and containers that are made out of bulrushes. Yes, those tall, sturdy reeds that usually grow in wetlands or marshy areas and that figure prominently in the Moses story.
Made out of bulrushes, the containers are designed to compost in 30 to 90 days. The containers are designed to compost in either residential
They are made primarily of bulrush, although they also contain bamboo, sugarcane bagasse, and wheat or rice straw.
The company makes a point of noting that these are plants that are used not typically in food production,
stone fruits and citrus varieties, can now look at everything from unit costs and revenue for individual crop types to how many boxes per hour crews are harvesting.
Upstairs, rows of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and even flowers line the walls amidst the zen-like sounds of trickling water.
Cicero has all the signs of a post-industrial area, such as railroad tracks overgrown with weeds. Studio Gang designed a new concept for home sales:
Monsanto shares rose 24%this year, thanks in part to excitement over the new drought-resistant strain, Smartmoney reports.
Wired's Brandon Keim reports on the new drought-resistant seeds: None have been tested in large-scale, real-world conditions,
Most likely a combination of new seed technologies and old agriculture methods like dry farming will provide our best defense against the inevitable loss of precipitation over our farmland.
Placing microchips into 2, 500 tree trunks within 247 acres of forest, the organization is testing
PIE (Project Import Export, Inc.)uses water hyacinth to make wicker furniture. But its interesting to think about the process by which theyre created the method has changed.
it can actually be made from sugar cane. To me, the building block is not as important as
Maybe sugar cane makes sense in certain regions of the world, but were going to need a whole suite of solutions.
In some cases, it might make sense to use sugar cane; or to use petroleum-based plastic;
What works as a good solution where they have a lot of sugar cane in Brazil may not work in Sydney
His backyard holds a small mill with one Šbeater  machine that produces about 40kgs of pulp.
After several failures, the right mix was set at 75%dung and 25%cotton waste.
Future plans also involve making paper with more raw materials like bamboo, sugarcane and vegetable waste.
which will produce 100 kgs of pulp, as well as other equipment like cutting, pressing and glazing machines.
such as pulp made from sugar cane and those based on some rice bioproducts. Overall, the company's goal is to reduce packaging volume by 10 percent by 2012.
Cleanstar's plan to use ethanol to clean up cookingcleanstar  Mozambique has opened a biofuel plant to produce cassava-based ethanol fuel in an effort to replace charcoal,
The facility will produce two million liters a year of ethanol-based cooking fuel from surplus cassava supplied to the company by local farmers.
The surplus cassava to converted to ethanol. Beans, sorghum, pulses and soya are processed into packaged food product for sale in cities.
Our facility is going to be colocated with a pulp mill. Â There are over 500 pulp mills in this country
and they're on their back. We're focusing on three areas: pulp mills and ethanol plants in the Southeast, Northeast and Northwest,
The way we're going to cross the Valley of Death is co-locate with a pulp mill.
Our initial efforts will focus on the sustainable sourcing of sugarcane, oranges and corn. More evidence that water conservation technology in the field is a smart corporate sustainability investment
what is called the  Clover Precision Pourover machine, who happen to be owned by brewing giant  Starbucks, for
The Clover Pourover's circles are unwaveringly identical. Its timing is ultra-precise, the metered rhythm determined by countless experiments in Starbucks'development labs. The water temperature is accurate and stable to a tenth of a degree.
Grewal studied Cleveland, Ohio, a Rust Belt city hit hard by foreclosures during the Great Recession that resulted in vacant properties scattered throughout the city.
by cantilevering each floor off of a main trunk, or core, that runs 42 stories up the center of the building.
which pioneered the tree-trunk construction, with steel at its core and reinforced concrete slabs for its floors.
The Timber Tower calls for cross-laminated timber slabs for the trunk, floors and walls,
They can come from smaller species, with smaller trunks, in agriculturally managed forests and even from the millions of fir trees killed by beetle infestation each year in North america.
They did it, in fact, with their landmark Chestnut building and its unique trunk-and-cantilever structural system.
Could the U s. fight forest fires with software? In the wake of the Yarnell wildfire tragedy and in the heat of an escalating wildland fire problem across the West,
There is no shortage of debate about how the U s. Forest Service should go about suppressing forest fires.
Hundreds of years ago, periodic forest fires cleared out much of the brush and dead trees that can cause fires to reach epic proportions,
and rows of various vegetable and herb plants including tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, zucchinis, radishes, peppers, peas, cresses, lettuces, tulips and orchids.
Plantlab also deploys infra red light, relative humidity, air temperature, root and substrate temperature, and airflow to achieve
in the mid-19th century was thought long to be a fungus. The blight, Phytophthora infestans, is considered now a water mold, more closely related to the malaria parasite.
It thrives in cool, wet weather and can infect potatoes, tomatoes and related plants, causing a late blight disease that can destroy entire crops in days.
The researchers, led by scientists at the Broad Institute and the Sainsbury Laboratory, first decoded the P. infestans genome
Potato blight and flu have much in common
Dell, HP vie for spotlight again. This time, on environmental leadership. It being climate week
(which translates to Green Leaf) Eco Community Development. The development is being billed as a sustainable garden city,
and in line with many new housing and community developments and vertical gardens around the world, vegetation assume a major role in the design,
The engineered maize seeds produced proteins decorated with sugars that could be converted to human forms.
Drugs made in duckweed, safflower, and tobacco have progressed as far as clinical trials â oe
a non-food feedstock consisting of corn stalks and leaves. Using corn stover instead of corn alleviates two problems:
cellulosic, sugarcane, grain (mostly corn from the U s.)600 more plants are needed in next decade.
a patent-pending technology that uses a growing organism and byproducts from food production (oat hulls from New york, cotton hulls from Texas and rice hulls from Arkansas) to create a strong composite material.
it starts breaking down like a seed husk within three months to a year. It s getting broken into biocompatible stuff.
In forests there s a lot of fungi that are breaking down the compounds. So the mycelium from mushrooms you use that as a glue to hold together these agricultural byproducts?
That mycelium is sort of like the root structure of a mushroom. Mycelium is comprised of tiny hollow fibers,
and the fibers are made up mostly of chitin which is what s in lobster shells.
It grows on its own so energy costs are one 10th of the costs to create foam.
And we have to keep the fungi happy. What does that involve? We try to play good music for them.
The key is the mycelium the whole organism and the seed husk becomes the final product.
In every other approach, they take not the seed husk but the seed the more expensive part that people would eat
--and they grow the seed and throw away parts of it, so it requires much more energy
and creates more waste. We re using waste materials and using the entire organism. The future for us is replacing foam.
Chief scientist and cofounder Gavin Mcintyre just won a half a million dollar proposal to adopt this same platform for automobile interior trim parts and cushions.
The heart of our innovation is mycelium. We have patents pending in 35 countries on that.
We use Recycled Green Industries in Woodbine, Md. and Topsoil Inc. in Curtis Bay, Md.
They mix it with other materials, like leaves or twigs, and compost it over 90 to 120 days.
In nearby Guadalentin, researchers and farmers are collaborating to develop new types of cut flowers--gerbers
and lisanthius flowers--in oder to diversify the market. All around Spain they are testing different types of cherries,
Of course, the seed-free type exists here, but isn't popular, as the Spanish swear that the seeds provide much richer flavor for both table and wine grapes.
Even when they must cram 12 grapes in their mouth as the clock strikes 12 on nochevieja (New year's eve
most Spanish choose the challenge of the seeds over risking a less flavorful uva. Most wineries also seem to be producing the wrong type of wine,(like) cheap table wine,
Finally, the low rain-and snowfall has led to an increase in forest fires, especially in the wooded province of Galicia.
We re developing a bio-herbicide to kill weeds that would replace the chemical herbicides.
It s derived from a fungus that s found in nature and we re growing that commercially so we can grind it up
That gives you deeper roots, which hold the soil better and help filter out pollutants. Keep fertilizing materials off hard surfaces.
She continues, diving into details on the farm distillery, fermentation methods, yeast strands, and how she finishes the stuff in cognac barrels.
Clearing forests of their underbrush, dead trees, logging remnants and fallen branches might also affect soil health, biodiversity and wildlife habitat.
The study, conducted over four years, covers 80 forest types within 19 different eco-regions,
But for the overly-obsessed, New york city-based start up Blossom One has introduced what may just be the ultimate kitchen appliance.
the $11, 000 Blossom One Limited features the kind of high-tech precision that's sure to appease the taste buds of even the most discriminate of coffee snobs.
smashes speed record Users can program the Blossom One Limited with presets for various flavors of coffee.
since Blossom One has partnered with high-end growers to provide beans that come in QR-coded bags,
if planters of feedstocks like palm, jatropha and camelina eradicate forests and grasslands, thus releasing the CO2 stored in those natural sinks.
Neste says the blend consists 80%of camelina 15%of jatropha and 5%of animal fat and as such is environmentally responsible.
Camelina and jatropha are plants that are inedible to humans. Biofuel proponents say they can grow with relatively little water
and in some cases on poor soil that would not sustain food crops. Fuel producer Honeywell UOP says that camelina grows on fallow wheat fields
and improves yields in the fields subsequent wheat-growing years. Foe claims that the jatropha in Neste s Lufthansa mix comes from Mozambique,
and that it signals a land grab there and in other African countries. One jatropha business
Energem, had been allocated 60,000 hectares in Mozambique that was used previously for community farming and grazing land, Blake said.
A Neste spokeswoman says that Neste does not get the jatropha from Mozambique, but that it responsibly obtains it, the camelina and animal fat from Australasia, EU countries, North america, and Southeast asia.
She declined to identify specific countries. Foe biofuel campaigner Kenneth Richter added that airlines overstate the environmental friendliness of jatropha.
Although the crop can grow on degraded soil low yields mean that producers are more likely to grow it on healthy soil where it would compete against food,
The same could be true of camelina, according to the Foe position paper. By one estimate, jatropha would use up the equivalent of 35%of Germany s arable land to meet Lufthansa s 2025 biofuel target, Foe noted.
The controversy surrounding biofuel land use could settle down if researchers find more land-friendly sources. One such possible hope is algae.
the site had become overgrown with vegetation after years of disuse. Trees flourished where there were once mounds of sand to put out any accidental fires.
and grafts fruit branches onto non fruit-bearing public trees, hiding farm-fresh produce in an urban environment.
Fungus threatens the gin and tonicif they remake Casablanca, Rick's lament could be that there are NO gin joints in all the world.
This time, she's spreading a fungus that is attacking juniper trees, which yield the berries that give gin its flavor.
A fungus called Phytophthora austrocedrae is so much on the rampage that according to The Telegraph it could wipe out the already shrinking population of the U k.'s native juniper trees.
Fight back against Phytophthora! As a side benefit, the sooner you stamp it out, the sooner you won't have to pronounce it.
Send Puya chilensis against Phytophthora austrocedrae: Ten-foot plant eats sheep Links to more drinks on Smartplanet:
Genetically modified canola found in the wildstanding inside a field of yellow flowers in North dakota,
it becomes a weed. The researchers took a road trip in a red Ford explorer to scale most of the state,
The researchers found the weed growing in gas stations, cemeteries, ball parks, and along roads. It is unclear of
In fact, canola can mate'with 40 different weed species around the world. However, United states regulatory agencies have said previously that volunteer populations of GM,
Supreme court lifts ban on genetically modified seeds
Genetically modifying plants to absorb arsenicsince ancient times, humans have been using and abusing arsenic for everything from mining to medicine to murder.
a fern, might lead to solutions to sponge the toxin from contaminated areas. Arsenic and its compounds occur naturally in many places,
the ladder brake fern (Pteris vittata) is used already in some of the Environmental protection agency's phytoremediation efforts of arsenic-laden soil.
They've isolated the gene (ACR3) that codes for a membrane protein within the ferns'vacuoles.
A second copy of ACR3 allows the ladder brake fern to safely transport arsenic from its roots to its fronds,
Salt said rice plants could be modified with the gene to store arsenic in the roots of plants-instead of rice grains-in contaminated paddies.
In fact, the botanists speculate that one possible explanation for the fern's arsenic storage ability is to discourage animals from dining on fern salad.
even if certain plants moss, lycophytes, gymnosperms, and other ferns already have a single copy of the gene.
Flowering species (from more recent branches of plant evolution) appear not to have ACR3 at all.
The researchers'next move will be to inject ACR3 into the genome of a flowering plant, thale cress (Arabidopsis),
to see if it, too, can become an arsenic vacuum. Images: Wikipedia Commons
GIS tools map social injustice in civil rights caseswhat can a map tell us about the world?
In Moore County in North carolina, Cedar Grove maps show sewer lines that literally branch around some of the black neighborhoods without going through them.
Green algae used to make plastics that don't contain petroleumyou've heard of silverware and plasticware,
Green algae, the photosynthetic organism used as a biofuel, has now been put to use as sustainable bioplastic.
Sustainable plastic manufacturer Cereplast announced that it can turn algae into a sustainable bioplastic resin,
tapioca and wheat, says algae-based plastic could replace up to 50 percent of petroleum content found in traditional plastic resin.
However, for our algae-based resins to be successful, we require the production of substantial quantities of algae feedstock.
but the company expects to make commercial algae bioplastic resin available by the end of next year.
Turning algae into oil the NASA way Growing the next'green'fuel Algae could be jet fuel of the future The algae bloom of alternative energy The Algaeus algae-fueled Prius hits
Green initiatives highlighted at international flower showthe theme of this year's  Philadelphia International Flower Show,
But almost as prevalent were dedicated exhibits to protecting the environment (flowers included) and sustaining the Earth's natural resources.
The seedlings begin in a prison greenhouse, cultivated by inmates as part of a job-readiness program.
Show attendees clamored for photographs of the PNC Bank  Living Wall, a 16-foot high exhibit of plants, such as ferns and  vines,
which likely rose to 1 Bcf/d in 2012 (data for 2012 is not yet available).
Black beans and pinto beans, rice and amaranth, soups and dressings, milk, yogurt, cheese and coffee, sweets and jams:
For Mathur, it s been a lifelong dream to spend her time growing flowers and vegetables.
which affects the liver, in spinach and bitter gourd. In May, the Delhi High court ordered the government to conduct surprise checks to test vegetables
Rail passenger seat-miles rose just 1. 2 percent but train-miles fell by 1. 1 percent.
we can easily imagine air travel returning to its roots as a mode of travel that only the wealthy can afford.
Try to figure out ways by maybe using weed sprays instead of cultivation farmer Greg Markarian told KFSN in Fresno.
if the farmers who grow that food are committed to using permaculture practices like cultivation instead of spraying herbicides to control weeds.
which include papayas, corn, bananas, ginger, sugar cane, lettuce and tomatoes. The farm is edged almost entirely by a babbling brook,
The rainwater filters through a teak patio and garden of cherry, orange and lime trees and carpets of lavender, mint and thyme into storage tanks.
grasses or non-edible plant parts including corn stalks and wheat straw. The remaining amount includes 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel fuel
Scientists find fungi that could give next-gen biofuels a boost
How dubious are Snapple's bottle cap facts? For over decade, beverage maker Snapple has been printing Real Facts on the undersides of their bottle caps.
maps the trees across a city, calculates a city's leaf surface area, and derives the economic value of trees,
We find that over time biochar also creates an ideal environment for microorganisms to live, things like fungi and bacteria.
along with the recalcitrant orchids she also raises as a hobby, are a perennial fixture across the four-acre estate in Atherton,
killing off wildlife and contributing to spectacular blooms of green algae visible in Chinese rivers. Goldenway says it can produce 0. 6 tons of organic fertilizer from a single ton of food waste,
Reade pulled out a chunk of koji barley inoculated with fuzzy green Aspergillus oryzae, the same fungus used in sake and soy sauce.
The fungus produces enzymes that break down the starches and make the barley sweet, and hydrolizes the proteins into simple amino acids with a rich umami flavor.
Reade used a Thermomix to blend the koji with bee larvae and salt water (the salt keeps the pathogenic microorganisms at bay as well as enabling the enzymes, some beneficial bacteria and various strains of yeast to flourish).
After a few minutes he had a thick greenish concoction that resembled pea soup. Then he took a bag of raw,
me a sorrel leaf folded around a bit of cricket miso, beet reduction and lacto-fermented red currants.
The grasshopper smear had a pungent umami flavor that contrasted with the tart greenness of the leaf.
After securing seeds from England, Beddard managed to find two French farmers at local Parisian markets who expressed interest in The Kale Project.
 This past weekend, she successfully delivered the first batch of seeds to one of the farmers who specializes in organic produce,
even though he faces another week of the same here at the world's largest indoor flower and plant exhibition.
I peer through the exhibit's lush perennials and evergreens into the tranquil sitting area Petrie has assembled here at the 2013 Philadelphia Flower Show.
The hopscotch pattern of the surrounding beds borrow their texture and hues of copper beige and green from the paintings of Dutch landscape artist Piet Mondrian.
Around the backside of the massive booth, a cheerful field of sunny daffodils blooms below the towering handwrought copper sculpture that mimics their graceful trumpet shape.
reinterpreting the district's infamous blood-splattered back-alley crime scenes with vivid crimson roses,
bold purple clematis, gnarled boughs of thorns, and fragrant orchids hanging against cold gray stone walls. The Best in Show winner for Floral Display used vivid cut flowers to recreate Jack the Ripper crime scenes.
 This year's award was the third in a row for the Schaffer outfit,
which assembled designers from as far away as California to pull together its display. The line waiting to walk through the exhibit was consistently 50-people deep on the day
Serious investment The annual international flower show staged by PHS has grown substantially from its first year,
The co-owner of second-year exhibitor Petals Lane, Michael Phinney, estimates that it took two weeks to actually assemble the flowers for his Philadelphia-based company's tribute to the surreal Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice in wonderland
It took more than two weeks for Petals Lane to prepare its display, and four days on site to put it together.
and most of them will wind up replacing their cut flowers at least once during the show's 10-day run to keep them looking fresh,
The stipend that Petals Lane received to help with its exhibit helped with about half of those costs
That's not strange, consider that many cut flowers, plants and bulbs sold in the United states are from foreign producers:
especially Colombia and Equador, according to the Society of American Florists. Although the international presence seemed relatively subdued this year,
high-profile clematis supplier Raymond Evison and bulb dealer Jacques Amand International both made the trip here from their home bases in the United kingdom. The netherlands,
Far more than flowers While flowers and plants are the main attraction, the sheer variety of wares sold in the marketplace area representing more than 140 vendors was mind-boggling.
Mesa, Arizona has paid to replace 250,000 square feet of residential lawn with desert plants. Others are stepping up penalties for folks who water their lawns during peak hours or outright banning lush carpets of grass in new developments.
Radha Kali, 42, said that for generations her community has survived on forest products like  tendu  leaves that are used for making  beedis  and  mahuwa  flowers with medicinal properties.
revealing which forests store the most carbonclick to enlarge Forest trees are renowned for their ability to store large amounts of carbon dioxide in their trunk and roots.
and dropping its leaves and eventually branches. With gentler noises, however, it moves to the sounds it hears.
Brinjal, papaya, snake-gourd and black sugarcane are just a few of the crops Keshav Tavre grows on his suburban plot on the outskirts of Mumbai--all of it from a supply of untreated sewage that snakes past his land.
After complaining for years about the stench, Tavre realized that what he'd seen as waste was in fact a source of wealth.
but they have good roots growing. If successful, it could be a good model for cities that are struggling with water quantity and food desert issues.
Italian roses bloom under rooftop solar thermalfour generations of the Ciccolella family have relied on sunshine to cultivate the olives and roses on their farm in Puglia.
He recently agreed to put a 105-kilowatt solar thermal array atop the greenhouse for his roses,
IPS cells are similar to embryonic stem cells, and can grow in to any organ in an animal's body
developing the recognition technology that separates the leaf from its background in order to identify it, and developing the algorithms and software.
snapping a picture of a Ginkgo biloba leaf on a white piece of paper. He explained that Leafsnap is interactive
Each leaf photograph is matched against a leaf-image library using numerous shape measurements computed at points along the leaf s outline.
The brilliant photos (created by nonprofit organization Finding Species) show each species leaf (both front and back
flower, seed, fruit and bark on a black background. They can be magnified down to the fur on the petiole,
the stalk of the leaf that attaches the blade to the stem. Currently, Leafsnap includes the 191 species of trees found in New york s Central park and Washington s Rock creek park.
By the end of this year, its library will include all 250 species found in the Northeast,
Users can play leaf identification games mark the species they ve identified to add to their collection,
Palm oil-105g Soybean â oe 103g Rapeseed â oe 95g Sunflower â oe 86g Palm oil with methane capture â oe 83g
Wheat (process fuel not specified) â oe 64g Wheat (as process fuel natural gas used in CHP) â oe 47g Corn (Maize) â oe 43g Sugar cane â oe
and buries the tree's seeds. But the bird won't go back and find every cache,
so some seeds will either become new oak trees or food for other animals. Energy and nutrients are moved through the ecosystem this way,
On the other hand, the relationship between a yucca plant and a yucca moth is both efficient and highly vulnerable.
For example, bees, birds and some bats might all visit the same flower for nectar, but at different times of the day and year.
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