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FFA to receive grant funding to learn about specialty crops
Consumer demand for locally grown food in the United States is expected to rise from an estimated $4 billion in 2002 to as much as $7 billion by 2012.
According to the 2007 U.S. Census of Agriculture, vegetables, melons, potatoes, sweet potatoes crops in Nebraska was valued at $63.8 million; fruits and nut trees, $2.59 million; nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, $41.2 million; and cut Christmas trees and short rotation woody crops. $592,000.
Nebraska's organic farming industry is also growing. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, there were 190 organic farms in Nebraska with 82,407 organically certified acres in production. Read more about the NDA's grant for specialty crops study >
Bioeconomy Conference to Focus on Biofuels Future
Land grant universities around the Midwest are joining together to hold simultaneous state conferences to discuss biofuels and the future of renewable energy.
The 2009 Bio eConference - “Growing the Bioeconomy: Solutions for Sustainability” - will be held on December 1 through a network of co-host sites that will be “sharing content through high-speed communication systems to promote agriculturally-based sustainable solutions to global climate change and energy supply.” The conference will also be available online for a fee.
Among the universities taking part in the conference are Iowa State, Michigan State, North Dakota State, Purdue and the Universities of Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. The conference will run from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST on December 1. Click here for more information >
President signs Executive Order
for federal sustainability goals
Demonstrating a commitment to lead by example, President Obama signed an Executive Order today that sets sustainability goals for Federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy and economic performance. Read more >
An assessment of the World Agriculture Report
The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), last year, a five-year study sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, World Bank and other non-governmental agencies. The goals of the IAASTD, compiled by 400 food, agriculture, business and government experts from around the world, are “the reduction of hunger and poverty; the improvement of rural livelihoods and human health; and facilitating equitable, socially, environmentally and economically sustainable development.” In other words, it is an assessment of the future of global agriculture and food systems. Twyla Hansen, quality system administrator at Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA), an internationally accredited organic certification agency in Lincoln, provides her assessment. Click here to download the PDF
Greensburg: When we decide to make them, sustainable communities will come in all sizes, forms, and locations
Not every community, hopefully, will have a catastrophic event that wipes the old constructions from the earth, but Greensburg, Kansas, leveled by a tornado in 2007, presents every community, district, neighborhood or street of homes and businesses with some valuable “best practices” and “lessons learned” for making our towns, in incremental ways, more sustainable and more livable. Read the report W. Cecil Steward and Sharon Kuska prepared for Prairie Fire newspaper 20 months after the tornado. Click here >