Indiana bats, desert tortoises and fringe-toed lizards are just a few of the endangered species threatened by wind and solar power projects. Wind turbines kill birds and bats without regard to their endangered status, and developers of these renewable energy resources are required by law to take into account the number of animals that will die so we all can have electricity. The cute little guy shown here is an Indiana bat, and he'd stand absolutely no chance against a wind turbine blade.
  Beech Ridge Energy, to its corporate embarassment, paid scant heed to the law when it proposed a 122-turbine project on a windy West Verginia ridgeline. Judge Roger W. Titus of the Federal District Court in Maryland, put a speed bump in the way of the project by requiring the company to apply for an incidental take permit. An ITP is an acknowledgement of the effect a project will have on wildlife. An independent study of the project site estimated that some 6,500 bats would be killed annually, and that many of them would be Indiana brown bats. 
  Whether or not that's too many bats is a question that the ITP process tries to answer.  
  “This is a case about bats, wind turbines, and two federal policies, one favoring the protection of endangered species, and the other encouraging development of renewable energy resources,” wrote Judge Titus in his ruling earlier this month. “The two vital federal policies at issue in this case are not necessarily in conflict.”
Solar projects in the Southwest also have endangered species to contend with, including desert tortoises and lizards.
New York Times writer Todd Woody took a look at this issue that's sure to strike more sparks as concerned environmentalists consider the impact of more and more green energy projects. You can read Woody's story here: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/judge-halts-wind-farm-over-bats/

  The Carey girls - lots of love for their lambs and each other. Madison, Chandler, Delaney and Brynlin, who range in age from 12 to 18, have all been showing market lambs - and collecting awards for their efforts - for years. They're Farm Show bound and hope to pick up more ribbons in competition with other contestants, including each other. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres visited the girls at their Montoursville, Pa., home and came away with a story you can read in our current edition. Or you can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2721


     And I'm afraid to ski...  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/on-location-shaun-white-snowboarding/17wgv6nqh 

     RFD...Detroit? John Hantz, whose $100 million net worth could buy up half his home town, has an ambitious plan for turning Detroit into an agricultural phenomenon. Where others see abandoned neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure and a hopeless future, Hantz sees abandoned neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure and a unique opportunity to turn the city into a miracle of urban farming. 
  And he's willing to put up a third of his net worth to make the miracle happen. Hantz drives a Volvo, but he's not giving up on Detroit. He lives in the city and his company, Hantz Financial Services, is headquarterd in Southfield, a northern suburb on the far side of Eight Mile Road (whose most noted homey is Marshall Mathers III).
  It takes Hantz 30 minutes to drive to work, and along the way he passes blocks and blocks of blight, likes the photos here. The once bustling city of two million people now has 900,000 residents, and urban planners expect the eventual population to sink to 700,000. Hantz wants to farm abandoned land, and he wants others join in. He wants zoning breaks, tax breaks and preservation easements. It's about money, of course, but maybe not all about money. If he does wind up owning downtown farmland, he's told his 21-year-old daughter, his only heir, that she's not allowed to sell it.
  Hantz is creating a stir. Some people like him, others think he's headed nowhere. But he expects to have seed in the ground this coming spring.
  It's a fascinating story, reported earlier today by Fortune Magazine editor-at-large David Whitford. You can read it here: http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/news/economy/farming_detroit.fortune/index.htm 


     Dreaming small about the meat business. Justin Severino would like to have a small business with a core of dedicated customers who appreciate the artistry and the history of charcuterie, a method of cutting and curing meat that goes back to Roman times. He's a chef now, in Pittsburgh, but has other dreams which he shared with attendees at a PASA-sponsored pastured pork field day in October. There's a story in our current issue, or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2706 


     Revenge of the prairie dog. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/dramatic-prairie-dog-breaks-out/1abgbi77f

     The robots are coming! The robots are coming! And they're going to pick your apples, your oranges, your grapes and even your strawberries. Machines like the greenhouse tomato harvester being worked on at MIT will be more expensive than your kids, but maybe not as expensive as hiring outside help. That's the MIT tomato farm to the right.
     A story in the December 10 edition of The Economist takes a look at agribots and the challenges they face under actual field conditions. Factorybots have been on the job for decades, but they don't have to deal with swaying branches, sliding in mud or figuring out if a strawberry is ripe-red or just red. 
     Farmers who buy bots will definitely have to tailor their operations to accommodate their mechanical helpers, which have had significant impacts already on some crops. California raisin growers, for example, once needed 50,000 seasonal workers. Now, partly because of declining acreage but mostly because of mechanical harvesting, only 20,000 to 30,000 workers are needed. 
     To read The Economist report, click here: http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15048711 


     Every Friday is jinglebell day in Bristol, Vt. That's because Pat Palmer of Thornapple Farm comes 'round with his pair of four-year-old Percherons to pick up the trash. Jake and Jerry - they're the horses - pull a wagon through town to service the only known horse-drawn trash route in the country. Elizabeth Ferry, Lancaster Farming Vermont correspondent, paid a visit to Pat, Jake and Jerry and wrote a report for our current edition. Or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2692 


     You should see the hare-brained idea they came up with for the dwarf kangaroo. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/troubled-zoo-makes-its-own-zebras/ufer54nq


     You will enjoy good health; that is your form of wealth. That's what the fortune in my cookie said today. Okay, but I could do with a case of the sniffles now and then. 

     The USDA awarded a $25 million contract to Unisys last Thursday that runs for five years, with with an indefinite amount of work to be done and no definite time for it to be finished. Unisys, headquarted in Blue Bell, Pa., has 26,000 employees, works around the world and consults with government agencies and businesses on information technology issues - hardware and software and all the people and processes that are involved in IT.
     This latest contract is for Unisys to operate, maintain and enhance the USDA Reural Development Guaranted Loan System, and Guaranteed Underwriting Systems, which process billions of dollars in loans each year for rural businesses and individuals. Unisys was on board in 1999, when GLS and GUS were first started. The new contract includes a base year, with four one-year options, which are renewable at the discretion of the USDA. 
     The agency also awarded Unisys a five-year contract to maintain and enhance the USDA's Program Funds Control System, which is a key component of the American Recovery and Reinvestmen Act.
    Apparently there's a lot of paid consulting going on in Washington, and not just at the USDA. It's a bit bothersome to think that these kinds of management tasks are handed off to private firms. But then, if the private companies were'nt doing the work, government employees would shoulder the tasks. That could be more expensive in the long run, because government employees don't operate with five-year contracts, they tend to stay around for 25 or 30 years.
     Unless they're elected, then they stick around for life.


     Bats eat bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. So, in spite of the mystery, the mythology, the mistakes surrounding these flying mammals, they are actually a valuable part of the ecosystem. And they're dying by the hundreds of thousands. They're succombing to a fungal disease, white nose syndrome, in a plague which has wildlife experts very worried. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres talked to bat experts about the problem. You can read his report in our current edition, or you can check it out here:    http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2697


     What's really amazing is how fast this guy moves.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/amazing-3-d-paper-design/1ab2lao1a

     One out of every 10 acres of Iowa farmland is owned by a single woman over the age of 75. Michael Duffy, an Iowa State economist said that fact, plus the aging of the state's working farmers, should see some change in land ownership over the  next several years. 
     For 2009, Iowa farmland prices dropped by 2%, spurred in part by declines in corn, soybean and livestock prices. The average price for an acre of Iowa farmland is now $4,371, the first drop since 1999. In the past decade, that price had risen by 145%, significantly more than the 128% increase posted by the consumer price index. 
  Duffy said the drop wasn't a surprise, but noted that earlier in the year he thought the drop would be closer to 5%. The price of farmland is especially important in Iowa because it is the state's largest single asset. Duffy made his comments to Dan Piller, a reporter for the Des Moines Register.
  He said the future is a ttough nut to crack, and a lot depends on whether or not inflation kicks into the US economy. For Dan Piller's full report on Iowa land prices, click here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009912170349


     It's like acid on his soul, John Hines, told a group of agribusinessmen, describing his feelings about the mainstream media view of farmers and the environment. Agriculture is not the issue he told the monthly meeting of the Ag Issues Forum in Lancaster. Hines is deputy secretary for water management at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and has been particularly watchful of the state's agricultural community as it struggles to deal with Chesapeake Bay pollution.  He told the group that Pennsylvania's monitoring stations have, with one exception, recorded drops in the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment being borne by the Susquehanna River to the bay. A report on Hines's remarks by yours truly appears in the Lancaster Farming edition due in your mailbox on Saturday.


     So you say you like your fish already frozen, eh?  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/wacky-ice-fishermen-go-to-extremes/1ab87nln3

     And you thought you knew everything about leafcutter ants. Well, you didn't, and you're not alone. Lots is known about them because they are one of the most intensely studied of all insect species. They have complex societies, they create and maintain underground fungus farms, and they look cute carrying around those bits of leaves. Unless the leaves happen to come from your tangerine tree.
     Using their expertly farmed fungi for food, leafcutters have become one of Earth's most successful species.
  Scientists have published thousands of papers about the leafcutters' farming success, but until recently, nobody had ever asked the question, "What do they use for fertilizer?" There are about 250 ant species that live on farmed fungus, but most of them live in colonies of a few thousand individuals, and their garden plots are small.
  Leafcutters inhabit colonies with millions of individuals, and can have farms that produce a ton or more of edible fungus in a year. This puzzled scientists. For humans to farm on a comparable scale, we need to load up our fields with nitrogen, a limiting factor in plant growth. Scientists who looked into the question discovered that leafcutter fungus farms are inhabited by a microbe, Klebsiella, that fixes nitrogen from the air and makes it available to fungi. Rhizobia bacteria perform a similar function with legumes.
  Cameron Currie, a University of Wisconsin bacteriologist who participated in leafcutter studies, says the ants' tricks could help humans develop more efficient ways to get nitrogen to commercial crops. There's a story about the study, written by Brandon Keim, at Wired Magazine's web site. You can read it here:  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/ant-gardening/ 


     Is that asparagus local? Sure. In Santiago.  A 260-seat Washington, D.C., restaurant called Founding Farmers received tons of good press, including enthusiastic mention in Lancaster Farming, for its commitment to buying from local farmers. Turns out the restaurant wasn't living up to its commitment, and was busted by the Washington Post. That upset some people, including our regional editor, Tracy Sutton, who took a look at the situation and wrote an editorial for our current edition. Be sure to check it out.


     Santa's going to be bringing this guy a huge electric bill.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/guitar-hero-holiday-light-display/1ab3c6wp5

       We'll know by Thursday whether or not Wisconsin's state legislature will go ahead and name Lactococus lactis the state microbe. Representative Gary Hebl, one of the lead authors of Assembly Bill 556, said when he was first approached about adding the microbe to the state's officially sanctioned symbols, his first reaction was, "Uh...why would we do that?"
Uh, because, Gary, without L. lactis, (that's the little charmer shown here) there would be no cheese, and without cheese, the market for those hats that cheeseheads wear to football games, backyard picnics, Sunday school and funerals would just totally fall apart. We can't have that. Not in Wisconsin.
  Actually, the Badger (official wild animal) State has reason to boost the cheese business, and agriculture as a whole. The Honeybee (official insect) State has as its official domestic animal the Holstein cow, and the Trilobite (official fossil) State even has a state soil, which is Antigo silt-loam. The Red Granite (official rock) State, also known as the Galena (official mineral) State, has thousands of jobs, millions of dollars worth of infrastructure and $18 billion in sales every year coming in from cheese.
  So let's give a cheer and raise a glass of the Polka (official dance) State's other favorite beverage (courtesy of Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in a toast (courtesy of GE) to everything cheese in Wisconsin.
  And actually, I have a suggestion for the Assemblymen the next time America's Dairyland (official license plate slogan) is looking for a symbol. My suggestion is...the holes in Swiss cheese. They could call it Wisconsin's Official Nothing.


     Speaking of which (Wisconsin cheese, not "nothing"), our food and family features editor, Anne Harnish, included The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin in a roundup of suggestions for the farmer's bookshelf in our current edition. There are books about canning, cooking, gardening, gophers and a whole tome devoted to Ice Cream U, which, if you have to ask where that is, we're not about to tell you. Buy the book. You'll find Anne's suggestions, just in time for Christmas, in our current edition.


     If Santa likes cute, he's going to bring this little guy whatever he wants. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/i-m-yours-by-jason-mraz/5x7hh2f

     The New Zealand government and the country's Federated Farmers group are at serious odds over bringing cows in from the cold, or their mountain pastures, and housing them in "cubicles." Prime Minister John Key said putting cows into tie stalls for eight months of the year could tarnish the country's international free-range dairy brand. And Agriculture Minister David Carter is seeking advice on how keeping cows in barns fits in with New Zealand's animal welfare code.
     Federated Farmers is backing a plan that would see 16 new farms in the central South Island's MacKenzie basin, with a total of 18,000 cows in stalls. Farmers are saying their "factory-farming" methods cut costs, produce happier, healthier cows and are environmentally friendly.
     Not so fast, say the government and, it seems, an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders. A Facebook page for opponents of the cows-in-stalls idea has 9,142 members. TV New Zealand has a story about the dustup here: http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/govt-farmers-odds-over-factory-farming-3242481?page=9&pagesize=5
     If you'd like to see what the Facebook crowd is saying, go here:   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=220398793091


     "It depends." That was the answer again and again to farmers' questions about conservation easements at a recent meeting in Richmond, Virginia. Lisa Anne Hawkins, a Harrisonburg attorney who specializes in conservation easements, led a workshop on farmland preservation at the annual meeting of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. Turns out there are so many variables in preservation that definite answers for an individual situation are hard to come by. Lancaster Farming correspondent Andrew Jenner covered the workshop, and his story is in our current edition. Or you can read it online here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2419 


     I just want to see what their spacesuits look like.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3lcgYNyCvU&feature=topvideos  

     G. Why didn't I think of that. Chris  Jagger, who owns and operates Blue Fox Farm in Applegate, Oregon, has turned a 1940s Allis-Chalmers Model G tractor into an all-around electric powered workpony for his approximately 20-acre organic setup. Even with a gas engine, the G isn't exactly a work "horse", but Jagger likes the small tractor's nimble ways around row crops.
     It's clean, quiet, can run really slow and doesn't burn fossil fuels. He does have a conventional tractor for heavier work.
     Jagger isn't the only organic farmer to turn to an electrified G. And he's not the first. Ron Khosla started the trend in the winter of 2001-2002 in his farm shop in New Paltz, New York. He said his interest was driven purely by efficiency and economics, rather than an overwhelming desire to save the planet, but he's happy to do his part. After he posted his methods on the internet, other farmers converted their Gs and told him about it. He stopped counting the conversion stories after he got to 100.
     Jeff Bernard wrote an Associated Press story about Jagger and took the photo you see here. You can read his story at:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120800205_2.html
     The Blue Fox Organics website is here:  http://bluefoxorganics.com/about/
     I couldn't find Ron Khosla's original instructions, but these guys seem to have covered the subject fairly well:  http://www.flyingbeet.com/electricg/ 


     A little more light in the henhouse, figuratively speaking, should result from new USDA rules that call for more transparency and basic protections for poultry growers who operate under contracts with feed companies. Which is just about everybody. Ag Secretry Tom Vilsack announced the new regulations from the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) would take effect on January 4. You can read about the announcement in our current edition, which also gives a website for the new rule, or you can read about it online here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2420 


If you don't care at all about cars, don't click on this link: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1795775623405767594 

     Egg farmer struggles along on $8-a-dozen organic product. "Poor baby!" you might be thinking. With $8 eggs, you might be thinking about buying a second yacht. And when Alexis Koefoed began selling a few eggs to her neighbors in Vacaville, California, in 2005, she'd soon be selling, not just eggs but poultry meat at $6.50 a pound to consumers and gourmet restaurants in nearby San Francisco.
     Home cooks and chefs both like the taste and freshness they get from her 8,000-bird free-roaming flock. Koefoed and her husband, Eric, found out exactly how much their customers valued the product when an arsonist set a brush fire in September that destroyed two of their chicken houses and killed 1,200 birds. It was the end of their business, the Koefoeds thought.
     But almost before the smoke had cleared, customers, friends and strangers had raised $25,000 to keep the farm going. One weekend, 35 volunteers showed to up rebuild the chicken coops, and Soul Food Farms was back in business.
     After that show of support, she couldn't stop Koefoed told New York Times reporter Christine Muhlke. Not stopping meant more long days with early mornings and late nights. She and Eric both work hard and the farm operates on razor-thin margins. They're definitely not driving driving in a BMW.
     If you think you'd really like to be getting $8 a dozen for eggs, you might want to read the Koefoeds' story first. You can get it here:   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29food-t-000.html?scp=6&sq=agriculture&st=cse

     Springerle cookies, anise-flavored "picture" cookies are a Christmas staple in many households with german heritage. The recipes date back to the 15th century, and many elaborate designs, like the one shown here, were stamped onto the confections with wooden molds. Lancaster Farming regional editor Tracy Sutton talked to bakers both in Michigan and Lancaster County about how to succeed with Springerles. It's complicated. Your can read her story in Section B of our current edition, or check it out online here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2414


     One more reason it's nice to live on a farm. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/caught-on-cam-woman-battles-subway-door/6256wp6

     Montana ranchers and developers are wrestling over water, and it may just be a sign of times to come. Groundwater supplies 94 percent of the water  for rural Montanans, and there are at least 80 ongoing studies, like the one shown here, to investigate the quality and quantity of the water coming from the state's wells.
     There are strict regulations on wells pumping more than 35 gallons a minute, which would include just about every conceivable agricultural or industrial user. Wells under 35 gallons a minute are exempt from regulation. 
     And there's the rub.
     Polly Rex, a rancher from Absarokee, about 50 miles west of Billings, grazes cattle on a 1,250-acre pasture with water rights that go back more than a century. Water for her herd comes from a natural spring, not a well. There is currently a subdivision with 80 houses going up next to her fields, and every house in the development will be using water from individual wells.
     At my house, with two adults, a 26-pound dog and occasional visitors, we use about 175 gallons of water a day. Sixty homes like ours would remove 10,500 gallons of water daily from the aquifers that feed into the fields where Polly Rex pastures her animals. If you add a shower-happy teenager or two to the household, water use could outstrip our consumption
     Is that enough to put her out of business? Maybe, maybe not. But Ms Rex is adamant about what she sees as a need to regulate all water users in Big Sky country. Associated Press writer Michael Brown wrote about the conflict in a story which appeared in yesterday's Washington Post. You can read  it here:  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/03/AR2009120300302.html 


     Some retired thoroughbreds have been sentenced to life, and they are definitely not saying "nay" to their treatment. The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation has place four retired racehorses with the Plymouth County Sheriff's Farm in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they will be tended to by inmates. The hope is that the horses will help rehabilitate the prisoners, and teach them skills that could help them find jobs when their sentences are finished. A story about the program appears in the monthly Mid-Atlantic Horse section in this week's edition of Lancaster Farming.


     You gotta believe...
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/farmer-discovers-holy-egg/1ablf2leh

     A billion people will go to bed hungry tonight, 35 years after Henry Kissinger told the first world food conference in Rome that the planet was on the cusp of providing enough food for all its people. People who attended this year's United Nations Food Conference in Rome saw how horribly off-base Kissinger's prediction was. And it could get worse, according to a recent article in The Economist.

     There are plenty of technical problems to increasing the world's food supply to feed an expected nine billion people by the year 2050. How do we produce more food without more water (because there is no more water), and more land (there's almost no room for more cropland). 
     Complicating the sparsity of resources are the issues of climate change, political resistance to new technology - particularly genetically modified crops -  national protectionism and erratic markets.
     The food shortage nightmare isn't so much that people go to bed hungry, it's that too many of them don't wake up in the morning. To read The Economist article, go here   http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14915144
     
     While others my be confused by a public option for health insurance, the National Farmers Union is adamant in its support of the idea. Farmers are especially challenged by healthcare costs because they lack the group buying power of large employers. Farmers are also generally older and work in what insurance companies consider a hazardous occupation. Lancaster Farming regional edition editor Tracy Sutton sat in on an NFU teleconference last week on the health care issue, and prepared a report which you can read in our current issue. Or you can check it out here:  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2402 
     
     Nanu meets Jaws. Awesome.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/killer-whale-attacks-great-white/26i337r7

       If you feed a chicken nothing but cottonseed meal, she'll die in a week. If you eat nothing but cottonseed meal, you'll die too. It'll just take a little longer.
     This is true even though cottonseed is a rich source of protein, and a widely used feed for cattle. The problem for non-ruminants, like chickens, pigs, fish and humans, is a substance called gossypol. Ruminant stomachs render gossypol harmless, and the animals are able to digest the protein in cottonseed. 
     Keerti S. Rathore, a researcher at Texas A&M University, has found a way to genetically engineer the cotton plant so the seeds, and only the seeds, contain no gossypol.  The stems, leaves and flowers in Rathore's genetically engineered cotton do contain gossypol, which serves as a kind immune system for the plant. Geneticists discovered a way to eliminate gossypol from the whole plant in  the 1950s, but those plants were ravaged by disease and insects. 
     Rathore points out that his genetic tinkering removes something from cotton's DNA. Because there's nothing added, as in the case, for example, of Roundup resistant corn, there should be no philosophical objections to its use as a crop. Which would be a good thing, because the cotton currently being grown in the world could fill the protein requirements for 500 million people.
     Betsy Blaney, a writer for the Associated Press, prepared a report on the potential impact of cotton as a food-plus-fiber crop. You can read it here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-farm-scene-edible-cottonseed,0,748979.story


     The price of farmland has dropped around Grove Hill, Virginia, making it affordable for younger farmers. Brad Foltz, two of his brothers and their dad recently bought 170 acres of flat bottomland along the south fork of the Shenandoah River. They'll be growing mostly alfalfa for the region's horses. They paid $4,300 an acre for the land, which would have sold for $10,000 just a few years ago. Lancaster Farming correspondent Andrew Jenner talked to the Foltz family and prepared a report which you can read in our current edition. Or you can read it here:   http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2409 


     Another 30 seconds and they could have changed the oil. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/funny-pompiers-fireman-car-crash-wash-goodspeed/30250F956DAF3941D44C30250F956DAF3941D44C