News

USDA predicts fruit prices will increase

The USDA has predicted an increase in fruit prices, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"U.S. consumers face higher prices for oranges and other fresh fruit because of adverse weather and widespread disease in Florida and California, federal forecasters said Wednesday.

The Agriculture Department said fresh fruit prices will rise between 5 and 6 percent year, a sharp increase over its estimate last month of 3.5 to 4.5 percent.

Fresh fruit posted some of the strongest price gains last month, as a citrus greening disease afflicted Florida’s orange and grapefruit trees, and a bitter cold snap wiped out parts of California’s orange and lemon crops. Fruit prices rose 2 percent in May and 7.3 percent from a year earlier.

Higher fruit prices don’t yet reflect the extreme dry weather facing farmers in California, the USDA’s Ms. Kuhns said. “We’ll probably start seeing effects of the drought this month or next,” she said."
 

USDA launches New Farmer website

The USDA recently launched a resource for beginners in agriculture, the New Farmers website.

The website offers in depth information for new farmers and ranchers, including: how to increase access to land and capital; build new market opportunities; participate in conservation opportunities; select and use the right risk management tools; and, access USDA education and technical support programs.

These issues have been identified as top priorities by new farmers. The website will also feature instructive case studies about beginning farmers who have successfully utilized USDA resources to start or expand their business operations.

"New and beginning farmers are the future of American agriculture," said USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden. "The average age of an American farmer is 58 and rising, so we must help new farmers get started if America is going to continue feeding the world and maintain a strong agriculture economy. The new policies announced today will help give beginning farmers the financial security they need to succeed. Our new online tool will provide one-stop shopping for beginning farmers to learn more about accessing USDA services that can help their operations thrive."
 

Definition of 'small business' to change

The Small Business Administration is expanding the definition of what it means to be "small," according to an article in The Washington Post, which reported that as of July 14, thousands of relatively large companies suddenly became small businesses.

The Small Business Administration has announced plans to update the size standards used to determine which firms are eligible for the federal government’s small-business lending and contracting programs. Coming on the heels of series of tweaks to individual industries over the past few years, this will be the first broad update based on inflation the department has made since 2008.

Under the new caps, the agency estimates that roughly 8,500 additional companies will be considered a small business by the federal government.

For more: http://goo.gl/6CNPTi

Shafter Research Station selects LumiGrow LEDs

The Shafter Research Station, operated and managed by the San Joaquin Valley Quality Cotton Growers Association, announced its selection of computer-controlled LumiGrow LED greenhouse lights for research greenhouses. The LumiGrow LED systems should hold down energy costs.

Established in 1922 as the USDA Shafter Cotton Research Station, the site faced closure in 2012 when federal funds were withdrawn. A community of growers and elected officials rallied to save the site as a non-profit research facility. Today, Shafter Research remains a world-leading center for cotton research. Scientists in residence investigate critical challenges facing cotton growers including long-term drought and the soil-borne pathogen FOV4.

Since the change in leadership from the US government to a public-private partnership, a broader scope of research is underway at the 80-acre Shafter facility. This reflects the diversification of crops grown in the region, including carrots, cucumbers, grapes, squash, tomatoes, and zucchini. Shafter Research is also the site of studies on honeybee health, which are of tremendous significance to the region's almond growers as well as cross-pollinating crop producers around the globe.

Leading agricultural institutions and agribusinesses lease space at the Shafter Research, attracted by technologies like the LumiGrow LED light system. The LumiGrow solution enables the customization of greenhouse lighting based on factors including region, climate, crop type, and desired crop characteristics. By tuning light levels and spectra in accordance with plant needs, greenhouse operators boost crop yield and quality while gaining electrical cost savings of up to 70 percent compared to conventional greenhouse lighting.
 

BrightFarms announces $2.4 million in financing

BrightFarms, Inc., an urban agriculture company, recently announced the closing of an oversubscribed $2.4 million tranche of financing, resulting in a total Series B financing of $7.4 million.

The tranche was led by WP Global Partners LLC, a private equity firm with over $2 billion in assets under management. The financing, which also includes participation by investors NGEN Partners, Emil Capital Partners, BrightFarms founder Ted Caplow, and several other prominent investors, coincides with BrightFarms’ announcement that Gregory S. Oberholtzer, senior managing director at WP Global, has joined BrightFarms’ board.

BrightFarms aims to be the country’s first national brand of locally grown produce. BrightFarms has more than $100 million in backlogged projects, close to $20 million in capital raised to date, and its first 1.3 acre prototype farm successfully operating and selling under the industry’s first Produce Purchase Agreements.
 

Immigration reform efforts stall in House

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has announced he won’t allow a vote on an immigration bill, dashing the hopes of reform advocates, including floral industry members who rely on a stable, legal workforce. In response, President Barack Obama announced June 30 that he plans to explore options available through executive order and “take those steps that I can within my existing legal authorities to make the immigration system work better.”

The standstill in Congress is “frustrating and unfair” to workers and employers, said SAF’s Lin Schmale, senior director of government relations. “SAF members have worked for immigration reform for well over 10 years. It is important to the floral industry, to our economy, and to the well-being of our communities. It is more important now than it ever has been for us to continue the fight.”

SAF isn’t alone in expressing its disappointment. Following the president’s address, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a statement reading in part: “The U.S. Chamber is deeply disappointed by our elected leaders' inability to achieve meaningful immigration reform even as current developments demonstrate the pressing need to do so. Without reform, our broken immigration system continues to harm our economy, cost jobs, and undermine America’s global competitiveness.”
 

Maine grower gains PSS certification

Backyard Farms, New England’s largest year-round grower of tomatoes, is the first hydroponic grower in the United States to obtain GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Safety Standard (PSS) certification for the production of its tomatoes.

Backyard Farms is currently the only GLOBALG.A.P. certified producer in Maine. GLOBALG.A.P. is a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) scheme at the farm level meant to ensure safe and sustainable agriculture worldwide.

Located in Madison, Maine, Backyard Farms operates 42 acres of greenhouse growing space that provides the northeast with locally grown tomatoes year-round.

Quality Certification Services (QCS) offers the following certification options: Certified Organic, Certified Transitional, Certified Hormone/Antibiotic Free, Organic Aquaculture, GLOBALG.A.P. (several scopes), specific trade practices, and Food Justice Certification.

For more: www.backyardfarms.com and www.qcsinfo.org

Blueberries with longer shelf lives

An Oregon State University researcher has helped discover a substance in blueberry leaves – which are usually wasted – that can be added to berry coatings, extending their shelf life while adding antioxidants.

Working with an international team of scientists in China, OSU food scientist Yanyun Zhao found that an edible coating containing blueberry leaf extracts helped delay decay and retain water, which slowed down their natural deterioration. The extra weight could also mean extra cash for growers, because blueberries are often sold by volume.

The natural coatings can allow fresh blueberries to be washed and prepared as ready-to-eat products. Most blueberries in stores are unwashed because rinsing them removes their natural waxy coating that preserves the fruit.

"Normally, blueberry leaves fall to the ground as waste," said Zhao, a food science and technology professor in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences. “We've discovered a use that can change how the berries are stored and sold, while increasing their nutritional value.”

Blueberry leaves, which have been used as an herbal remedy, contain high levels of antioxidant phenolics – chemical compounds with antimicrobial properties that protect against fungi and bacteria, such as E. coli and Salmonella.

To create the coatings, researchers mixed these phenolic extracts with chitosan, a natural preservative that comes from crustacean shells. OSU tested coatings made from leaves that were picked at different stages of berry maturity, and leaf extracts were formulated into five different coating treatments based on varying levels of phenols.

Blueberries were dipped in the liquid coating and then dried at room temperature to form dried coatings. Nozzles can also spray the coatings on the surface of the berries as they pass by on a conveyor belt, according to Zhao, a value-added food products specialist with the OSU Extension Service.

Coating the blueberries will add to their cost, she said, although it's unclear how much.

The research was conducted in collaboration with scientists in China, including Yun Deng, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the school's Bor Luh Food Safety Center, and published in the journals of Food Control and Postharvest Biology and Technology.
 

Fruit genome website now publicly available

Scientists and growers can now use a new genome database available at www.tfgdr.org.

The website was developed in part by University of Florida and Washington State University researchers to help make fruit trees more disease- and pest-resistant and to enhance crop quality. Researchers who study citrus, rosaceae, and vaccinium crops will be the primary users of the portal, said Mercy Olmstead, assistant professor of horticultural sciences at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Agricultural producers will also reap the benefits.

Rosaceae include apples, cherries, peaches, strawberries, pears,and ornamental roses. Vaccinium fruits include blueberries and cranberries.

Fred Gmitter, a genetics and breeding professor at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Fla., and Jim Olmstead, assistant professor of horticultural sciences, both also at UF/IFAS, helped create what they and other scientists are calling the Tree Fruit Genome Database Resources. Dorrie Main, associate professor of bioinformatics at Washington State University, leads the project.
 

Hydroponic farming ... in prison

It may lack the entertaining drama of the Netflix hit, "Orange is the New Black," but inmates at a Virginia detention center are growing crops using hyroponic systems.

The website www.your4state.com reports that the hydroponic system was designed by one of the facility's inmmates. "You have [to worry about] your nutrient level and pH balance,” said Michael Ganoe, the inmate who designed the hydroponic system. “With this you actually produce much quicker than a garden. You get a crop about every three to four weeks."

At the detention center, all of the produce grown in the hydroponic greenhouse and garden are picked, brought to the kitchen, and cooked for the entire jail. The Shenandoah Area Council Boy Scouts Chapter donated 90 percent of the growing materials.
 

Fruits and veggies could improve respiratory function

Studies have shown that smokers, in addition to exposing their lungs to harmful toxins, often eat less fruits and vegetables than nonsmokers. Given the role of fruit and vegetable based antioxidants in improving respiratory health and the difficulty of achieving lasting dietary change, researchers hypothesized that powdered fruit and vegetable supplements could improve respiratory function in heavy smokers. The results of their study are now available in an Open Access Article from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, the Official Publication of the American College of Nutrition, and a publication from Routledge.

Seventy-five heavy smokers meeting a set of health and lifestyle criteria were randomly divided into three groups for a double-blind placebo study and instructed to take assigned mixed fruit and vegetable juice powder concentrate capsules twice daily (Juice Plus+, NSA, Collierville, TN). One group (FV) was given capsules containing a blend of fruit and vegetable concentrate powders. Another group’s capsules (FVB) contained the same ingredients with additional berry juice concentrate powder, and the control group was given a placebo. All subjects underwent blood sampling and respiratory tests before and after three months of supplementation.

Researchers concluded that, “Both supplemented groups, but to a greater extent the FVB group, showed improvements in some pulmonary parameters, cardiovascular risk factors, and folate status. The beneficial effects of Juice Plus+ supplementation could potentially help smokers.

Researchers also found a partial reduction in some smoking-related complications and suggested a potential use of nutraceutical treatment while noting that more research is needed and the treatments in question “cannot substitute for smoking cessation.”
 

Rimol Greenhouses celebrates 15 years of greenhouse manufacturing

Fifteen years after Rimol Greenhouse Systems began manufacturing its own greenhouse structures (in 1999), the first two Northpoint Series structures ever assembled stand tall for Adams Apple Orchard & Farm Market. In 2014, the greenhouse manufacturer now has 10 structures it can call its own.

Five years after Rimol Greenhouses first opened its doors in 1994, the company made its manufacturing debut with its Northpoint Series and Catamount Coldframe structure. The Northpoint was designed to withstand harsh snow and wind loads, while serving a variety of duties under growing and retail use.

For the full Rimol story, visit www.rimolgreenhouses.com.