In late March, Canadian farmer
Nick Parsons drove his tractor over 3,000 miles across the country. His
goal was to reach the nation’s capital in Ottawa to ask for financial
support for Canada’s farmers. Great Lakes Radio Consortium
commentator Suzanne Elston thinks we should be giving farmers a whole
lot more:
Tag: farmers
Creating Fragrant Flowers
When was the last time you got a bouquet of flowers that had a
fragrant smell? While there’s no shortage of beautiful looking flowers
for
sale, many have little if any scent anymore. As the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports it’s a problem one scientist has
gotten a whiff of:
Transcript
When was the last time you got a bouquet of flowers that had a fragrant smell? While there’s no shortage of beautiful looking flowers for sale, many have little, if any, scent anymore. Ast he Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports, it’s a problem one scientist has gotten a whiff of:
Flowers have lost their smell as flower growers have bred them to be big and brightly colored. Eran Pichersky is a biologist at the University of Michigan. He studies the smell of flowers. Pichersky is focusing his genetics research on whether it’s possible to bioengineer a flower’s scent.
“We actually have some collaboration with biotech companies who are trying to use some of the genes and enzymes we’ve isolated to put them back into plants so that the plant makes more scent, or even new scent that they didn’t make before.”
But it’s not florists who are interested in this work, it’s farmers. Pichersky’s research means it might be possible to alter the smell of flowers in ways that entice bees to visit crops more often, or even attract other insects to do the pollination work. That increase in pollination could mean an increase in crop yields.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.
Food Giant Drops Genetically Modified Spuds
Genetically modified foods have gotten the cold shoulder from
consumers in Europe… and now, resistance to engineered food seems to
be growing in Canada. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy
Nelson reports:
Keeping Disabled Farmers Farming
The life of a farmer isn’t easy. The work is hard. The days are long.
The profit margins, low. It’s tough work for anyone, but when a farmer
becomes disabled, the challenges are even greater. But as the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports, help is available…and
it’s keeping disabled farmers, farming:
NASA Technology Helps Farmers
Years ago, farmers could keep track of their crops just by touring the
fields. But as farms grow larger, it becomes increasingly difficult for
farmers to assess the condition of their crops. Now, NASA technology
may offer some help. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson
has more:
Can Biotech Feed the World?
This month the number of people on Earth reaches six-billion. Food
experts say feeding the world’s population will put more pressures on
the environment unless existing farms can increase production. … but
experts argue about the best way to do that. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:
crop management, yield, yields, technology, biological research, food,
food production, pollination, climate, natural capital, population,
population growth, world growth, genetics, genetically
Can Agriculture Keep Up?
As of this month (Oct.), there are six billion people on the planet and
the population will keep rising. It’s predicted the population will hit
eight-and-half billion by the year 2025. But some experts say the demand
for food will rise even faster. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports… feeding the world will be one of the biggest
challenges of the coming century:
Determining the True Price of Produce
Many farmers are upset about the gap between what they earn for
their
crops, and what consumers pay at the supermarket. Now, a growers’
association is publicizing the disparity on the Internet. The "produce
price index" shows what farmers get for crops, compared to the retail
price…and gives the price spread between the two. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports:
Farmers Take a Stand
Many rural communities are learning their water supplies are
contaminated with pesticides from nearby farm fields. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… in one small town…
farmers realized what was happening and took a stand:
Farm Management Mimics the Past
Increasing numbers of American farmers are going "back to the
future" – moving away from the high-investment, high-energy farming
methods of the last fifty years, and experimenting with modern versions
of more traditional techniques. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Stephanie Hemphill reports: