurchased through the Fordhall Community Land Initiative, which Hollins initiated alongside his sister Charlotte Hollins to prevent the farm from being sold for development. Hollins rears cattle, sheep, and pigs on the farm. They raise cattle and sheep using a permaculture-based outdoor grazing system called foggage farming that was developed by his father. In this system, animals live in the pasture all year round, including the winter season. In addition, Fordhalls Care Farming and Growing Confidence programs offer vulnerable youth and adults bountiful opportunities including livestock feeding and husbandry to develop their social skills, confidence, and a feeling of belonging to the community.

13. Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch (United States): Frank Reese

Frank Reese of Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Kansas raises heritage chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese. The breeds raised by Reese, such as Plymouth Barred Rock and Cornish, were once common but have now given way to more commercial breeds. Reese has been working to save such breeds from extinction by raising them according to the American Livestock Conservancy standards and bringing them back to todays marketplace.

14. Keggfarms (India): Vinod Kapur

Keggfarms Pvt. Ltd. in Gurgaon, India is a poultry breeding farm as well as a social enterprise founded by Vinod Kapur. Kapurs goal is to help poor rural communities by increasing household income, providing nutrition security, and empowering the women who take care of the chickens. Keggfarms developed a hybrid breed called Kuroiler, which can be consumed for both eggs and meat. Kuroiler is characterized by higher productivity and adaptability to the rural Indian environment; therefore, this breed requires less labour and resources to raise. Kapur has also established a distribution model pertinent to the rural areas so they can efficiently supply Kuroiler breeding stock throughout Indian villages.

15. Koddfarms Homestead (Nigeria)

Koddfarms is a farm in a wooded area in Ogun, Nigeria that rears cattle, pigs, and chickens; it is also a Savory Hub. The farm is dedicated to producing organic food and regenerating land through holistic management. Animals on the farm are naturally bred and raised in an open, chemical-free environment full of greenery. Koddfarms Training Center teaches soil and water regeneration to livestock producers and works for community development and empowerment.

16. Markegard Family Grass-fed (United States): Doniga Markegard

Markegard Family Grass-fed is a family farm located in California that produces grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured pork, and dairy products. In addition to practicing regenerative farming and holistic grazing, Doniga Markegard, co-owner of the farm, takes action to support farmers movements for policy and advocacy. The farm is also one of Holistic Management Internationals learning sites for farmers, providing courses with renowned experts on permaculture, keyline design for watershed stewardship, and raw milk production.

17. Niman Ranch Pork Company (United States): Paul Willis

Paul Willis, a fourth-generation hog farmer from Thornton, Iowa, is dedicated to preserving traditional hog farming, improving animal welfare, and practicing land stewardship. Willis established Niman Ranch Pork Company, a pork production division of Niman Ranch, after meeting Bill Niman, a cattle rancher and the founder of Niman Ranch, in 1995. Willis started buying hogs from family farmers who were being squeezed from the commodity market by factory farms to make family farming more viable. Willis worked together with animal welfare experts to write a detailed protocol for the farmers to follow. Confining hogs is forbidden, and the hogs should be raised without using antibiotics and growth promoting hormones. He also incentivizes the farmers to improve the eating quality of the pork they produce.

18. Polyface Farm (United States): Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin and his family raise cattle, pigs, rabbits, chickens, and turkeys at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Salatin moves cattle with the help of electric fencing to prevent overgrazing, allowing the grass to go through its lifecycle while the cattle are away. After the cattle, he moves chickens to different paddocks daily using mobile chicken coops, which provide the birds with shelter. Each animal has a role in the ecosystem of his farm. For instance, pigs like to root with their nose, which Salatin calls the pigness of the pig, and he relies on that instinct to aerate the mixture of deep bedding and cattle manure and urine so that aerobic microbes produce a compost pile. Salatin readily shares his knowledge and experience with others through his writing and public speaking, and his practices have been replicated by numerous farmers.

19. Ridgedale Farm (Sweden): Yohanna Amselem and Richard Perkins

Ridgedale Farm in Vstra mtervik, Sweden is operated by Richard Perkins and Yohanna Amselem. The farm produces pasture-raised chicken eggs and meat from cattle, hogs, chickens, and turkeys. Perkins and Amselem sell their products through REKO-Ring, a new distribution model popular in Northern European countries that directly connects farmers and consumers using Facebook groups. The farm also offers online courses as well as on-farm training jointly with co-teachers and guest speakers. Included is an upcoming class with Joel Salatin this year. Farmers and other interested individuals can learn about permaculture, regenerative farming, agroforestry systems, pasture-based livestock, holistic management, and the farms poultry slaughter facility. Perkins is also an author of a book on regenerative agriculture.

20. Savory Institute (United States): Allan Savory

Allan Savory is an ecologist and livestock farmer from Zimbabwe, who serves as the co-founder and president of the Savory Institute located in Boulder, Colorado. He has developed and promoted Holistic Management, a planning process to help farmers take care of soil health and make better decisions on when and where their cattle should graze on their land. Such planned grazing allows plants to recover and restart their lifecycle after having been exposed to cattle. The Savory Institute and leading scientists have also collaboratively developedEcological Outcome Verification (EOV), an evaluation scheme that informs farmers if their regenerative practices have actually resulted in the intended outcomes, namely the improved health of the soil and the ecosystem. The organization further utilizes the scheme to more directly connect regenerative farmers with brands and retailers through their Land-to-Market initiative.

21. Southern Blue Regenerative (Australia): Glen and Lucinda Chapman

In addition to raising sheep and cattle at Southern Blue Regenerative in New South Wales, Australia, Glen and Lucinda Chapman are dedicated to providing farmers with educational opportunities and helping them improve their own farm operations. Glen Chapman is an Accredited Savory Institute Holistic Management Educator and offers workshops and training programs on various topics including holistic planned grazing, soil health, biodynamic farming, and management skills. For individuals interested in learning about regenerative farming practices outside Australia, he runs international tours in the United States and Central and South America to visit farms and agricultural organizations such as the Polyface Farm and Rodale Institute.

22. Stepney City Farm (United Kingdom)

Stepney City Farm is an urban farm in East London, England. The farm started as a community farm called Stepping Stones Farm in 1979, and a charity has since taken over. One of the past projects implemented on the farm is The Pig Idea, where campaigners gathered unused food waste from London to feed eight pigs to demonstrate that food waste could be used as feed for pigs for environmental and financial sustainability. While the farm is a learning place for students and adults, it also runs a well-being program for seniors over 60 where they get to interact with animals like rabbits, goats, and sheep. Meat from pigs, goats, and sheep are also sold once a year at the farm.

23. The Calf at Foot Dairy (United Kingdom): Fiona Provan

Fiona Provan is the founder of The Calf at Foot Dairy in Suffolk, England. Provan puts each dairy cows health and well-being as the first priority. In the conventional dairy industry, calves are taken away soon after birth to maximize the amount of milk provided for human consumption. Alternatively, Provan allows her dairy cows to stay with their calves until the calf reaches 9 to 10 months old so that they can naturally wean.

24. The Way We Were Farm (India): Sanjay Bhalla

Sanjay Bhalla founded The Way We Were Farm in Noida, near New Delhi, India. Bhalla produces A2 milk (A1 and A2 milk contain different types of beta-casein milk protein) from Gir cows, a traditional desi cow breed in India. Bhalla endeavors to increase both public awareness and the consumption of A2 milk and hopes to promote the continued growth of traditional cattle breeds in India. Bhalla also merges cattle rearing with organic farming on his farm, thus mimicking the traditional ways of farming.

25. TK Ranch (Canada): Dylan and Colleen Biggs

TK Ranch has been producing grass-fed beef and lamb, pasture-raised heritage pork and poultry meat in the Northern Fescue Grasslands, an endangered ecosystem in Alberta, Canada, for more than 60 years. Due to its location, the farm is dedicated to preserving the prairie and providing habitats for wildlife in the area, while establishing a sustainable model for agriculture. In addition, the farm is well recognized for its low stress animal handling techniques for better herd management. Dylan Biggs has taught the techniques and other best practices through seminars and clinics to help others improve their communication and handling skills.

26. Tona Farm (India)

Tona Organic Farm in Tona Village in West Bengal, India was established in 2003 as an initiative of Bio-Diverse Farming Pvt. Ltd and is co-owned by farmers from the village. The farm is committed to providing organic food, including meat products free of antibiotics, at affordable prices while creating a healthy farm ecosystem. Zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100 percent waste recycling are among the goals that the farm works to achieve. Animal waste is converted into fertilizer for plants, and medicinal herbs are used to feed the animals. In addition, by offering industrial training and consultancy to village farmers, the farm aims to lead the community to self-reliance.

27. Walden Farm (China): Qiang Lin

Walden Farm is situated on the top of a hill in Northern Sichuan, China. Founded based on Taoism, they see farming as how they build a harmonious relationship with nature. Pigs, chickens, and goats have access to the forest where the goat has the role of maintaining the forest. Furthermore, the farm transforms pig waste into biogas using an anaerobic digester and uses it as cooking gas in the farms kitchen.

28. White Oak Pastures (United States): Will Harris

White Oak Pastures is a zero-waste farm located in Bluffton, Georgia and a Savory Hub committed to regenerating grasslands with help from properly managed livestock. Will Harris raised cattle conventionally using hormones, pesticides, and herbicides, but he made a dramatic shift to his farm in 1995 to grow cattle, goat, sheep, hogs, and chickens more naturally. At the White Oak Pastures on-farm abattoirs designed by Temple Grandinanimals are processed slowly and every part of the animal is used after slaughtering, including blood, bone, viscera, and fat. On-farm slaughter prevents animals from experiencing unnecessary stress during transport. Moreover, the farm is open for interested farmers and consumers who want to see how it uses the holistic planned grazing model and learn how to make useful items like candles and soaps using animal parts.

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28 Innovative Livestock Farmers Who are Shaping the Future of Protein - Food Tank

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April 3rd, 2020 at 2:51 am

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With COVID-19, CSAs Are Trending as Way to Shop – Eater

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Marnie Dresser never thought shed want to sign up for a CSA again. I tried it once and it felt like too much pressure, she says. I just wanted to go to the farmers market. Dresser is an English professor in Wisconsin and lives in a town so small that its store shelves didnt even empty of toilet paper as soon as the other places, as she describes it. But as spring break at the college where she teaches got extended and cases of COVID-19 continued to spread across the country, a CSA in which farmers sell shares of their produce before the season starts (often in the winter or spring, when money is tight for farmers but expenses for the upcoming growing season are high) and customers receive produce boxes throughout the CSA season started to sound more appealing.

Im kind of a worst-case-scenario thinker, Dresser says; she couldnt help but imagine all the ways that the novel coronavirus might affect society. I wanted to support a local business because I feel beyond lucky that my job still exists at the moment. And I wanted to ensure our food supply.

Shell start getting her first CSA box in mid-April from a business called My Fine Homestead. Dresser signed up for a years supply of vegetables, eggs, and meat. Theres so many unknowns and it felt really good to have something within my control I could do to help, Dresser explains, adding, It was very much pandemic-driven.

While restaurants and other small businesses throughout the country are temporarily closing, CSA-like food subscriptions or one-off box deliveries of local food are skyrocketing in demand. Though some grocery stores are adding precautions, such as limiting the number of customers in the store, marking spots on the floor to keep people waiting in line six-feet apart, and cleaning registers, they are some of the last places where large numbers of people regularly gather as the nation faces guidance to stay home. Many shoppers (and grocery employees) are worried they might come into contact with COVID-19 while doing their shopping, and are limiting trips to the store. Despite the fact that there have been no major disruptions to the food supply, there are regular shortages of flour, eggs, chicken, ground beef, and toilet paper, among other staples. Food subscriptions that offer home delivery or a prepaid pickup option are an easy way to get fresh food while limiting social contact.

Though Gathering Together, a farm in Oregon, doesnt start its CSA until June, company marketing specialist Sarah Reffett says that they wanted to do something in the meantime to bring fresh produce to their usual customers and make up financial losses from closed farmers markets and restaurants, a major source of income. Unlike the CSA, which requires a multi-months commitment, the VSA (which stands for vitality supported agriculture, as Gathering Together is calling it) can be ordered weekly and picked up or delivered right to customers front doors, depending on location. The first day we put it up, the website actually crashed, Reffett says.

In addition to starting earlier in the year, many pre-existing CSAs are starting programs that allow customers to get home delivery or sign up for a shorter period of time one or a few weeks instead of a season or a year, as is more typical. Often these coronavirus-related CSA programs are given new names to differentiate them from the typical offering.

Growing Washington is calling its offering an emergency CSA. Usually CSA customers could expect their boxes to be full of hyperlocal, organic produce and add-ons like coffee or meats. Now, in the emergency CSA, instead of members choosing what goes in the box, there will be a set supply for everyone. The only choice? Whether the box of produce is small or large, says employee Gabrielle Santerre. Growing Washington may have to source from larger farms than usual to meet the increased demand. (Its own farms production is still limited this early in the year.) Its primary focus is to keep our farm afloat and provide food for people in need, Santerre says. Despite the restrictions, Growing Washington had to stop accepting new orders 48 hours after launching the emergency CSA through an email blast. We capped it at about 1,300 shares, Santerre says. Typically in the first weeks of the CSA there might be 100 or 200 people, with more added throughout the season as word spreads. Growing Washington never had so much demand so quickly. Its taken everyone by surprise. I feel like Ive lived two lifetimes in the last week, Santerre says.

Usually, Growing Washington delivers CSA boxes to pickup locations throughout the Seattle metropolitan area. Because so many customers are staying in their homes, the farm decided to try something new. Hosts can now sign up to be a pay it forward location; CSA drop-offs will still occur as usual, but the host will individually deliver boxes to people who need it nearby. We dont do door-to-door delivery, but wanted it to be available, Santerre says, and shes been pleasantly surprised by the many hosts who have agreed. People want to feel like they can do something in these times, she says. Were a little nervous, but hopefully they follow through.

At Oregons Gathering Together, Reffett says that because its the off-season they have a limited staff, and she expects there to be some streamlining in the future for getting deliveries packed and out the door. The whole thing took off so quickly and were still figuring out the logistics of it all and whats the best way of getting this person their order effectively, Reffett says. Gathering Together has always offered customers the option of donating additional money to help reduce the price of CSAs for families who need financial assistance, and the fund is extremely popular. Shes seen donations of $5, $40, and even $200 with weekly orders.

Its interesting to see how everybody is pivoting, says Meesha Halm, a San Francisco-based food writer and author of Sous Vide Made Simple. Its such a shame all those food-delivery kit companies went under last year, because theyd be making a killing right now. Halm has been restricting her trips to the grocery store to essential runs, though its a hard habit to break. Im used to darting out and getting what I want, but the risks outweigh the benefit for me, Halm says. She has four people in her household, including someone who is immunocompromised. So every little bit of spinach and fresh produce is precious, she says. When a local fish company, Four Star Seafood, started offering delivery in her area, it was a no brainer to sign up for delivery. I got my first order yesterday and there was no box or excessive packagingjust a guy showing up with bags of fresh fish, Halm says. Shes also put in an order for mushrooms with Far West Fungi. Ordering from businesses like these, Halm says, is a win-win for my family.

Though businesses that take on box deliveries have to manage the logistics of getting these products to customers, its led to a boom time for some small food suppliers that might otherwise be struggling as restaurants and farmers markets close. Groce Family Farm, a sustainable meat producer based in southern Indiana just an hour away from Louisville, Kentucky, relied on local restaurants for 60 percent of its business. Farmers markets are still open (the last two weeks Groce Family Farm has had record-breaking sales), though vendors are spaced far apart, and owner Luke Groce went from doing farmers markets himself to bringing people on to grab orders from the coolers for customers and another to handle money. We dont do coins anymore and just round to the nearest dollar, Groce says.

Groce started getting messages from people interested in his usual CSA two weeks ago and decided to put a number of large home delivery boxes for sale on his website. Theyre between $150 to $200 in value, Groce says, full retail price with the delivery fee included for the Louisville metro area. They sold 75 boxes in a flash. One way I put it is that in eight days, I did eight weeks of sales, and thats with restaurants not ordering, Groce says. It more than made up for the loss in sales from our regular customers. Hes heard similar stories from farmers across the country who offer home delivery. Throughout the United States, people are stocking up their freezers.

Though it varies from business to business and its unclear how long the sudden interest in home delivery will last, for the moment, these companies are among the few to be benefiting from the new normal sweeping the world. Its strange, with so many people being both fearful for their health and all this economic wreckage, to be profiting in a way we almost never have, Groce says. Well see what the new normal is, but I think that were doing okay. Thats no small thing for a farmer in America today.

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With COVID-19, CSAs Are Trending as Way to Shop - Eater

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April 3rd, 2020 at 2:51 am

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Tips For the Conscious Eater On Cooking In the Age of Coronavirus – WDET

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Houseboundduring coronavirus-related shutdowns,many Michiganders may be donning their chef hats, maybe for the firsttime.

But the art of whipping together a delectable dinner using ingredients on-handisnt easy, and staying healthy and preserving food while doing it is evenharder.

Sophie Eganis the author ofHow To Be A Conscious Eater. She says theres two crises society facestoday.

Theres alack of food literacy and confidence in the kitchen, and this is understandable. - Sophie Egan,author

Cristin Young

Egan.

Above all Ithink what the virus shows us is how interconnected we are as aglobal community, says Egan, The climate crisis is also an emergency, [even though]its slower moving and may beharder tosee.

But, she says people have an opportunity to meet these challenges: three times a day. For Egan,the three biggest things anyone can do to eat consciously are to waste less, eat a plant-rich diet and support soil healththrough buying organic or regeneratively grownfoods.

But first, Egan says home chefs should switch theirmindset.

Theres alack of food literacy and confidence in the kitchen, and this is understandable, says Egan. Television and social media can make cooking feel intimidating, but it doesnt have tobe.

Egantalks with WDETs Annamarie Sysling about some of the important culinary tips laid out in her book and explains how they can be incorporated into life during the Coronaviruspandemic.

WDET is here to keep you informed onessential information, news and resources related to COVID-19.

This is a stressful, insecure time for many. So its more important than ever for you, our listeners and readers, who are able todonate to keep supporting WDETs mission. Please make a gift today.

Egan says the secret ingredient to cooking at home are the ones in you already have inyourpantry.

And when it comes to using processed foods, agood rule of thumb is, do you have that ingredient in your pantry? Egan says, pointing out that when looking at ingredients, its important that you recognize the items listed. If it sounds like a non-food substance, you might want to question consumingit.

To simplify things, Egan, a busy mom, says she prefers working withfive ingredients or less during theweek.

Her second piece of advice:A good knife goes a longway.

Egan notes thata good knife isnt the same as an expensive knife. Just make sure youreworking with a sharp utensil. Itll make a really bigdifference.

Choosing a recipe for a home-cooked meal can present its own challenges. Especially when using prepared, processed foods like a jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce, forinstance.

Egan points out while fewer ingredients on a packaged food label might seem like the best option, sometimes a long ingredient list is okaytoo.

For example, salsa or spaghetti sauce containseveral ingredients, but many are simply spices thatcontribute to texture and flavor. The items in the ingredient list to watch out for are the ones you dontrecognize.

Becauseingredients go in descending order by weight, the first ingredient is the most important, Egan says. For packaged goods, she says youwant it to be a whole, plant-based food you recognize like peanuts oroats.

For canned food, Egan says to pay special attention to the nutrition facts on the label, especially the saturated fat andsodium.

Our pantries are where we spendtime, but Egan says the freezer is an under-utilized,additional storagespace.

Think about our freezers, theres an abundanceof opportunityto make food last longer, shesays.

When shopping,Egan says, frozen organic produce is less expensive and just as nutritious as the fresh option. The same goes for wild-caughtseafood.

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Tips For the Conscious Eater On Cooking In the Age of Coronavirus - WDET

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April 3rd, 2020 at 2:51 am

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Diet: Worlds smartest food can improve reaction times and decision making by 10% – Express

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This revolutionary British smart food brand has created the worlds smartest food that can improve reaction times and decision making by 10 percent. Who doesnt want to be quicker and smarter? I certainly do and some colleagues and family will be thinking I definitely need to be.

The idea of speeding up my reactions and decision making caught my attention. About two months ago, I joined a cricket club with the intention of playing competitively for the first time in 37 years and was nervous.

As part of the plan not to humiliate myself on the field, I was on a diet, going to the gym and was using vision training website Eyegym to improve my reaction time and decision making.

This was a perfect opportunity to test out Human Foods Organic Daily Nutrition Bars and boost my chances of doing more than ok with the bat and ball.

Not only that, creator Ky Wright, who spent four years working with nutritionists, professional athletes and doctors to come up with the formula for his vegan bars, said they were packed with ingredients that would stave off hunger for longer than standard nutrition bars.

And its a subscription service so the bars are delivered to your door, which is also handy in these awkward times where going to the shops is not a simple experience anymore. The claims improving reaction times and feeling full are backed up by the results of clinical trials at the University of Swansea where participants were put through the Stroop Colour Word Test where a colour is spelled out in letters of a different shade to the word eg black written in red lettering.

Human Food have three types of bar.

All contain 20 ingredients and extracts including cacao, maca, ginseng, hemp seeds and omega 3.

On top of this, the red bar is flavoured with goji berries, the green spirulina and yellow is laden with turmeric.

According to Dr Richard Bracken, a sports scientist who carried out the study at the University of Swansea, the turmeric version was the most effective.

In his report he said: The Yellow Bar demonstrated, compared to the control, a greater number of completed responses, as well as more accurate and faster responses over the entirety of the two hour observation period, with an improvement in reaction time of over 10 percent."

"All bars showed an initial rise in perceived fullness that was sustained throughout the whole two hour observation period. The combination of a low, blood glucose response combined with sustained satiety is conducive to maintaining a healthy balanced diet that's proportional in calories to the needs of the body.

My experience with the bars was not carried out under the same scientific conditions but I did see some similar changes.

Over the space of a week, I had one bar every morning with a pint of water then within an hour did an online reaction test on the University of Washingtons website and a 10 minute session on the eyegym.

The reaction test involved hitting the space bar when the red light turned green.

On the first day my average over five attempts was 0.319.

By the seventh day it was 0.272.

My eyegym performance which is not solely about straight reaction times also appeared to have improved by 0.08 seconds.

What all that will mean on the cricket field I do not know, but it wont hurt.

I hesitate to say this is all down to Human Food, as daily practice on the tests has its own benefits but the science says eating the bars probably played a part in the improvements.

Even if they did not, I found them a decent breakfast.

My favourite was the red.

They are dense and chewy but tasty.

And I definitely felt full for several hours after so gone was the morning craving for snacks.

I always ate them as bars but the makers say they can be blended into a smoothie, mixed with muesli or porridge and used as a pre- or post-workout snack.

They work as part of a diet because it is easy to cut back on food and lose out on vital nutrition.

These vegan bars are packed with vitamins and minerals so one bar is equal to half the recommended daily intake of calcium, iron and vitamins D and B1.

They also have 100 per cent of the vitamin B12 needed every day to stave off conditions such as anaemia.

According to the literature, none of the nutrients are synthetic either.

Ky Wright, the founder of Human Food said: Our unique recipe has been created by a team of leading health experts, including doctors and nutritionists, to create the worlds most nutritionally-dense organic food. By only using 100 percent wholefood nutrients and no synthetics, we produce a far more bioavailable and effective product.

Ethical consumers, will be pleased to know that all the wrapping is either compostable or recyclable and the company reinvests 50 percent of its profits to research and development.

The bars are also the first of their kind to be certified EU organic.

Human Foods Organic Daily Nutrition Bars (RRP: 3.30 per bar) are available via the brands website and can be purchased individually, as a two-week trial pack (RRP: 33.00) or as part of a monthly subscription (RRP: 66.00 for 20 bars).

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Diet: Worlds smartest food can improve reaction times and decision making by 10% - Express

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April 3rd, 2020 at 2:51 am

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Bangkok’s shuttered restaurants fight the virus gloom – Nikkei Asian Review

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BANGKOK -- Measures to protect the public from COVID-19 have transformed daily life in Bangkok, as elsewhere. But the food and beverage industry, its survival threatened by a ban on on-site dining, is fighting back with a wide range of emergency strategies.

Restaurants have been hit hard by the pandemic, which has slashed tourist arrivals as well as stoppedlocals going out to dinner: International visitor arrivals plunged by 91.15% in the first 20 days of March, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Association of Thai Travel Agents.

While no one questions the sagacity of a government decree restricting food sellers to takeout and delivery, many businesses feared they would collapse without on-site dining. Some went into fire-sale mode, offering perishables from live lobsters to wheels of French cheese at bargain prices.

Others had already turned to delivery services for new sources of revenue. While ordering cooked food from street stalls and food courts is routine in the Thai capital, it is unusual to see the multicourse menu of a two-star Michelin restaurant in takeaway containers.

Chef Chumpol Jangprai of R. Haan offered his elaborate Thai dinner for home delivery in 19 individual packets and trays ranging from the amuse-bouches to petits fours, along with a detailed list of instructions, color-coded tags for serving the dishes at room temperature or gently reheating and -- virus oblige -- hand sanitizers for each guest.

Some of the city's most promising new restaurants were left floundering. But Zenaida Vannaying, owner of Lola's Kitchen, a Filipino restaurant that opened its doors to packed houses and rave reviews in January, vowed to fight on primarily for her staff, delivering steaming dishes of bulalo and kaldereta to customers. Vannaying said she is committed "100%" to maintaining service, unless staff safety is threatened.

Another familiar face on the Bangkok dining scene, award-winning celebrity chef Gaggan Anand, recently opened the eponymous fine-dining Gaggan Anand and the casual Indian-Mexican fusion restaurant Ms. Maria and Mr. Singh. Plans to keep the former location open by teaming up with Suhring (in which he is also a partner) were announced and then scuppered by the restrictions.

But Anand, in self-isolation because of a sore throat (he later tested negative for the virus) said he planned to stay in business by selling wraps and curries from the fusion restaurant's menu -- a far cry from the playful spectacle and dizzying price tags that are his trademark.

"We all have to look at surviving," he said. "But it's going to be a very tough time in the next six months."

Others have launched new products that reflect their sense of community. Community-Supported Agriculture boxes from Bo.lan Grocer are packed with a potluck of organic produce similar to the ingredients used in Bo.lan, a restaurant known as much for its exacting approach to sustainability as its heady Thai flavors.

"[The boxes] raise awareness of ethical, sustainable produce and food security," said Dharath Hoonchamlong, Bo.lan's environmental manager. "It supports local producers, especially in this time when it's harder for them to access markets," he added. "We need to help them sustain their livelihood." The boxes are delivered with easy-to-follow recipes for the most seasonal ingredients.

When the in-house dining ban was announced, Garima Arora of Gaa, named best female chef in Asia in 2019, thought first of her fellow chefs around town. "It's not a good feeling to be packing away your restaurant not knowing when you will be back again," Arora said. So she decided to send out gifts of cheese and wine, each accompanied with an uplifting handwritten note. "I guess I thought all my friends must feel the same. So we made a little care package to let them know we're all in this together."

Social media has been an obvious platform for bringing the industry together. The popular website Bangkok Foodies has created the hashtag #eatitforward, encouraging people to order from local businesses, post descriptions of their meals to social media to promote the businesses involved, and push their friends to do the same.

The website's creator and local food guru Samantha Proyrongtong is also busy dispensing tips for businesses and customers. Now is the time to try new things, eat local and write online reviews of favorite places, she advises. Another tip: Buying a voucher for a future meal gives restaurants much-needed cash now.

"It's kicking off for sure," she said, with #eatitforward gaining traction even abroad. "There have been only positive reactions so far."

Chef Deepanker Khosla, who has pioneered urban farming at Haoma, sees an immediate need to provide help for tens of thousands of immigrant workers, primarily from Myanmar, who worked in kitchens as stewards, cleaners and back waiters but have lost their jobs and do not qualify for government assistance.

"No one goes hungry," said Khosla, who has appealed for donations from individuals and other restaurateurs. "Do I have the money to do this? No. Do I have the will? Yes," Khosla said, adding that donations to his crowdfunding page totaled nearly $3,000 on the first day.

He calculates that a healthy meal wrapped in a sustainable banana leaf can be produced for less than 50 cents, including immunity-boosting ingredients such as turmeric and ginger. In its first night on the streets his team distributed 2,000 meals; it aims to reach 10,000.

Bangkok's restaurateurs are not alone in their efforts to help their local community. In Malaysia, for example, Fruiti King, headquartered in the Klang Valley, is delivering free popsicles to locals, hospitals and police stations. Founder Max Teh said the idea was "to share some joy with the folks in this very depressing and distressing virus outbreak period" in the form of the company's bestselling Musang King durian ice creams and other fruit-based flavors.

In Hong Kong, Black Sheep Restaurants, a group of 25 venues that includes some of the city's best-known eateries, is doing what it can to safeguard the most vulnerable members of its 1,000-plus staff. Chef Daniel Calvert, of the flagship restaurant Belon, ranked fourth on the 2020 list of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (announced on March 24 in the midst of the crisis) is focusing not on celebration but on solidarity.

"We're fighting for our own community," he said. "And for Hong Kong. It's getting tough."

A year before the virus hit, the group started an in-house Family Fund that will now be diverted to provide necessities for staffers in difficult situations. Proceeds from sales of Belon's signature Three Yellow Roast Chicken dish and a special menu dubbed A Feast for Our Family also will go to personnel in need.

In Singapore, L.G. Han, the chef at the Michelin-starred Labyrinth, is delivering free meals to health care workers at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and other public hospitals, in collaboration with several other local businesses. "It started when many Singaporean medical workers were rejected from coffee shops and restaurants because of fears of being exposed to the virus," he said.

Han decided to set aside corkage fees and a cut of every dinner and bottle of wine he sold. Pezzo Group offered pizza, bento boxes and chicken rice sets, while Diya Tan of Sanity Coffee pledged coffee. Keng Eng Kee (KEK), Jam at Siri House and other businesses have also made donations in cash and kind.

Han said he recognizes that helping others is not always easy. All food and beverage businesses are struggling as the pandemic worsens, with rising numbers of cases in many Asian countries.

But "giving is giving, even if the business takes a hit," he said, summing up his philosophy: "We can help. We have food, we can give, and we have heart."

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Bangkok's shuttered restaurants fight the virus gloom - Nikkei Asian Review

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April 3rd, 2020 at 2:51 am

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Kourtney Kardashian Has a Healthy Bacon Mac and Cheese Recipe You Can Try at Home – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

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TheKardashian-Jenner clancan definitely afford to have chefs cook their meals for them but Mama Kris and her daughters have spent some time perfecting their own dishes in the kitchen.

Kourtney Kardashian is one of the most health-conscious of all her sisters. Although she admitted she does allow herself to have some cheat days, she cut out processed foods and recently began the keto diet. But Kourtney has admitted that macaroni and cheese is the perfect comfort food. Read on to find out a healthy way you can make the dish just like the reality star.

The mother of three has become an advocate for clean-eating.

I felt like there wasnt really [a resource] for a woman who is healthy and into wellness but also sexy and cool, the Poosh founder said during an interview with Health Magazine. There is this image out there of the woman who cares about eating organic and feeding her kids that way that is somehow uncool. Thats not the case, and I wanted to make something that embodied my passions and interests.

Kourtney also told the publication, In my house, we are gluten and dairy-free. My skin is very sensitive, and if I eat dairy, it affects it. I love doing a keto diet, though Im not doing it now. I noticed my body change for the better. I love intermittent fasting. I try to do that all the time. Sometimes if Ive had a normal day of eating and Im pretty full, instead of having dinner, Ill have some bone broth, especially if Im not feeling well or starting to get sick.

So you must be wondering how Kourtney makes bacon mac and cheese on a gluten and dairy-free diet. Well, she uses all organic ingredients and gluten-free noodles as well as non-dairy cheeses.Oh and she still does use bacon; turkey bacon that is. The eldest of the Kar-Jenner siblings previously shared her recipe with People.

To make Kourtneys turkey bacon macaroni and cheese youll need the following ingredients:

*Serves 8 to 10

6 tbsp. organic butter 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper 3 cups organic pepper jack cheese (or a non-dairy cheese substitute like Kourtney uses) 3 cups organic mild cheddar cheese (or a non-dairy cheese substitute) 1 package of gluten-free macaroni noodles 1 tsp. dry mustard 5 cups almond milk cup organic flour 1 package pre-cooked and crisped chopped organic turkey bacon

Then, follow these step-by-step instructions:

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Next, prepare the noodles according to package directions.

Melt butter, then add in flour, salt, dry mustard, pepper, and almond milk. Stir for 10 minutes until thick, over medium heat. Then add in the cheese and melt completely.

Pour cheese over fully cooked noodles and mix well before placing it in an oven-safe pan or dish. Finally, bake for approximately 45 minutes until crisp.

Read more: Kris Jenner Has a Famous Lemon Cake Recipe That You Can Try At Home

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Kourtney Kardashian Has a Healthy Bacon Mac and Cheese Recipe You Can Try at Home - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

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Organic cultivation brings to the climate, nothing? View – The KXAN 36 News

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farmers converting to organic farming, produce less greenhouse gases. Organic is better for the climate, is it? May not. Because At the end of a lot of or even more emissions are still the same, as if they would produce with conventional methods. Why this is so, scientists from Cranfield University in the UK investigated, and the results in the journal Nature Communications published.

the Team of agricultural economists Laurence Smith calculated how much greenhouse gases would arise if England and Wales would completely switch to organic farming. The result: The emissions of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide in agriculture declining to 20 percent, the emissions in the Livestock sector to four per cent.

And now comes the big But: the yield of The organically farmed fields would be about a 40 percent lower. In order to compensate for this, we would need more arable land. Or is it more food would have to be imported. If a quarter of the required agricultural area of green won the country and the lack of food would be imported, would be the organic farming about the same climate-harmful to the environment as a conventional management. The Organic energy saved CO2-Equivalents were elsewhere.

to be Running in Switzerland, exactly the same

The differences are large, especially because organic farming foregoes synthetic fertilizer. The nitrogen that a Plant needs to Grow, gets you to an organic farm from compost, biomass from Preculture, manure and slurry. An adapted crop rotation could increase the income, but the loss of Production not aufwgen, as the authors write.

organic farming is less productive, it can absorb but also, for example, more carbon from the air and bind. The additional emissions due to the Import not be able to compensate but.

The new study explicitly refers to the United Kingdom, the results are also valid for the local agriculture. In Switzerland, the same mechanisms are at work, says Adrian Mller from the research Institute of organic agriculture (FiBL) in Frick. The emissions would decrease in the domestic, abroad is on the rise.

Better basic water, greater species diversity

Quite agree the science is not, however. There are several studies that have emerged at the greenhouse gas emissions of organic foods, some of which come to different conclusions. The results have a large bandwidth, in their totality, but a good Overview, says Mller. The bottom line is they came to the conclusion that organic farming per kilogram of product is causing more greenhouse gases than conventional agriculture, which depends strongly distinguished from the Income.

Brings Bio-climate so theres nothing? Not quite. Organic farming has some advantages. It protects, for example, the ground water and promotes the biodiversity. The consumer would also change your eating habits, would be the Organic farming in the emission balance is much more rewarding, the English scientist.

For the most emissions, the Livestock industry is causing. This means that the consumer would have to consume less meat and more food like potatoes and beans. Adrian Mller confirms this: With consumption change could also produce with high amounts of organic, climate-friendly, he says.

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Organic cultivation brings to the climate, nothing? View - The KXAN 36 News

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EarthRenew Develops New Organic Fertilizer Formulation With Higher NPK In Collaboration With CCm Technologies And Launches New Website | INN -…

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EarthRenew has partnered with CCm to develop and test new organic fertilizer product formulations.

Highlights:

EarthRenew Inc. (CSE:ERTH) (EarthRenew or the Company) is pleased to announce that recent product formulation testing with CCm Technologies Limited (CCm), a United Kingdom-based company, has resulted in several potential innovations and processes for converting waste organic streams into high quality organic fertilizer products. We anticipate that the outcomes of these tests will help create a higher value organic fertilizer product for EarthRenew.

EarthRenew sent samples to CCm at the beginning of January 2020 to investigate how CCms award-winning carbon capture and utilization technology could improve the nutrient profile of EarthRenews existing product formulation. Using EarthRenews feedstock as a base, CCm was able to produce a 7-1.7-2.2 NPK ratio organic fertilizer product. This exciting result gives us reason to believe that implementing CCms technology into our own processes could lead to the development of a wide range of specialist formulations in the future.

CEO Keith Driver commented, As we finalize our redevelopment plans at the Strathmore Plant, we have the opportunity to implement new technologies and processes to create additional higher value products for organic gardeners and farmers who will use EarthRenews fertilizers. Using CCms technology, we hope to develop specific formulations to meet the needs of different plants and growing conditions that are competitive with the nutrient inputs of conventional fertilizer. Our plan is to develop an integrated, sustainable system that maximizes the efficacy of the waste that is being transformed into organic fertilizer. In addition to our collaboration with CCm, we have various other initiatives under development to accomplish these goals.

The three numbers generally published on fertilizer product packages represent the value of the three macro-nutrients used by plants. These macro-nutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), or NPK for short. The higher the number, the more concentrated the nutrient is in the fertilizer. Nitrogen is largely responsible for the growth of leaves on the plant, phosphorus is largely responsible for root growth and flower and fruit development and potassium is a nutrient that helps the overall functions of the plant perform correctly. EarthRenew in its original product formulation has a 1.8-1-1.6 NPK ratio pelleted fertilizer product. In addition to delivering NPK nutrients, EarthRenew fertilizer also helps with water retention, builds organic carbon content and provides soil aeration to help grow healthy plants.

Organic fertilizer products sell in the wholesale market for between C$250-$2,000 per tonne, depending on formulation with particular emphasis on nitrogen content. With the addition of CCms technology, we anticipate that EarthRenew will be able to increase the organic nitrogen content of its pelleted fertilizer, creating a higher value product. By increasing the nitrogen content of our fertilizer from 1.8% to 7%, EarthRenew expects be able to sell this product at a correspondingly higher price, thereby capturing at least some portion of the 4 times multiple increase in nitrogen content. We expect that by utilizing CCms technology in producing our fertilizer products, we will differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We recognize that there are currently only a limited number of other products available in EarthRenews target markets that provide this nutrient profile in an air-seedable pellet.

CCms processing technology is designed such that it can bolt on to our redesigned facility and seamlessly integrate into our commercial production redevelopment plan. We therefore believe that incorporating CCms technology into our processes will allow us to produce and wholesale an organic fertilizer for broad applications.

EarthRenew also advises that it has launched a new website which can be found atwww.earthrenew.ca.

CEO Keith Driver commented, We encourage shareholders to visit our newly launched website to learn more about EarthRenews production process, redevelopment plans and future product offerings. We will continue to expand on the information on the website to keep shareholders, production partners and future consumers fully informed about our progress and the sustainable environmental benefits of the EarthRenew production process and resulting organic fertilizer.

EarthRenew Grants Stock Options

EarthRenew also announced it has granted a total of 1,000,000 stock options to a consultant of the Company pursuant to the Companys stock option plan. 250,000 of such options vest on the date of the grant and the remaining 750,000 stock options vest in equal increments of 250,000 every three months thereafter. Each option may be exercised to acquire one common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.10 per option for a period of five years from the date of grant. This grant of options is subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About CCm Technologies Ltd.

CCm Technologies Ltd., previously CCm Research Ltd., is an award winning cleantech company, focused on resource optimisation, including Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU). CCms technology converts captured carbon dioxide and other waste streams (such as ammonia and phosphate) into stable value-added materials with multiple uses across global priority sectors of food/agriculture, advanced materials & energy storage. CCm is based in Oxford and Swindon, UK, and was established in 2011. CCm is a founding member of the recently formed Sustainable Markets Council, an initiative of HRH the Prince of Wales with the support of the World Economic Forum. The company has also received the coveted Solar Impulse Foundation Efficient Solutions Label.www.ccmtechnologies.co.uk.

About EarthRenew

EarthRenew transforms livestock waste into a high-performanceorganic fertilizer to be used by organic and traditional growers in North America. Located on a 25,000 head cattle feedlot, our flagship Strathmore plant is capable of producing up to four megawatts (MW) per hour of low-cost electricity powered by a natural gas fired turbine. The exhausted heat from the turbine is used to convert the manure into certified organic fertilizer.

For additional information, please contact:

Keith Driver CEO of EarthRenew Phone: (403) 860-8623 E-mail:kdriver@earthrenew.ca

Cautionary Note regarding Forward-LookingInformation

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to EarthRenews ability to sell electricity to the electrical grid or to cryptocurrency miners, EarthRenews ability to execute its business plan, our commercial production facility redevelopment plan, implementing CCms technology into our processes, the evaluation and implementation of various technologies to increase and maximize the efficacy of our fertilizers, our ability to increase the organic nitrogen content of our pelleted fertilizer, our ability to develop specialist formulations in the future, anticipated future electricity prices in Alberta, the granting of stock options, the information available on our website and EarthRenews proposed business activity. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; regulatory risks; and other risks of the energy, fertilizer and cryptocurrency industries. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Click here to connect with EarthRenew Inc. (CSE:ERTH) for an Investor Presentation.

Source

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EarthRenew Develops New Organic Fertilizer Formulation With Higher NPK In Collaboration With CCm Technologies And Launches New Website | INN -...

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Urban farming is the future of healthy living – DAWN.com

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Exploring the ins and outs of how you can begin to start growing in your own backyards and balconies.

Whether its a window, balcony, garage, patio or lawn what makes urban farming a particularly viable avocation in our fast-paced daily lives is that it can be tailored to fit the budget and space you have at hand.

And while eating food youve grown yourself sits at the junction of fulfilment, tradition and modernity, adapting to a rapidly changing world and new ways of eating it isn't an easy feat.

In fact, it requires seriousness and commitment.

Essentially, urban farming is all about growing food in a densely populated city or urban environment for sale, barter or consumption, and varies greatly in terms of productivity and scale and even extends to include raising animals as well.

In Pakistan, there exists a growing urban farming community that is not only involved in promoting sustainability and adaptive food consumption but also in encouraging habits of slow food, organic eating, buying local, seasonal produce and using traceable ingredients in cooking.

By speaking to those who know the ins and outs of urban farming and gardening, Images explores how you can begin to start growing in your own backyards and balconies.

Years ago, Sanaa Zubairi started her garden when she and her aunt decided to bring a dormant turai (gourd) creeper back to life in their yard with their gardeners help. It worked, and they added a few banana trees and a lemon tree.

They grew well and we had a lot of fruit, says Zubairi, a 36-year-old mental health counsellor, clinical supervisor and life coach.

Our maali started teaching me about [farming] since he had done it before in his village. Gradually, we experimented, researched online, picked up ideas and added more vegetables to the garden.

Zubairi and her aunt were never alone on their journey. The pair was inspired early on by others in their circle with already thriving kitchen gardens and consulted with their local Karachi chapter of Ikebana International the 20,000-strong international organisation to promote the Japanese art of flower arrangement where members meet once a month for workshops, lectures and discussions of plant and flower-related subjects and Tofiq Pasha, a renowned local farmer who regularly opens his farm to the public for planting workshops and lessons.

Along the way, we started hearing a lot about others growing their own food. I also met with Tofiq Pasha and saw his farm. It was pretty clear it is possible to grow [food] at home. The best part is opening up my window to a lush garden every morning, seeing the fruit hanging all around. Theres nothing like picking your own food, heading into the kitchen and cooking up a storm.

Zubairi revealed that for the past six or seven years, they havent needed to purchase the vegetables they already grow at home. That includes loki, turai, karaila and kakri, as well as spinach for six to eight months of the year and seasonal veggies besides.

There is always something that you can grow even if you don't have resources. Our pantries are packed with seeds; potatoes, garlic and ginger are always available to begin with. When you don't have everything listed in a gardening book or website, then you truly learn how to be creative and how nature finds a way to keep producing.

We have our lemons, basil and mint throughout the year. Seasonal vegetables like broccoli, tomato, eggplant, coriander and peppers keep us going for some months. We've added more fruit and have been enjoying mulberries (shaitoot) for a while now.

Every season, she says, We assess what we want to grow that time around and how much. Some stuff we manage to freeze as well and use whenever.

With a lot of produce coming through, Zubairi shares it with family, friends and house staff, and has also set up a barter system with other growers like her.

Seema Khuled has been regularly conducting gardening workshops and training sessions across Lahore and Islamabad for years.

Each session is three hours long and begins with basic theory the hows and whys followed by a tea break and an interactive practice session.

Workshops are registration-based and cover the basics like organic kitchen gardening, but also go beyond for the more serious enthusiasts with sessions on bonsai, vertical gardening, espaliering and growing mushrooms.

We have quite an informal interactive session where the participants are at ease to ask [questions] and understand. The best part which is very encouraging is that participants execute all the ideas that we discuss during the workshop, says Khuled.

I am always there whenever they need any further guidance but they are well equipped to try on their own.

And the interactive guidance goes beyond the weekend workshops. Khuled helps run Our Gardens, a Facebook group with over 114,000 members who use the platform for everything from help identifying plants (Is this lettuce edible?), to advice on techniques (Will this trellis be strong enough to hold up my vine?; Should I repot or transfer this into the ground?) to why their tomatoes arent thriving.

People also trade seeds and plants there are even giveaways from time to time and share photos and videos of the literal fruits of their labour for others to see. Plus, lots of wholesome memes.

I believe that nobody knows everything but everybody knows something. That is why an urban gardening community is important, says Khuled.

Everyone has something to contribute [with their] experience and knowledge.

Though she'd always had an affinity for nature and the outdoors since childhood, Karachi-based sustainability educator and writer Zahra Ali became a full-time urban farmer in 2008 after she had an accident that caused her to put her career on hold as a result.

During that one year, I asked myself, what will really make me happy if I had no pressures from society and no worry about my future?

I wanted to grow my own food and since then, I have found my way in the most magical ways possible. I gave up my career, which was all about consumerism and was totally not making me happy. It was a daring thing to do back then but amazing things happen when you follow your heart.

Around the same time, she started Crops In Pots, a blog that has since blossomed into a community of urban farmers and led to other projects and initiatives. Organic City, the organisation she started with her husband Yasir Husain, holds horticulture therapy sessions with The Recovery House, runs an heirloom seed bank and opened up the Organic City Eco-Store in 2016.

Then theres The Learning Garden, an initiative that promotes sustainability and conservation in schools through classroom and experiential learning via planting and caring for an organic vegetable patch. Over 7,000 children have participated in the programme over the last 12 years.

I learned gardening skills mainly through reading online and emailing experts from around the world who were very supportive. I watched [videos] and practised. That is why I started my blog in 2008: to share what works and what doesn't, says Ali.

I also got in touch with a group of urban farmers in the Philippines that emerged after the [2004] tsunami hit their area. They used trash to make fertilisers and planters; that truly inspired me.

At home and in the gardens she manages across the city, Ali mainly grows organic heirloom vegetables, herbs and fruits in containers or grow boxes and native trees for tree plantations, along with flowers, which help attract pollinating bees.

Flowers are always a part of any organic and permaculture garden. I have grown all kinds of plants, from orchids, cacti, bonsai [to] tropical and water plants as well. All these years, I have never planted hybrid or genetically modified seeds, and all my initiatives [have also grown] only heirloom vegetables each year since day one.

Lahore-based software project manager Muhammad Khabbab has a similar story. Back in 2008, he first got into gardening because of rising tomato prices at the time. Apart from the standard vegetables and some dwarf fruit trees, he is now growing hundreds of plants on his rooftop and is also a collector of rare and exotic flowers which can get tricky thanks to the fluctuating exchange rate and import restrictions.

Like Ali, he too created a community when he could not find one.

An active member of international gardening forums like Dave's Garden and Houzz, Khabbab started a blog, discussion board and an online store selling local and exotic bulbs, seeds and plants. His forum, Gardening Pakistan, often organises workshops and he makes sure to attend workshops run by others in the city.

I always learn a thing or two whenever I attend a workshop, says Khabbab. When you meet with other gardeners who see things from another perspective, then you get to know many new ideas and many solutions which you did not know in the first place. Learning is a process which never stops.

But for the urban gardening community, the learning is not all online.

Those who have access to or contacts in the rural farmlands regularly travel to interact with farmers on the ground to gain a deeper understanding of how to grow and how to grow better.

For example, Dr Sabeeka Kazilbash, who grows guava and mango trees at her home on the outskirts of Karachi, often visits her aunts in Punjab during the sugarcane or rice harvest seasons and consults with local farmworkers there to add to her knowledge.

She also writes directly to local nurseries in Karachi to ask what theyre up to and shares her own progress.

Extreme temperatures and deadly heatwaves in Pakistan over the past decade led to recognising the impact of losing green spaces in cities to concrete and urbanisation, resulting in government and private efforts to restore tree cover and urban forests.

Although climate change was named as a key contributing factor behind the exceptionally high temperatures of up to 49 degrees Celsius during the deadly 2015 heatwave which killed nearly 2,000 people in mostly Karachi and Sindh, what really drove the phenomenon (and subsequent heatwaves) are deforestation and the loss of green spaces in densely populated areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect.

Though urban gardening and farming also took off around the same time, campaigns calling to increase greenery in cities apparently arent responsible for their popularity.

According to Ali, heatwaves have not been the driving factor behind the growing interest in growing.

Speaking of lawns, Its important to point out that the gardens under discussion almost tend to be privately-held in homes and not, for example, public or commonly-held allotments or gardens, as is often the case in contemporary cities around the world.

Heatwaves did encourage mass tree plantations, she notes, referring to drives to plant trees in public spaces but people have always wanted to be closer to nature.

Over the years, so many gardening societies have bloomed and established, garden stores are spreading and nurseries are [more] accessible. People have also started growing vegetables now and are more aware of the harmful effects of genetically-modified seeds and chemicals used in agriculture.

Khuled concurs with Ali and says growing things has been an integral part of home life for generations. If we rewind our memories, we can see our elders growing a few things and surely having one or two fruit trees in our houses. It's kind of reviving that culture again.

Though they say the heatwaves arent directly behind the rising interest in gardening, both Khuled and Ali do credit a greater awareness of climate change and its effects and declining air quality among young people.

Zubairi who is also an active member of a Karachi-based gardening Facebook group acknowledges there are lots of pitfalls when it comes to growing and sustaining your own food and garden.

In fact, she says, failure is an important teacher. It hasnt been easy dealing with bugs and birds, but the experts shared their experiences, and desi fixes, totkas and failures here and there prepped me.

It takes patience and work.

While water is a constant and omnipresent challenge in Karachi, there are ways to work around it.

Dr Kazilbash, for example, grows according to Karachis climate in a limited space and is lucky her home is on the outer edge of the city, so the soil is richer.

Certain limitations of space and resources are a common factor here [in Pakistan] and turning them into opportunities is a collective effort beneficial to all. Small space gardening is one of the primary examples on which we have gone quite far, Khuled adds, referring to the most common type of setup group members have.

For the last 10 years, 29-year-old digital marketer Mavra Azeemi and her family have grown mostly fruit trees, flowers and ornamentals within their Lahore home: kinnow, mosambi, chikoo, red and green grapes, papaya, curry leaf, lemongrass, basil, date, guava, aloe, jasmine and rose.

Then theres the empty plot of land next door, where theyve planted moringa described as a miracle tree for all its nutritious benefits and a diverse vegetable patch.

She says, Thanks to the empty plot next to our house, we've been lucky enough to grow a whole bunch of different seasonal vegetables.

And though Lahore has better soil conditions and season differentiation, the smog and other irregularities can lead to an uneven or sometimes no output, which can get expensive in terms of time and effort.

Although, for Ali, who grows heirloom and organic, it was all about learning slowly through experience over the years.

She says, It was very challenging to find organic experts, garden shops or even local gardening social media groups back then.

Nearly a decade ago, she created a guide for starting a vegetable garden on a less than shoestring budget based on her own experience.

Dr Kazilbash, who is in her 30s, grew up watching her grandparents harvest their own kitchen essentials and took on gardening as a hobby as her interest grew.

Their encouragement, however, came from the pain of their own experience.

My grandfather often recalled his pre-Partition days and always advised that if a war-like situation [like that] happens again, [you must be prepared and] you have to plant food for your own survival. I always laughed, but this point always remains in my mind.

For some, the drive and satisfaction of growing food lies in maintaining family tradition and a kind of modern pastoral nostalgia. Linked to that are concerns like eliminating food miles or avoiding pesticide biomagnification. Plus, when you grow spinach and lettuce in your own yard, you know they havent been watered with sewage.

There is nothing as rewarding as picking up fresh food from your garden just before cooking, says Ali, who grows organic produce in all her gardens.

We are missing out [on] a diverse range of vegetables thanks to commercial farming. We need to revive heirloom seeds especially because over the past few decades, the world has lost a huge percentage of heirloom seed diversity.

The joy of picking a fresh orange from the tree that grows in your garden can never be matched by anything you get in the market, explains Azeemi, who comes from a landowning family in Punjab.

The connection you feel to the food you grow runs a lot deeper. You've shared the same piece of earth and gotten the same sun, grown up together, it's like the most beautiful friendship.

Food is the basic fuel for our body, says Khuled, who notes that pesticide intake tends to be highest when it comes to raw leaves and vegetables.

Growing your own food is taking charge of your health with your own hands. It also tastes much better.

I know we cannot grow everything but at least we can grow those which are consumed raw.

Organic farming can be challenging enough at subsistence level but even more so at scale, and is much less commercially viable in comparison to conventionally grown crops. Even when produce is labelled organic, its difficult to ensure it is 100% so and hasnt been exposed to harmful pesticides or fertilisers at some point.

This means the Pakistani urban garden is atomic, individual and domestic, with no infrastructure or sustainable model to turn it into a true community project that can build social cohesion and empower people.

Commercial farms cannot be completely organic even if they try [to be] due to pesticide sprays in adjacent farms, says Khuled, alluding to the fact that, though there are exceptions, organic farms are often located near or on the same properties as conventional ones.

For Zubairi, however, the benefits of urban farming go far beyond solely clean food: it can be revitalising in terms of mental health too.

Kitchen gardening and nature are a huge personal resource to help reconnect with the world and nature, ground the self and teach and encourage others to do the same.

It also helps to enjoy the many things we discover every now and then: butterflies, all kinds of winged bugs and different birds coming in to share the fruit. Some are just absolutely fascinating.

Dr Kazilbash, who also grows herbs, garlic, ginger, eggplant, potatoes and chillies, finds similar happiness when she gives much of her produce away.

When a friend shares her experience of how she used brinjal Ive grown in tarkari and raita, Im just overwhelmed with joy.

So what does the future of urban farming look like in Pakistan?

Ali is optimistic. It is bright, especially since [many] schools have started educating children about being close to nature. I am very hopeful to see our future community leaders shaping greener communities.

Urban gardeners are getting more active with the food growing movement now, says Khuled, which indicates a break from pristine balconies and the primly landscaped yet monotonous lawn.

"Along with beautiful, colourful and fragrant gardens, we are seeing edibles grown all along. This is very encouraging.

It's going to get even better if kitchen gardening can be introduced in every school and college, Khuled echoes.

She says, It's important to bring young children close to nature. I am seeing a much greener and healthier environment in years to come with all these youngsters joining us.

Speaking of lawns, Its important to point out that the gardens under discussion almost tend to be privately-held in homes and not, for example, public or commonly-held allotments or gardens, as is often the case in contemporary cities around the world.

This means the Pakistani urban garden is atomic, individual and domestic, with no infrastructure or sustainable model to turn it into a true community project that can build social cohesion and empower people.

Mid-February to early April is the spring planting season, which means right now is the perfect time to plan and start your very own garden.

Ali recommends growing locally available flowers, herbs and vegetables.

Try to include a water feature for bees, butterflies and birds, she adds.

There is always something that you can grow even if you don't have resources. Our pantries are packed with seeds; potatoes, garlic and ginger are always available to begin with. When you don't have everything listed in a gardening book or website, then you truly learn how to be creative and how nature finds a way to keep producing.

If that seems too daunting, Khuled recommends starting small.

Start with growing things you love to see or eat, she says. Always ask others for help and information with your gardening. Don't get discouraged if you fail to grow something. That is a part of learning.

Gardening is addictive. Once youre in, there is no way back.

See the article here:

Urban farming is the future of healthy living - DAWN.com

Written by admin

April 3rd, 2020 at 2:51 am

Posted in Organic Food

Organic Consumers Assoc. Sues Happy Egg Co., Says ‘Pasture Raised’ Claims are False and Deceptive – PRNewswire

Posted: March 31, 2020 at 8:46 am


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WASHINGTON, March 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has sued Happy Egg Co. for false, deceptive and misleading advertising claims related to the use of the term "pasture raised."

"Surveys confirm that animal welfare practices rank high on the list of consumer concerns," said Ronnie Cummins, OCA's co-founder and director. "By falsely claiming that the eggs it sells are 'pasture raised,' Happy Egg deceives consumers and diverts consumers' spending dollars from competitors whose eggs come from hens that are truly raised on pasture. Consumers who purchase Happy Eggs believing that they are supporting a certain animal-welfare standard are being cheated.

In a complaintfiled on behalf of OCA by Richman Law Groupin D.C. Superior Court under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act, OCA alleges that Happy Eggfalsely advertises and promotes its eggs as coming from hens "living on over 8 acres of pasture." On cartons, Happy Egg labels its eggs "free range" but on the same label, the company also claims that the hens are "pasture raised."

According to the American Humane Association, for eggs to be advertised as "pasture raised" the hens must have access to 2.5 acres per 1,000 hens in a rotation system, compared with "free range" hens which are given 0.5 acres per 1,000 hens. According to a blog post on Happy Egg's old website, the company maintains 0.5 birds per acre, fulfilling "free range" requirements and nothing more.

Happy Egg cartons also bear an implied scale of standards suggesting that its eggs are even better than "free range," or meet some higher standard, because they are "Free-est of the Free Range."

OCA is suing on behalf of itself and the general public, and seeks relief including an injunction to halt Happy Egg's false marketing and sale of its products.

Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit grassroots organization advocating on behalf of millions of consumers for safe, healthful food and a clean environment. Visit:https://www.organicconsumers.org/

SOURCE Organic Consumers Association

https://www.organicconsumers.org/

Read this article:

Organic Consumers Assoc. Sues Happy Egg Co., Says 'Pasture Raised' Claims are False and Deceptive - PRNewswire

Written by admin

March 31st, 2020 at 8:46 am

Posted in Organic Food


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