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“We are going to a place called Clearwater, Florida. I don’t know a lot about it. I saw Florida on the television and it looks like it’s close to the sea and has a lot of plants. My dad says the people are friendly and there are a lot of friendly kids there. I really hope that we can have a small farm and a horse when we get there because my grandmother really loves animals. I’d like it to be a square farm with lots of flowers and rabbits. I also hope there is a good tree in Florida because I’d like to build a tree house where we can have some adventures.”(Istanbul, Turkey)
Source: Humans of New York
On Thanksgiving, someone set fire to 40 religious Hindu flags in front of a home in Woodhaven. Now the police have released another video in connection with the incident, showing a person of interest. [ more › ]
The fledgling Union of French Muslim Democrats faces an uphill struggle in upcoming regional elections. The party emphasizes that it wants to get young Muslims involved in the political process.
The presence of Turkish troops near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq is a “violation” of international law, Iraq’s president said Saturday.
For 146 years the hospital on the West Side of Manhattan was called Roosevelt Hospital, but the Mount Sinai Health System, into which the hospital merged two years ago, has renamed it, a change that has upset some Roosevelt family members.
{“People I fear and disagree with will have to wear name tags so people will know to be wary of them.” Could be said in 1933 Germany and now in 2015 Israel.}
In her letter, however, Shaked insisted that the tagging was a democratic and justifiable move: “I believe that encouraging a vibrant civil society includes prompting freedom of information and increasing of transparency of public activities.””Both the law and the recent government bill do not prohibit or impose any restriction on receiving the contributions themselves,” she stated, adding that “there is nothing in the law or the bill to substantially change the existing situation in Israel or harm the democratic process.”
Source: Israeli justice minister defends NGO bill to Bundestag | News | DW.COM | 05.12.2015
in recent weeks, American Muslims have reported a spate of violence and intimidation against them: women wearing head scarves accosted; Muslim children bullied; bullets shot at a mosque in Meriden, Conn.; feces thrown at a mosque in Pflugerville, Tex.Omair Siddiqi said he had been about to get into his car in the parking lot of a shopping mall in the Dallas suburbs last month when a man came up to him, flashed a gun and said, “If I wanted to, I could kill you right now.”Mr. Siddiqi said he stayed quiet and the man walked away. Mr. Siddiqi called 911 and is now in the process of getting a concealed-handgun permit. “It’s very scary in times like this,” he said.In a Dallas suburb, about a dozen protesters congregated outside the Islamic Center of Irving last month, some covering their faces with bandannas and carrying hunting rifles, tactical shotguns and AR-15s. The group that organized the protest posted on Facebook a list of the names and addresses of dozens of Muslims and what they called “Muslim sympathizers.”
Source: Muslims in America Condemn Extremists and Fear Anew for Their Lives – The New York Times
Nelson Pérez monitors the water temperature in the trays where lettuce grows in a controlled-environment farm in the town of Rio Hato, Panama. Vertical farms are beginning to catch on around the world, as a technique that boosts food security, in the face of the impacts of climate change. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS
By Emilio Godoy
RÍO HATO, Panama, Dec 5 2015 (IPS)
Infrared thermometer in hand, Nelson Pérez checks the water temperature in the trays where dozens of small lettuce plants are growing in a nutrient-rich liquid in this vertical farm in Panama.
The water, which contains calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and vitamins, must be kept at a steady 21 degrees Celsius, to obtain the best growth.
Pérez is the watchful carekeeper of the lettuce growing in trays in the controlled environment created by the Urban Farms company in the town of Río Hato, population 15,700, in the province of Coclé, some 125 km north of Panama City.
The vertical farm, the only one of its kind in Latin America, is an example of controlled-environment agriculture, a technology-based approach toward food production which often uses hydroponic methods. This kind of farming helps combat the effects of climate change on agriculture.
“Climate change has affected agricultural production,” said David Proenza, founder of Urban Farms. “So we saw a need to see what changes we could bring about, using technology.”
In 2010, Proenza heard about experiments with vertical farming in Asia and travelled to Japan, where he contacted researchers and members of the business community.
He brought the technique back to Panama, and he and his new partners decided to send an agronomist to be trained in Japan.
Until then, he was a conventional producer of watermelon and other crops.
“The farmer controls everything, from the seeds to the harvest,” he explained to IPS. “The idea is to produce and consume locally.”
Proenza set up a partnership with two other people, and receives guidance from an outside group. He employs two full-time and two temporary workers.
On his four-hectare property, Proenza dedicated a 12 by 17-square-metre space to setting up 60 hydroponic trays with a capacity for growing 30 to 36 plants each.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in water.
After three days, the seeds are transplanted from the germination tray to the growing trays. Three weeks later the lettuce is picked, processed and packed for distribution to supermarkets.
The vertical farm produces some 2,000 heads of five different kinds of lettuce a month, without pesticides, preservatives or large extensions of land.
A computer programme controlled from a smartphone regulates the temperature of the room and the water, as well as the lighting and irrigation.
The low voltage grow lights, which stay on for 18 hours a day and cost 120 dollars each, produce red, yellow or blue light, each of which has a particular effect. The trays hold between 25 and 100 litres of water, depending on the size.
Controlled-environment agriculture encompasses vertical farms, urban gardens, and hydroponics.
Panama is highly vulnerable to climate change, exposed to intense storms, flooding, landslides and drought. The climate of this tropical Central American nation of four million people was previously divided into wet and dry seasons, but now the difference is less marked.
Río Hato is at one end of the Arco Seco or “dry arch”, an important area of food production for both export and domestic consumption.
Panama’s main crops are corn, rice, beans, melons, watermelons, oranges, bananas and coffee. Stockbreeding is also a key driver of the economy.
Agriculture accounts for around four percent of the country’s GDP.
Official statistics show that grain harvests have shrunk in 2014 and 2015, with the exception of corn, due to factors that experts blame on climate change.
The 2010 report “Panama: Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture”, produced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and other international bodies, stated that climate change would cause this country agricultural losses amounting to between four and seven percent of GDP by 2050 and between eight and nine percent by 2100.
Gustavo Ramírez, a professor with the Cuautitlán Higher Studies Faculty at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, said vertical farming is viable in Latin America, but policies to stimulate it are lacking.
“With this system you can make better use of space,” he told IPS. “In urban areas, there are abandoned buildings that could be put to use, and there is much more space in rural areas.”
In Río Hato, Proenza, who has invested over 70,000 dollars in the farm, has tried growing strawberries, cucumbers, chili peppers, melons and watermelons, with positive results.
Vertical farming is in vogue in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. An Association for Vertical Farming has been created, and groups companies, universities and individuals. It has offices in Canada, China, India and several European countries.
This farming method offers an alternative in cities around the world, and in impoverished rural areas where people still go hungry.
In cities like Buenos Aires, Mexico City or Santiago, rooftop gardens where people grow their own fresh produce are now common.
To foment the sharing of knowledge, Proenza created the Foundation for the Development of Controlled Environment Agriculture, which organised the International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture here in May, which drew more than 350 researchers, academics and farmers from around the world. The next edition is slated for 2017.
“Farmers earn three times more than in the countryside,” said Proenza. “Vertical farms are 30 percent less expensive than traditional farming, and 15 percent cheaper than greenhouses. The risk is minimal,” added the entrepreneur, whose initiative won the second National Prize for Business Innovation, granted by the National Secretariat on Science and Technology, in 2014.
His plan is to expand the vertical farm by 400 square metres, adding varieties of parsley, basil, coriander, arugula and strawberries.
Ramírez recommended that governments refocus their agricultural policies and rethink priorities. “Governments must show an interest, and should focus policies on exploring this technique. We need better planning for production, distribution and logistics,” he said.
The local and regional markets that would be developed through vertical farming would have “an enormous impact,” he said, but “seed capital and technological packages would be needed, based on our own model.”
Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes
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