URL: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/10/15/on_the_horizon/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+–+City%2FRegion+News Website: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/10/15/on_the_horizon/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+–+City%2FRegion+News
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is working to strengthen and support organic agriculture by incorporating new provisions in the 2007 Farm Bill. Although retail sales of organic products now total $15 billion annually, the organic sector receives only a tiny fraction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture budget. “Today, OTA is releasing an ambitious and comprehensive plan to advance organic agriculture. We need to ensure that organic farmers have access to all resources available to farmers through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),” said Caren Wilcox, Executive Director of OTA, whose members represent all segments of organic production, distribution and sales. “In many cases, organic is not receiving a fair share of current dollars appropriated for research, for conservation, for risk management-all current programs that benefit other aspects of agriculture. We ask Congress for equality for organic farmers.” For example, there currently is little federal data or market research available about organic farms. “Our farmers need access to the same resources USDA provides to conventional farmers-research, market data, risk management tools, and import/export information,” Wilcox said. “When conventional farmers decide what to plant for the upcoming season, they have reams of cost, production and market data to influence their actions. […]
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601337.html Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601337.html
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URL: http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article2134.html Website: http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article2134.html
Martek Biosciences (Nasdaq: MATK) announced that its vegetarian source of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) omega-3 derived from microalgae is the only DHA source selected for an upcoming multi-million dollar National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study on the effects of DHA in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of NIH, the study will determine whether DHA supplementation slows the progression of cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. “DHA has great promise as a treatment strategy for Alzheimer’s disease, with favorable effects on the same biochemical ‘targets’ which are being pursued with experimental drugs,” said Joseph Quinn, M.D., lead investigator of the study. “One big advantage of DHA is that its biology is well known, so that the DHA approach should be less risky than many other experimental drugs under study.” The study, “Effects of DHA in Slowing the Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease,” is a multi-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 400 subjects with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The patients will be treated for 18 months, during which patients will be given either two grams per day of DHA orally, or placebo. […]
Medis Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDTL) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with two Russian business groups, defining programs for the purchase of Medis 24/7 Power Packs and ultimately for those groups to establish a production line for Medis fuel cell products in Russia. The two groups are: ASPECT — the Association for Advanced Technologies of Russia, which represents the business development arm of a large group of high tech Russian entities and is the Prime Contractor for the largest Russian Federation funded project for the development of fuel cells for portable applications, and Tenzor MA, a leading Russian technology company primarily operating in the area of complex safety and fire control systems and management and control systems for major facilities such as nuclear power plants. The parties have established a detailed milestone based program for the certification of the 24/7 Power Pack in Russia, its marketing and distribution in Russia and finally the establishment of a full production assembly capability by Tenzor for the Russian market. The MOU provides that after satisfactory completion of testing on UL certified units, Tenzor will purchase 10,000 24/7 Power packs from Medis’ semi-automatic line in Israel to commence promotion and marketing of the […]
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LiveFuels Inc. announced that a national alliance of scientists have come together to produce biocrude oil by the year 2010. Funded by LiveFuels, the scientific alliance will be led by Sandia National Laboratories, a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory. The alliance is expected to sponsor dozens of labs and hundreds of scientists by the year 2010. Algal oil is similar to soybean oil but can be grown on marginal lands unsuitable for food crops. Thriving on sunlight and CO2, algae can be grown in fresh or brackish water. This makes algae an ideal solution for farmers dealing with issues of agricultural run-off. Moreover, a shortage of vegetable oil has been predicted within 3 to 5 years in the United States, and algal oil could fill the gap for non-edible uses like biofuels. In order to make biocrude for less than $60 a barrel, algae must be high in fats or oils. Commercially-grown algae like Spirulina are high in protein and starch but low in fat. A few high-fat species of algae like Haematococcus are promising, but the fats — at prices around $1,200 a pound — are too expensive to fuel America’s vehicles today. “Fat algae” doesn’t sound like […]
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