Category Archives: environment

Perennial Peppers for the lazy gardener | Kevin’s Edible Yard

This post is about peppers. The first summer at our house I planted peppers in various places. I had put a few up against our west facing stucco wall. As winter came all my peppers died from the cold except for the ones against this wall. After some light internet based research I found out the peppers (and tomatoes) are perennial plants. They live for multiple years! The thing is they are tropical plants. The cold kills them for most of us in the USA, which is why we consider them annuals. However as I learned by accident in San Jose (Zone 9b) with protection your peppers can be perennial. The stucco wall absorbs heat during the day and radiates it back at night, making a microclimate for the peppers. So if you are a lazy gardener like me, plant some peppers around your south or southwest facing walls. You will get peppers almost year round, and save yourself some planting every year. I have one plant (Hawaiian Sweet Hot) that is in it’s third growing season, check it out…

via Perennial Peppers for the lazy gardener | Kevin’s Edible Yard.

Detroit Zoo Halts Bottled Water Sale, Cites Waste

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (AP) — The Detroit Zoo says it’s giving up a $240,000-annual revenue stream when it stops selling bottled water to visitors.

Operators of the 125-acre zoo in suburban Royal Oak say they’re acting to cut back on what is the “largest contributor to plastic waste.”

“This phase-out will cost us revenue, but it’s important to walk our talk and do what’s good for the environment,” zoo Executive Director Ron Kagan said in a statement.

The zoo says it will sell reusable water bottles that can be filled with filtered water at seven locations.

“We understand that this will be an adjustment for some visitors, but we hope it will help in a simple but significant way to make a difference for the planet,” said Kagan.

In its announcement, the zoo described bottled water as a major waste disposal problem nationwide.

“According to the Earth Policy Institute, more than 30 billion water bottles each year end up as garbage or litter in the United States,” he zoo said. “Additionally, it takes 5 liters of water to make 1 liter of bottled water, and it requires about a quarter of a water bottle of oil to produce, transport and dispose of a single bottle of water. ”

via Detroit Zoo Halts Bottled Water Sale, Cites Waste.

Monsanto’s new GE crops already in the ground? | Pesticide Action Network

Dicamba-resistant soy is still awaiting USDA approval, as are 2,4-D-resistant corn and soy. And after receiving hundreds of thousands of comments opposing the approval of these crops, the agency recently extended its decision-making timeline. Despite the outcry, however, Monsanto has plowed full speed ahead, planting and spraying these crops in large, field-sized “Ground-Breaker” demonstration plots in North and South Dakota and in research plots in undisclosed locations.

Farmers, as well as other concerned citizens, are particularly worried about pesticide drift, crop damage and health harms that would likely accompany planting and spraying of dicamba- and 2,4-D-resistant crops.

Most at risk are fruit, nut and vegetable growers around the country, whose produce is highly susceptible to severe damage from 2,4-D and dicamba — herbicides known to volatilize and drift for miles. In one incident in California’s San Joaquin valley, 2,4-D drifted 100 miles from where it was applied, damaging 15,000 acres of cotton and a pomegranate orchard along the way.

via Monsanto’s new GE crops already in the ground? | Pesticide Action Network.

WHO | Frequently Asked Questions on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

MERS-CoV has recently been found to be genetically related to a virus identified in bats from Southern Africa. But there is no definitive evidence that MERS-CoV originates in bats.

via WHO | Frequently Asked Questions on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

(Such viruses can be easily spread from animal to animal via urine, feces and saliva. And it may be possible that enough virus carrying material has been deposited in and around the hundreds of thousands of date palms grown in the area of Saudi Arabia with the most cases reported. If there was an increase in area planted or more dates in past year – population of bats would increase and so would exposure.)

US: Crop-damaging fruit pest found in North Dakota

Ah – the benefits of globalization and lack of good inspection of plants and produce entering US ports!

A pest that feeds on fresh fruit has been found in North Dakota for the first time, officials said. The spotted-wing drosophila was found in cherries from the Carrington Research Extension Center in Eastern North Dakota’s Foster County. The North Dakota State University Plant Diagnostic Laboratory in Fargo found larvae and one adult female in the fruit.

“This insect is capable of causing serious damage, and growers and gardeners should be on the lookout for the larvae in seemingly healthy fruits,” Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said Thursday. “It can be confused with the common fruit fly, but it prefers fresh fruit while the fruit fly prefers rotting fruit.”

The spotted-wing drosophila is about 3 millimeters long, yellowish brown in color with prominent red eyes. Males have dark spots on their wing tips. The pest is native to Asia. It was first found in the US in 2008 in California, and has since spread to other parts of the country. It was first detected in Minnesota last Summer.

via US: Crop-damaging fruit pest found in North Dakota.

 

Herring Filets Recalled over Listeria Concerns | Food Safety News

Gold Star Smoked Fish Corp. of Brooklyn, N.Y., is recalling Baltic Treasures, Norwegian Style Matjes, Marinella “Delicatessnaya,” Jewish Style Matjes, Traditional Russian Matjes, and Rybacka Wies Matjes Brands of Herring Fillets in Oil due to contamination or possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.

In addition, Zip International Group LLC of Edison, N.J., is recalling Baltic Sprats in Spicy Brine Net Wt. 15.8 Oz (450g) in plastic packaging, also because of the potential Listeria contamination.

The recalled Gold Star products are packaged in 10.5 oz/300 gram, 17.64oz/500 gram, and 35.5oz/1 kg vacuum packed plastic packages and have sell by dates 103113, 113013, 123113, or 13114 stamped on the back of the container.

The UPC Numbers are 0 21143 24118 1, 0 21143 24119 8, 0 21143 24117 4, 0 21143 24116 7, 0 21143 24101 3, 0 21143 24105 1, 0 21143 24111 2, 0 21143 24103 7, 0 21143 24106 8, 0 21143 24110 5, 0 21143 24102 0, 0 21143 24104 4, 0 21143 24121 1, 0 21143 24122 8, and 0 21143 24123 5.

The products were sold nationwide. They are products of the USA.

via Herring Filets Recalled over Listeria Concerns | Food Safety News.

Plans to make H7N9 bird flu virus more virulent in high-security tests | World news | theguardian.com

Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London, said it would be “ludicrous” not to do the experiments. “They allow us to see how the virus might evolve and what we can expect from nature,” she said. “This type of work is like fitting glasses for someone who can’t see well – without the glasses the vision is blurred and uncertain, with them you can focus on the world and deal with it a lot more easily.”

via Plans to make H7N9 bird flu virus more virulent in high-security tests | World news | theguardian.com.

Ever hear of anyone dying from poorly fitting glasses? But 50 million once died from Spanish Flu – right?

Botulism Scare Exposes NZ Reliance on Dairy Monopoly

But the panic underscored how dependent New Zealand’s economy is on agriculture in general and Fonterra in particular. Fonterra’s annual revenue of $16 billion is equivalent to 10 percent of New Zealand’s entire economy, meaning everyone from farmers to homeowners were left holding their breath over its dirty piping.

In a country that has always relied on its farmers to pay the bills, Fonterra has become a behemoth, exporting more in dairy products alone than the nation’s combined exports of lamb, beef, fruit and wine.

via Botulism Scare Exposes NZ Reliance on Dairy Monopoly.

SGGP English Edition- Bird flu reoccurs in quails in Tien Giang Province

Bird flu has reoccurred in poultry in quail breeding farms in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang since July 2 and more than  26,000 infected quails have been destroyed in the province in the past month, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

via SGGP English Edition- Bird flu reoccurs in quails in Tien Giang Province.

Never heard of a covey of quail being 26,000. Can’t folks figure out that when natural systems “see” that many quail in one spot that it is over-population that is unbalancing the system; therefore a disease is needed to re-balance the system!??!

5,400 Pounds of Cantaloupe Recalled in Michigan for Listeria | Food Safety News

The Heeren Brothers Produce in Grand Rapids, MI, is recalling Athena cantaloupes that were distributed to local independent grocers, according to a local press report from WZZM.

According to the report, 5,400 Athena Cantaloupes, distributed by Heeren Brothers Produce between July 23 and July 26, were recalled after routine sampling by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found Listeria.

via 5,400 Pounds of Cantaloupe Recalled in Michigan for Listeria | Food Safety News.

 

Makes you think about eating worms or going on an air diet!